Congratulations to Our National Book Collecting Contest Winner!

Graduate student in Interdisciplinary Data Science, Peter de Guzman won second prize in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest. (Image courtesy: Peter de Guzman)

Congratulations to Peter de Guzman, a graduate student in Interdisciplinary Data Science at the Duke Graduate School, who recently won second place in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest!

In recognition of his bibliophilic brilliance, he will receive a $1,000 cash prize and a trip to Washington, D.C., to represent Duke at a special awards ceremony on September 19 at 4:00 p.m. at the Library of Congress. As his home institution, the Duke University Libraries also receives $500.

The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest is the Final Four of book collecting competitions, bringing together the winners of more than three dozen local competitions at colleges and universities across the United States, including Duke. It is sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), the Center for the Book , and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.

Peter’s collection was inspired by a quote from Filipino writer Nick Joaquin: “The identity of the Filipino today is of a person asking what is his identity.” Peter has explored this question through his collection, with many discoveries since his collecting began in 2018. Peter and his fiancée hope to continue building their collection and eventually donate it to a public library to promote youth education and Filipino American Studies.

Earlier this year, Peter was a first place winner in the graduate category of the Andrew T. Nadell Book Collectors Contest, sponsored by Duke University Libraries, for his collection “What is his identity?: Building a Filipino American Library.” That earned him a $1,500 cash prize and the eligibility to compete on the national level.

Duke has been well-represented in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Competition. Past winners include:

2023 Winner, 2nd Prize: Joshua Shelly, Alte Bücher in Haifa: (Re)building a German Jewish Library in the 21st Century

2021 Winner, Essay Prize: Joseph E. Hiller, Como un detective salvaje: Gathering Small Press, Experimental, and Untranslated Latin American Literature

2015 Winner, Essay Prize: Anne Steptoe, Look Homeward: Journeying Home through 20th Century Southern Literature

2013 Winner, 2nd Prize: Ashley Young, New Orleans’ Nourishing Networks: Foodways and Municipal Markets in the Nineteenth Century Global South

2011 Winner, 1st Prize: Mitch Fraas, Anglo-American Legal Printing 1702 to the Present

Please look for the announcement of the applications for the 2027 Nadell Book Prize in Spring 2027!