Awards
Winner of the 2013 Zia Award from New Mexico Press WomenTHE SOLEDAD CRUCIFIXION
by Nancy Wood
This gripping novel tells the story of Father Lorenzo Soledad from his boyhood in a Texas bordello to his final day in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Winner of the 2013 Thomas McGann Award from the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American StudiesCREATING MEXICAN CONSUMER CULTURE IN THE AGE OF PORFIRIO DÍAZ
by Steven B. Bunker
Steven Bunker’s study shows how goods and consumption embodied modernity in the time of Porfirio Díaz, how they provided proof to Mexicans that “incredible things are happening in this world.”
Winner of the Mexican History Book Prize from the Conference on Latin American HistoryCUAUHTÉMOC’S BONES: Forging National Identity in Modern Mexico
by Paul Gillingham
In this engaging study, Paul Gillingham uses the revelation of the forgery of Cuauhtémoc's tomb and the responses it evoked as a means of examining the set of ideas, beliefs, and dreams that bind societies to the nation-state.
Winner of the 2012 Silver Past Presidents' Book Award from the Association for Borderlands StudiesWOMEN'S MIGRATION NETWORKS IN MEXICO AND BEYOND
by Tamar Diana Wilson
This study examines the vital role that women's labor and personal networks play, both within Mexico and transnationally, in assisting other women to migrate and in providing support for male family members as well.
Selected as a 2012 Kanasas Notable BookRODE
by Thomas Fox Averill
"An artistic masterpiece galloping with classic all-American appeal.”--Library Journal, starred review
Winner of the 2012 Pablita Verde Award for outstanding children's publication from the Historical Society of New MexicoAMADITO AND THE HERO CHILDREN: Amadito y los Niños Héroes
by Enrique R. Lamadrid with illustrations by Amy Córdova
Recounting the two most deadly epidemics to strike the Southwest, this beautifully illustrated narrative reveals that with tragedy comes heroism, as demonstrated by the children who bravely transported the smallpox vaccine from Mexico's interior to New Mexico in 1805.
Winner of the 2012 Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá Award for outstanding publication in history from the Historical Society of New MexicoA HISTORY OF NEW MEXICO SINCE STATEHOOD
by Richard Melzer, Robert Tórrez, and Sandra K. Mathews
In this thoughtful work, the authors delineate New Mexico's role in the shaping of the United States by carefully analyzing how the rich histories of the many cultures of the region affected and in turn were affected by influxes of newcomers seeking health benefits, minerals, farms, relaxation, and new beginnings.
Winner of the 2012 Indpendent Publisher ("IPPY") Book Award for Best Regional Non-Fiction (Mountain West)THE CASE OF THE INDIAN TRADER: Billy Malone and the National Park Service Investigation at Hubbell Trading Post
by Paul Berkowitz
In an intriguing account of whistle-blowing, Berkowitz tells how he bypassed his chain-of-command and delivered his findings directly to the Office of the Inspector General.
Winner of the 2012 Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Western Novel from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage MuseumRODE
by Thomas Fox Averill
"Based on the American folk ballad 'Tennessee Stud,' this novel by the author of Secrets of the Tsil Café is an artistic masterpiece galloping with classic all-American appeal."--Library Journal, starred review
Winner of the Zia Award for Outstanding Nonfiction (coffee table book category) from New Mexico Press WomenTHROUGH A NARROW WINDOW: Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and her Terezín Students
by Linney Wix
Including biographical and art historical information on Dicker-Brandeis, this book sheds light on her roles as an artist, teacher, and heroine behind Nazi lines in the Second World War.
Winner of the Zia Award for Outstanding Nonfiction (history/biography category) from New Mexico Press WomenWEEKENDS WITH O'KEEFFE
by C. S. Merrill
In 1973 Georgia O’Keeffe employed C. S. Merrill to catalog her library for her estate. Merrill, a poet who was a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, was twenty-six years old and O’Keeffe was eighty-five, almost blind, but still painting. Over seven years, Merrill was called upon for secretarial assistance, cooking, and personal care for the artist. Merrill’s journals reveal details of the daily life of a genius.
Winner of the Texas Old Missions and Forts Restoration Association (TOMFRA) Award for be book involving the Spanish colonial history of TexasTHE LATEST WORD FROM 1540: People, Places, and Portrayals of the Coronado Expedition
by Richard and Shirley Cushing Flint
This book examines the environmental and cultural impact of the Coronado expedition while also placing it in the context of what was happening in Mexico as Spain expanded west and north of Mexico City.
Honorable Mention for the Modern Language Association (MLA) Prize in United States Latina/o and Chicana/o Literary and Cultural StudiesTHE DARING FLIGHT OF MY PEN: Cultural Politics and Gaspar Pérez de Villagra's Historia de La Nueva México, 1610
by Genaro M. Padilla
In this engaging study Genaro Padilla enters into Villagrá's epic poem of the Oñate expedition to reveal that the soldier was no mere chronicler but that his writing offers a subtle critique of the empire whose expansion he seems to be celebrating.
Winner of the 2011 PEN Center USA Literary Award for FictionTENGO SED: A Novel
by James Fleming
"A brutal and beautiful book. I read it straight through in one sitting, totally absorbed, deeply touched and frightened at the same time. The writing is taut, edgy, and original with not a wasted word…James Fleming has written a small, tough masterpiece.” —John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War
Winner of the 2011 WILLA Literary Award from Women Writing the WestBLOOD DESERT: Witnesses 1820-1880
by Renny Golden
In narrative poems that take us back to New Mexico during the nineteenth century, Renny Golden resurrects the spirits of native people and of those who came West.
Winner of the 2011 A. B. Thomas Book Award from the Southeastern Council of Latin American StudiesTHE WAR FOR MEXICO'S WEST: Indians and Spaniards in New Galicia, 1524-1550
by Ida Altman
Set within the context of the complex politics of early New Spain in which such prominent figures as Hernando Cortés, Nuño de Guzmán, Pedro de Alvarado, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, and don Antonio de Mendoza vied to fulfill their ambitions in the west and incorporating accounts and testimony reflecting indigenous perspectives, Altman's treatment of the prolonged conquest of New Galicia provides the first full-length account in English of these little-known events and their consequences for Indians and Spaniards.
Winner of the 2010 Nebraska Book Award for fictionA SANDHILLS BALLAD
by Ladette Randolph
After her life as she knows it is ended by heartbreak, Mary Rasmussen, a strong-willed and independent young ranch woman living in the Sandhills of western Nebraska, suddenly feels that all she has believed in—God, her instincts, the land itself—has failed her, and she abandons her cultural and emotional ties, succumbing to circumstances she thinks she is powerless to control. In a rash decision, she marries a conservative, patriarchal preacher who doesn't understand Mary, the ranching community, or anything beyond his own beliefs.
Winner of the 2010 Robert M. Utley Award from the Western History AssociationTHE AMERICAN MILITARY FRONTIERS: The United States Army in the West, 1783-1900
by Robert Wooster
Robert Wooster's study examines the fundamental importance of military affairs to social, economic, and political life throughout the borderlands and western frontiers. Integrating the work of other military historians as well as tapping into a broad array of primary materials, Wooster offers a multifaceted narrative that will shape our understanding of the frontier military experience, its relationship with broader concerns of national politics, and its connection to major themes and events in American history.
Winner of Foreword Reviews' 2009 Book of the Year Award (environment category)Winner of the 2010 Arizona Book Award (adult general nonfiction category)
DREAMING THE BIOSPHERE: The Theater of All Possibilities
by Rebecca Reider
"...impeccably researched...Reider sees Biosphere 2’s complicated success and failure as far more than a clash of science and myth or data and personality. She writes a fable of epic dreams burdened by superegos and drama that could not be contained. Riveting, surprising, and in the end devastatingly human, this is a saga for the ages." —Booklist, starred review
Winner of the 2010 Premio Aztlán Literary PrizeSWEET NATA: Growing Up in Rural New Mexico
by Gloria Zamora
As a toddler, Gloria Zamora lived with her maternal grandparents in a rural northern New Mexico village near Mora. Immersed in small-town country life and surrounded by a large family, Gloria absorbed the customs and traditions that connected her to her cultural heritage. Her memoir provides a unique and authentic perspective of the Hispano experience in rural New Mexico.
Winner of the 2010 Arizona Book Award (popular fiction category)PUTREFACTION LIVE
by Warren Perkins
With its ironic humor and earthy realism, Putrefaction Live reveals contemporary reservation life through the eyes of a bright, edgy, and confused young man. Warren Perkins pulls the reader directly into James’s head where his focus on music and his internal contemplations resemble those of a character in a beat generation work.
Winner of the 2010 Spur Award for Best Contemporary Nonfiction from Western Writers of AmericaTHE SECRET WAR IN EL PASO: Mexican Revolutionary Intrigue, 1906-1920
by Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler
Using 80,000 pages of previously classified FBI documents on the Mexican Revolution and hundreds of Mexican secret agent reports from El Paso and Ciudad Juarez in the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations archive, Charles Harris and Louis Sadler examine the mechanics of rebellion in a town where factional loyalty was fragile and treachery was elevated to an art form. As a case study, this slice of El Paso's, and America's, history adds new dimensions to what is known about the Mexican Revolution.
Winner 2010 Zia Award from New Mexico Press WomenJUNKYARD DREAMS: A Novel
by Jeanette Boyer
Rita Vargas owns an automobile junkyard outside of Santa Fe. Her property abuts a hill with a spectacular view, making the junkyard a magnet for ubiquitous developers. But Rita's land has been in her family for generations, and she doesn't want to sell. Also, her son Parker, a talented artist, uses salvaged pieces from the junkyard for his sculptures. Local wheeler-dealer Leroy Sena has already bought the ridge above Rita's property, and when Leroy sells that land to a small-time landlord and his gallery-owner sweetheart, the stakes are raised.
Winner of the 2010 TOMFRA Book Award (Texas Old Missions and Forts Restoration Association) THE LIPAN APACHES: People of Wind and Lightning
by Thomas A. Britten
Thomas Britten has scoured U.S. and Mexican archives in order to piece together the tangled tribal history of these adaptable people, emphasizing the cultural change that coincided with the various migrations and pressures they faced. The result is an interdisciplinary study of the Lipan Apaches that focuses on their history and culture, their relationships with a wide range of Indian and non-Indian peoples, and their responses to the various crises and burdens that seemed to follow them wherever they went.
Winner of the 2010 Fr. Paul J. Foik Award from the Texas Catholic Historical Society MARÍA OF ÁGREDA: Mystical Lady in Blue
by Marilyn H. Fedewa
News of María of Ágreda's exceptional attributes spread from her cloistered convent in seventeenth-century Ágreda (Spain) to the court in Madrid and beyond. Without leaving her village, the abbess impacted the kingdom, her church, and the New World; Spanish Hapsburg king Felipe IV sought her spiritual and political counsel for over twenty-two years. Lauded in Spain as one of the most influential women in its history, and in the United States as an inspiring pioneer, Sor María's story will appeal to cultural historians and to women who have struggled for equanimity against all odds.
Winner of the 2010 Association for Latin American Art Book AwardMOCHE ART AND VISUAL CULTURE IN ANCIENT PERU
by Margaret A. Jackson
In this study, Margaret Jackson analyzes Moche ceremonial architecture and ceramics to propose the workings of a widely understood visual language. Using an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates archaeology and linguistics with art history and studies of visual culture, Jackson looks at the symbolism of Moche art as a form of communication, the social mechanisms that produced it, and how it served to maintain the Moche social fabric.
