[press release]
Nominations Open for FDC Writing Award
For Works Published In 2021

Nominations will be accepted through May 30 for the Philip H. Ward Award for Excellence in First Day Cover Literature, presented annually by the American First Day Cover Society. All works published in 2021 are eligible.

All articles published in First Days, the AFDCS journal, are automatically considered. Others may be submitted to the Ward Award Committee chair, Mark Goodson, 315 East Dewey Street, Ellettsville, IN 47429-1901, bgdsn@comcast.net, either as clippings or .pdf scans of the articles as published.

The is presented each year at Americover, the annual convention of the AFDCS, which will be held August 25-28, as part of Great American Stamp Show 2022 in Sacramento, Calif. A complete list of past winners can be found at www.afdcs.org/ward.html

Past works honored by the AFDCS reflect a wide variety of sources: The winners in both 2020 and 2019 —“The Fight for the Women’s Right to Vote” by Kris McIntosh and “Which Items Franked with 1913 Parcel Post Stamps Are Authentic U.S. First Day Covers?” by Ken Lawrence, respectively — were originally published in American Philatelist. The 2018 award was bestowed for a bibliographic series by David Zubatsky in First Days. The 2015 citation went to a book, Dorothy Knapp: Philately and Family, by Douglas Weisz.

The award is named in honor of Philip H. Ward (1890-1963 (shown at right), the distinguished Philadelphia stamp collector, dealer and journalist who was a pioneer in the field of first day covers. The award was instituted by the AFDCS in 1964.

The American First Day Cover Society is a not-for-profit educational organization, established in 1955. In addition to First Days, the AFDCS also publishes handbooks and catalogues, and promotes the collecting of both modern and “classic” issues and cachets, as well as the exhibiting of FDCs.

For more information about the AFDCS, visit www.afdcs.org, e-mail afdcs@afdcs.org or write the AFDCS at Post Office Box 246, Colonial Beach, VA 22443-0246.