How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter Named 2026 National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist

How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter, the debut memoir by Luke Stoffel, is a Finalist in the 2026 National Indie Excellence Awards, honored in the Regional Non-Fiction: Midwest category of the 20th annual competition. The recognition arrives just weeks after the memoir won a 2026 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, giving the openly AI-assisted book two national honors in a single season.

What Are the National Indie Excellence Awards?

Now in their 20th year, the National Indie Excellence Awards (NIEA) honor excellence in independent publishing across the United States, recognizing indie, university, and small-press books in more than 100 categories. The complete list of 2026 National Indie Excellence Awards winners and finalists is published at indieexcellence.com/20th-annual-finalists.

Two National Book Honors in One Season

The NIEA finalist recognition follows the memoir's win at the 38th Annual IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards, presented by the Independent Book Publishers Association in Portland this May in the Neurodivergent Communities category, from a field of more than 2,000 entries. Two award juries, two independent organizations, one season, the same book.

An Openly AI-Assisted Book, Read on Its Merits

Stoffel, who is dyslexic, disclosed his AI use inside the book itself: a line-editing and accessibility tool, not a ghostwriter. The honors land in a year when publishing is fighting over exactly this question, with AI-detection software flagging authors and prize committees scrambling to write disclosure policies.

"I put the disclosure in the book because I figured someone would burn me at the stake for it," Stoffel says. "Instead, the judges read the book. That's all any writer wants, dyslexic or otherwise. To be read, not scanned."

About the Memoir

How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter is a picaresque ride through Reagan-era America, exploring failure, ambition, and the cost of chasing success. Publishers Weekly BookLife scored it 9.5 out of 10. Kirkus Reviews called it "an exuberant life story written with humor, panache, and heart." Midwest Book Review named it a Reviewer's Choice.

The Warboy Chronicles

The memoir opens The Warboy Chronicles. The series' newest titles, The Third Person and Boy, Refracted, launched June 1; Publishers Weekly BookLife calls Boy, Refracted a "truly singular book."

Did AI Write the Book?

No. Stoffel used AI as a line-editing and accessibility tool, working with his dyslexia, and disclosed it inside the book. The stories, the voice, and the structure are his. Two independent award juries judged the finished work and honored it.

Luke Stoffel National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist

Official finalist list: indieexcellence.com/20th-annual-finalists