Each year the Literary Awards Committee reads and reviews dozens of books to pick the current year award winners. Books are eligible for review based on the following criteria.

The author must be a resident (or previously have been a resident for approximately five years) of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota or Wisconsin; or the locale of the book must be in a region identified above.
The books can be fiction or non-fiction of literary quality (not poetry).
The book must be published in the calendar year prior to the awards year. Currently we are evaluating books published during the 2012 year.
The author must not have published more than three books under his/her own pen name, the third book being eligible for consideration. If an author has more than one book published during that year, we will consider all of them.
Books nominated for the award must be submitted to the FAW Awards Committees by December 10, 2012.

http://fawchicago.org/index.php
http://www.fawchicago.org/awards.php

Click on the link above and go to the contest official site