2025 Newton Book Award Winners

When the sun comes out and the flowers start to bloom, it’s time for one of Swarthmore College Libraries’ favorite annual traditions: the Newton Book Collecting Prize. This yearly event, reliable as the McCabe Mile, is extra special because it’s so different every time. 

The prize is named for the renowned Philadelphia book collector A. Edward Newton, who founded the contest in the 1930s. Many colleges and universities in the United States followed Swarthmore’s example by establishing prizes for undergraduate book collectors, and there is even a national-level prize,  the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of American Collegiate Book Collecting Contest. Swarthmore’s prize, though, is the nation’s oldest.

Longevity is not the only thing that makes the Newton Prize stand out. Each year, a jury made up of librarians, faculty, staff, and students select three winning entries. This year’s jury was composed of Professor Roseann Liu, Muslim Student Advisor Umar Rahman, librarians Roberto Vargas and Abigail Weil, and Elsa Toland, ‘25.

Whereas the world of book collecting is often rarefied and elite, the jurors for the Newton Prize take an open-minded approach: the winning collections should have a unique theme and be supported by a convincing essay and a well-formatted annotated bibliography. In other words, the Newton recognizes the strength of the collector as much as the collection.

This year’s three winners illustrate the flexibility of this approach. Their collections represent the power of a multilingual perspective, the way a single seminar can ignite a global passion, and the joy that comes with appreciating the materiality of books. The winners and their collections are:

1st place: Claire Pettit, ‘25, Stranger in a Strange Land: Tales of Travel and Migration

2nd place: Laura Wentzel, ‘26, The Devastating Cost of Silence: A Collection of Books on Genocide

3rd place: Juna Saito, ‘25, The Library of Little Books

Each of the winners is invited to install their collection as part of an exhibition in the Cratsley Lounge in McCabe Library. The exhibition will formally open with a reception featuring speeches by each of the three collectors. The entire community is invited to the celebration on Wednesday, April 23, from 5:30-6:30 on the second floor of McCabe. The exhibition will be on view through the end of the semester.

Oh, and that national contest we mentioned? Newton Prize winners are automatically qualified to compete. The contest runs every spring semester. Student bibliophiles, it’s never too soon to start thinking about your collection.