Hosted by Cambridge University Press and The Kadas Foundation, the Nine Dots Prize is now open for submissions. The prize awards an astounding $100,000 to the first place winner, along with a contract to write a short book.

This year’s contest presents a simple question:

Why has the rule of law become so fragile?

To enter the contest, you’ll need to write a 3,000 word essay, a proposed book outline, and a 1,000 word justification statement.

The organizers are rather opaque about their expectations, in terms of the contest, though they do seem to be coming from an academic and social science background. In terms of how they’ll decide who wins the prize, here’s what they have to say:

The Board will award the Prize to the entry that in their view best responds to the set question. Responses can critique, agree or disagree with, or reject the premise of the question set, but they must engage with it fully and insightfully. The Board will be looking for originality of the ideas and arguments put forward, the ways in which the ideas are communicated and the conclusions or recommendations that the author comes to. The Prize will be judged anonymously. The Board members will make their decision on anonymised versions of the response and outline structure only. The Prize organising team may use the justification statement and other information provided to validate the submissions. However, the final decision will be made on the strength and originality of the response to the set question.

Notably, they are allowing fiction entries, in addition to non-fiction entries.

The contest is open to all writers around the world 18 and older.

The deadline to enter is January 23rd, 2023

To learn more, visit the Nine Dots website here.