The James White Award is an annual short story competition open to writers from around the world. It was established in 2000 to commemorate the life and work of the Irish science fiction author James White. The competition was created to encourage new writers and is not open to professional authors. "Professional author" is defined as one who is eligible for active membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America – that is, a writer with three short story sales to qualifying markets or one novel sale to a qualifying market. Entries must be 6,000 words or less and written in English.