Calling all artists, illustrators, and photographers! It’s the return of one of our most popular open calls, the Booooooom Art & Photo Book Award! Once again we are teaming up with our friends over at Bookmobile to offer the chance to have your work published as a standalone book for free! This year, we will be selecting 8 projects to bring to life —each by a different artist, illustrator, or photographer—at zero cost to the individual.
We will be selecting 6 projects to turn into books—each by a different artist, illustrator, or photographer—at zero cost to the individual. On top of that, we will also be choosing 2 additional projects to be turned into smaller perfect bound zines.
If you have a specific series or a cohesive selection of work that you want to turn into a book, we want to see it. We are looking for finished work as opposed to works-in-progress or otherwise incomplete projects. This is open to all our members. If you’re not a member you can learn more about becoming one here.
Even if you are not a member you are welcome to submit one (1) Zine proposal for FREE. To submit a full Book proposal however, you must either be a member or pay a fee. Members enjoy unlimited submissions to both the zine and book components.
Have a look below at some of the beautiful books and zines created by last year’s winners, and if you scroll to the bottom you can see more images and info about each project!

Independently owned and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bookmobile began as a design and typesetting production house in 1982, then started offering print services in 1996, and distribution services in 2004. When your books come to Bookmobile, they get the benefit of forty-one years of know-how. If you want to learn more about Bookmobile, you can check out their website here.
We know it’s a dream for many of you to publish a book of your own work and this is a chance to do it without all the costs. These will be your books, not ours, so each of you will have full control of the design and layout. We will happily provide assistance/guidance if you need it, but the book design will ultimately be your responsibility.
So now you just need to decide whether you’d like to submit a zine or a book proposal! Once again, anyone can submit one zine proposal for FREE. To submit a proposal to make a full book, you must be a Booooooom member or you can pay a fee of $20 (early bird price). Members can submit unlimited book and zine proposals, so if you have more than one book idea this may appeal to you. You can learn more about being a member here.
| Zine | Book | |
|---|---|---|
| Page Count | Up to 36 | Up to 100 |
| Copies | 25 | 100 |
| Size | 5″ x 7″ | Up to 10″ x 10″ |
| Proofs | Digital | Physical (one round) |
| Winners | 2 | 6 |
Important Stuff:
- We are looking for a cohesive selection of finished work that you want to turn into a zine/book (as opposed to works-in-progress or otherwise incomplete projects).
- You must submit 10 images of your work and describe the focus of your proposal. You may submit as many times as you like however one thoughtful submission is better than three half-baked ones. Quality over quantity!
- Multiple submissions only makes sense if you have separate book ideas (maybe one is a book of portraits and the other is a collection of street photography). Please do not make multiple submissions for the same book idea.
- Maximum size to upload: 2500 x 2500 px (images do not need to be square, these are simply the max height and width so we aren’t opening thousands of massive files).
- Format for naming your files: FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME_01.JPG
- Everyone will be notified whether they are selected or not via email. It generally takes our team a minimum of 8 weeks to go through all the submissions (varies depending on the amount), please be patient.
Use the button below to submit.
It is FREE for anyone to submit 1 Zine Proposal!
Submit 1 Book Proposal – $20 (Early Bird)
Submit Unlimited Zine or Book Proposals (MEMBERS)
If you are currently a member, log in to enable the submit button for unlimited submissions. If you are not a member, you can learn about becoming a member here.
Deadline: 11:59PM PST June 5, 2026

To Remember is based around Caleb Thal’s memories. Printed, re-photographed, and altered, each image is reimagined by Thal as a way of tracing how photographs change long after they are first seen. “As a child I spent a lot of time looking at old photographs of myself and my family as we grew up. As I am older I find myself remembering events of my childhood more centred on the photograph as opposed to the actual event.”

i’m here & i love you is an interdisciplinary book that documents Kyoko Takenaka’s year navigating a Stage 3B Hodgkin Lymphoma diagnosis through photography, interviews, and guiding questions. All images and words were created during their treatment and recovery, ranging from portraits taken during their chemotherapy infusion sessions to photographs captured in the forests of Yakushima Island one week after their port removal surgery. This body of work weaves together themes of illness, diaspora, imagination, and healing through nature and community.

Froot Loops features Matthew Walton’s mixed-media-work-on-paper series highlighting the quiet charm of everyday queerness. Each piece reimagines a separate mundane moment, transformed by Walton’s bold, graphic approach to figuration and his vibrant technicolor lens. These vignettes invite viewers into intimate, relatable scenes that blur the line between public and private space. It is within this liminal realm that Walton’s camp and Cubist-coded figures live – uninhibited; a world all its own, where everyone is welcome to step inside.

Photographed over a month in the streets of San José, Costa Rica, Limpid Blue is Olly Geary’s ode to his mother’s homeland. The work invites viewers to reflect on the broader implications of modernization, questioning how it reshapes our relationship to the landscape and how traditions integral to our sense of place might be sustained.

In Move Like Water, Still Like Rock, Minhan Lin approaches rocks as records of movement and transformation. Beneath their apparent stillness lie the forces of water, wind, gravity, and pressure. To observe a rock is to look past its surface and imagine the unseen energies that shaped it.

Pomegranates by João Lutz is a visual and written response to the resurfacing of a childhood memory of sexual abuse—an experience long buried. The project began shortly after the memory returned and unfolded in real time through photography, poetry, and moments of stillness. The book does not follow a linear narrative. Instead, it moves like memory: fragmented, uncertain, and intimate. It is a work about remembering, about naming what was hidden, and about what it means to continue forward while holding both silence and truth.

it’s all very interesting what is happening by Angelo Dolojan is a zine featuring drawings created over the course of a year. The work weaves together observation, memory, dreams, documentation, and manifestation into a continuous visual exploration.

Dearest by Zeinab Diomande is a zine presenting a collection of paintings that, while not a formal series, share a cohesive visual language exploring themes of liquidity and the passage of time, achieved through the use of thinned paint and water. The pieces employ texture as a storytelling device, reflecting the rituals and ceremonies of the artist’s alter egos within imagined worlds.

Traumstadt by Grace Dodds is a zine featuring 28 black-and-white images created within the post-documentary tradition. Carefully edited and arranged, the series offers a tender and unobtrusive portrait of Berlin street life. The work employs a meandering, gentle gaze that amplifies the subtle connections between people and places. The project draws inspiration from Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire, which is set in the same city.
It is FREE for anyone to submit 1 Zine Proposal!
Submit 1 Book Proposal – $20 (Early Bird)
Submit Unlimited Zine or Book Proposals (MEMBERS)
If you are currently a member, log in to enable the submit button for unlimited submissions. If you are not a member, you can learn about becoming a member here.
Deadline: 11:59PM PST June 5, 2026
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