The Castagna-Campion Prize is awarded to a UI Center for the Book MFA student in the final year of the program. The endowed gift honors book arts students who shine through the range of their work at the UI. The selected student excels according to the three following criteria:

• Artistic excellence: the recipient balances craft and expression in distinctive ways that highlight the strengths of a book arts education.
• Progress and development: the recipient shows growth over the three-year process of the MFA, deepening or broadening their work.
• Participation and contribution: the recipient is outward-facing in terms of peer student growth and contributions to the community, reflected in classroom participation, workshop generosity, or public outreach and professional engagement.

The selection committee consists of UICB faculty. The honor comes with a monetary award of up to $1,000.

Past prize recipients: 
2024 - Jamie Capps 
2023 - Luke Allan 
2022 - Sara Rieger 
2021 - María Carolina Ceballos  
2020 - India Johnson 
2019 - Sonia Farmer 
2018 - Elise Hochhalter 
2017 - Ian Huebert