AWARD WINNING BOOKS
Awards Received by University of Utah Press Publications
2024
The Bible and the Latter-day Saint Tradition edited by Taylor G. Petrey, Cory Crawford, & Eric A. Eliason was a finalist for the Association for Mormon Letters 2023 Nonfiction category in book awards.
Like a Fiery Meteor: The Life of Joseph F. Smith by Stephen C. Taysom won best book award from Mormon History Association.
Slavery in Zion: A Documentary and Genealogical History of Black Lives and Black Servitude in Utah Territory, 1847 to 1862 by Amy Tanner Thiriot won Juanita Brooks Best Book in Utah History from the Utah Historical Society while Andrew Gulliford’s Bears Ears: Landscape of Refuge and Resistance was a finalist.
2023
Western History Association awarded Amy Tanner Thiriot the Dwight L. Smith (ABC-CLIO) award for her book Slavery in Zion: A Documentary and Genealogical History of Black Lives and Black Servitude in Utah Territory, 1847 – 1862.
The John Whitmer Historical Association awarded Open Canon: Scriptures of the Latter Day Saint Tradition edited by Christine Elyse Blythe, Christopher James Blythe and Jay Burton for their Best Anthology book prize.
The Redd Center at BYU granted Carbon County, USA: Miners for Democracy in Utah and the West by Christian Wright a Clarence Dixon Taylor award.
Teow Lim Goh’s book Western Journeys has been chosen as a finalist in the Colorado Book Awards in the Creative Nonfiction category
2022
The Utah Division of State History granted Virginia Kerns the Juanita Brooks Best Book in Utah History for her book Sally in Three Worlds.
Benjamin Gucciardi was a finalist for the Julie Suk poetry award for West Portal.
John Whitmer Historical Association awarded Sally in Three Worlds by Virginia Kerns the Greg and Jill Brim Best Biography award.
Virginia Kerns won the scholarly nonfiction category for the WILLA awards from Women Writing the West for her book Sally in Three Worlds.
Virginia Kerns won the Best Biography Award from Mormon History Association for her book Sally in Three Worlds.
2021
Val Holley won the Juanita Brooks Best Book in Utah history for Frank J. Cannon: Saint Senator, Scoundrel.
This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions edited Carol Edison, Eric A. Eliason, and Lynne S. McNeill was a finalist for Best Book in Utah History.
Editors Michael Hubbard MacKay, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Brian M. Hauglid won the John Whitmer Historical Association Best Anthology Book Award for their volume, Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity .
Ann Chamberlin won Best Personal Memoir from the Mormon History Association for her book Clogs and Shawls: Mormons, Moorlands, and the Search for Zion .
This is the Plate: Utah Food Traditions edited by Carol Edison, Eric A. Eliason, and Lynne S. McNeil were presented a Special Award in Nonfiction by the Association of Mormon Letters.
2020
Sondra G. Jones won the Juanita Brooks Best Book in Utah history for Being and Becoming Ute: The Story of an American Indian People.
Kenneth W. Baldridge was a finalist for Best Book in Utah History for Civilian Conservation Corps in Utah, 1933-1942: Remembering Nine Years of Achievement .
James Swensen won the Evans Biography Award for In a Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and the Three Mormon Towns Collaborations, 1953-1954
Colleen Whitley’s Feed My Sheep: The Life of Alberta Henry was named a finalist for the Evans Biography Award.
Editors P. Jane Hafen and Brenden W. Rensink won the John Whitmer Historical Association Best Anthology Book Award for their volume, Essays on American Indian and Mormon History .
Konden Smith Hansen won Mormon History Association’s First Book Award for his book Frontier Religion: Mormons and America, 1857-1907 .
2019
In a Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and the Three Mormon Towns Collaboration, 1953-1954 by James Swensen won the Best Book Award from the Utah State Historical Society.
In a Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and the Three Mormon Towns Collaboration, 1953-1954 by James Swensen won the 15 Bytes Book Award for Art Book
In a Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and the Three Mormon Towns Collaboration, 1953-1954 by James Swensen won the 2019 Joan Paterson Kerr Book Award for best illustrated book on the history of the American West from the Western History Association.
Danish But Not Lutheran: The Impact of Mormonism on Danish Cultural Identity,1850-1920 by Julie K. Allen received an honorable mention for Best International Book from the Mormon History Association (MHA).
In a Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and the Three Mormon Towns Collaboration, 1953-1954 by James Swensen received an honorable mention for Best Book from the Mormon History Association (MHA).
Interwoven: Junipers and the Web of Being by Kristen Rogers-Iversen, copublished with the Utah State Historical Society, was named a “notable book” by the prize committee of the 2018 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award. Interwoven was also announced as a finalist for the 2019 ASLE Book Award, given biennially to recognize excellence in the areas of ecocriticism and environmental creative writing.
Her Mouth as Souvenir by Heather June Gibbons was recommended by Jericho Brown as one of the 17 Best Poetry Books for National Poetry Month in the online O: The Oprah Magazine . Her Mouth as Souvenir was also a finalist for the Northern California Book Awards Poetry Award. Her Mouth as Souvenir was the 2017 winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry series, cosponsored by the Press and the Department of English at the University of Utah.
2018
Emmeline B. Wells: An Intimate History by Carol Cornwall Madsen won the Mormon History Association’s Best Biography
Margarita Marin-Dale won the Wayland D. Hand Prize from the American Folklore Association for her book Decoding Andean Mythology
Brian McConnell Book Award from the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research to Holly Cusack-McVeigh for Stories Find You, Places Know
Hikmet Sidney Loe’s book, The Spiral Jetty Encyclo , won the 15 Bytes Book Award for Art Book
Ordinary Trauma : A Memoir by Jennifer Sinor was selected as a finalist for the 15 Bytes Book Award for Creative Nonfiction
The following books were finalists for the Utah State Historical Society Best Book Award: Interwoven: Junipers and the Web of Being by Kristen Rogers-Iversen, Jumping the Abyss: Marriner S. Eccles and the New Deal, 1933-1940 by Mark Wayne Nelson, A Modest Homestead: Life in Small Adobe Homes in Salt Lake City, 1850-1897 by Laurie J. Bryant, and The Spiral Jetty Encyclo: Exploring Robert Smithson’s Earthwork through Time and Place by Hikmet Sydney Loe
2017
Matthew Garrett’s Making Lamanites: Mormons, Native Americans, and the Indian Student Placement Program, 1947-2000 received the Francis Armstrong Madsen Best Book Award from the Utah Division of State History.
The Women: A Family Story by Kerry William Bate won the Mormon History Association’s Best Personal History/Memoir Award.
Charles Redd Center Clarence Dixon Taylor Historical Research Award was presented to Jerry Spangler and Donna Spangler for Last Chance Byway: The History of Nine Mile Canyon and Nine Mile Canyon: The Archaeological History of an American Treasure.
Leonard Arrington and the Writing of Mormon History by Gregory A. Prince was awarded the Evans Biography Award from the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies at Utah State University.
Leonard Arrington and the Writing of Mormon History by Gregory A. Prince received the John Whitmer Historical Association’s Brim Biography Book Award.
15 Bytes Book Award for Creative Nonfiction to Immortal for Quite Some Time by Scott Abbott.
2016
Richard Francaviglia’s book The Mapmakers of New Zion won the New Mexico Book Association’s Southwest Book Design and Production Award in the category of scholarly and technical while Adam Sklute’s Ballet West was a finalist in the trade book illustrated category.
The Mapmakers of New Zion by Richard Francaviglia was selected as one of American Library Association’s Best of the Best from University Presses.
David Hall won the Mormon History Association’s Best First Book Award 2015 for A Faded Legacy: Amy Brown Lyman and Mormon Women’s Activism, 1872-1959.
Michael Homer’s Joseph’s Temples: The Dynamic Relationship between Freemasonry and Mormonism and Armando Solórzano We Remember, We Celebrate, We Believe/Recuerdo, Celebración y Esperanza: Latinos in Utah were both recipients of the Meritorious Book Award from the Utah Division of State History.
2015
Jeff Metcalf, author of Requiem for the Living , received the Mayor’s Award in Literary Arts at the Utah Arts Festival in 2015.
Lily Havey received the Evans Biography Award for Gasa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp: A Nisei Youth behind a World War II Fence.
Best of Best of University Presses ALA/AAUP was also awarded to Lily Havey for Gasa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp.
Gasa Gasa Girl Goes to Camp was also a finalist in cover design for the Southwest Book Design and Production Awards.
Julie Neuffer was awarded the Mormon History Association Best Biography Award for Helen Andelin and the Fascinating Womanhood Movement.
Gary and Rose Neeleman were finalists for the International Latino Book Awards: Best Book in Nonfiction in Portuguese for Tracks in the Amazon: The Day-to-Day Life of the Workers on the Madeira- Mamoré Railroad.
2014
Val Holley received the Utah Book Award in Nonfiction for 25th Street Confidential: Drama, Decadence, and Dissipation along Ogden’s Rowdiest Road.
Roy Webb was a Utah Book Award finalist in Nonfiction for Lost Canyons of the Green River: The Story before Flaming Gorge Dam.
Kim Young was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award for her book Night Radio. Click here to see the award announcement.
Kara Candito won a Pushcart award for her poem “Monologue during a Blackout” which appears in her book Spectator.
Todd Compton has been awarded the Mormon History Association Best Biography Award in 2013 for his book A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamblin, Explorer and Indian Missionary.
Todd Compton also won the Evans Biography Award for A Frontier Life which carries a $10,000 award.
A Frontier Life also won the John Whitmer Historical Society Best Biography Award.
The Division of State History also awarded the Francis Armstrong Madsen Best Book Award to A Frontier Life.
Choice Outstanding Academic Title award went to Nine Mile Canyon: The Archaeological History of an American Treasure by Jerry D. Spangler.
Foreword chose 25th Street Confidential: Drama, Decadence, and Dissipation along Ogden’s Rowdiest Road by Val Holley in the regional category as a finalist in their IndieFab Book of the Year Award and The First Rocky Mountaineers: Coloradans before Colorado by Marcel Kornfeld is the bronze winner in the science category.
15 bytes , Utah’s art magazine, has named Final Light: The Life and Art of V. Douglas Snow , edited by Frank McEntire as the most exceptional art book for 2014.
2013
Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award for Journals, Memoirs, and Letters to Nels Anderson’s World War I Diary, edited by Allan Kent Powell.
2012
Utah Book Award in Nonfiction to Don D. Fowler for The Glen Canyon Country: A Personal Memoir
Mormon History Association Geraldine McBride Woodward International Book Award to Hugh J. Cannon (deceased) and Reid L. Neilson, editor for To the Peripheries of Mormondom: The Apostolic Around-the-World Journey of David O. McKay, 1920-1921
Society for American Archaeology Book Award to Matthew R. Des Lauriers for Island of Fogs: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Investigations of Isla Cedros, Baja California
Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Nonfiction-Contemporary to Frederick H. Swanson for The Bitterroot and Mr. Brandborg: Clearcutting and the Struggle for Sustainable Forestry in the Northern Rockies
2011
Utah Book Award in Nonfiction to Steven Simms for Traces of Fremont: Society and Rock Art in Ancient Utah
The New Mexico Book Association Southwest Book Design & Production Awards for Excellence in the category Trade Books: Non-illustrated to Wildbranch: An Anthology of Nature, Environment, and Place-based Writing , edited by Florence Caplow and Susan Cohen
Society for American Archaeology Book Award for Public Audience to Steven Simms for Traces of Fremont: Society and Rock Art in Ancient Utah
Mormon History Association Geraldine McBride Woodward Award for Best Publication in International Mormon History to Raymond Kuehne, Mormons as Citizens of a Communist State: A Documentary History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in East Germany, 1945-1990
2010
Association for Mormon Letters Award for Memoir to George Handley for Home Waters
Mormon History Association Steven F. Christensen Best Documentary Award to Richard E. Turley and Ronald W. Walker, eds., for Mountain Meadows Massacre: The Andrew Jenson and David H. Morris Collection (copublished with BYU Studies)
Mormon History Association Steven F. Christensen Best Documentary Award to Jill Mulvay Derr and Karen Lyn Davidson for Eliza R. Snow: The Complete Poetry (copublished with BYU Studies)
Society for Historical Archaeology James Deetz Book Award to Shannon Novak for House of Mourning: A Biocultural History of the Mountain Meadows Massacre
Utah State History Francis Armstrong Madsen Best Utah History Book Award to Edward Leo Lyman for Amasa Mason Lyman: Mormon Apostle and Apostate, A Study in Dedication