Luke Stoffel Wins Silver at the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Book Award: Indie Publishing's Highest Honor

On May 15, 2026, at the Independent Book Publishers Association's annual Publishing University conference in Portland, Oregon, author Luke Stoffel was awarded the 2026 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal in the Neurodivergent Communities category for his memoir How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter. The award is the most established and recognized honor in independent book publishing, now in its 38th year.

The IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award is regarded across the industry as the Pulitzer of indie publishing. The 2026 program drew thousands of submissions across 57 categories, judged by a panel of working editors, designers, booksellers, librarians, and publishing professionals. Stoffel's Silver Medal places his book among roughly 170 titles recognized across the full slate of categories.

About the IBPA Book Award

The IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award was first given in 1985, two years after the founding of what was then the Publishers Association of Southern California (PASCAL). The organization became the Publishers Marketing Association (PMA), and in 2008 took on its current name: the Independent Book Publishers Association.

The award is named for Benjamin Franklin, who was, before he was anything else, a printer and a publisher. Franklin founded the Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731, the first lending library in colonial America. He published Poor Richard's Almanack for twenty-five years. He believed that the worth of a book was measured in its usefulness to a reader, its accessibility, and the craft with which it was made.

Beginning with the 2025 cycle, IBPA rebranded its program as the IBPA Book Award, while retaining the Benjamin Franklin Gold and Silver medals at the heart of the recognition. The legacy name remains the way most of the industry talks about the prize.

Winners are announced live at the IBPA's annual Publishing University. Finalists arrive in the host city without knowing whether they have won. The names are called from the stage one category at a time.

Why the Award Matters

Most major American book awards center on traditional trade publishing. The IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award is one of the only national honors built to recognize independently published work on its own terms. Entries come from established independent presses, mid-size literary imprints, and one-person self-published operations. They compete in the same categories under the same judging criteria.

For an independent author or publisher, a Benjamin Franklin medal signals to booksellers, librarians, foreign rights buyers, and reviewers that the work has been independently vetted at a serious level. It opens conversations with the press. It places the book into a forty-year lineage of recognized indie titles.

It is one of the few awards in American publishing where the playing field is genuinely level.

About the Book

How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter is Stoffel's debut memoir and the first volume of a seven-book series. It follows a Catholic kid from Dubuque, Iowa, chasing million-dollar sweepstakes through Broadway backstages, Paris, Honolulu, and a series of increasingly improbable startups, including one that sold edible glitter capsules under the brand Glitter Poo Pills.

The book earned a starred designation from Kirkus Reviews ("an exuberant life story written with humor, panache, and heart") and a 9.5 out of 10 score from Publishers Weekly BookLife. Midwest Book Review named it a Reviewer's Choice. On Amazon it reached #1 in LGBTQ+ Biographies & Memoirs New Releases.

The IBPA judges placed it in the Neurodivergent Communities category, recognizing its contribution to the literature of dyslexia and neurodivergent experience.

About Luke Stoffel

Luke Stoffel is a Brooklyn-based author, artist, and creative director. He grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, and relocated to New York City in 2001. His work spans memoir, fiction, painting, photography, and design. His Pop Art Tarot deck is forthcoming from Rockpool Publishing with worldwide distribution by Simon & Schuster.

He has been recognized as a GLAAD Top 100 LGBTQ+ Artist and has shown work at venues including the Puck Building for the amfAR Rocks Benefit, the Prince George Gallery, and the National Museum of American LGBT. His photography has appeared in The New York Times, Huffington Post, and on Bravo Television.

What's Next

The next two books in the Seven Dimensions series, The Third Person and Boy, Refracted, launch together on June 1, 2026 under the series banner The Warboy Chronicles. Pre-launch reviews from Publishers Weekly BookLife called Boy, Refracted "a truly singular book" that "stands out from the glut of human and AI literary collaborations." Both titles are available for pre-order now.

The full list of 2026 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award winners is available at the official IBPA Book Award page. More about Luke's work is at lucasstoffel.com and thewarboychronicles.com.