Book Prize

The William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University offers the William P. Clements Prize for the Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America, to promote and recognize fine writing and original research on the American Southwest.

The competition is open to any non-fiction book, including biography, on any aspect of Southwestern life, past or present, with a 2008 copyright. The author need not be a citizen or resident of the United States; the book need not be published in the United States. The author will receive two thousand five hundred dollars, and an invitation to give the annual Clements Prize Lecture at Southern Methodist University, expenses to be paid by the Clements Center.

There is no fee for participation. Publishers may submit as many titles as they wish, but must send copies of each submission to each of the judges listed below. Terms coincide with years of publication. Submissions must be postmarked by February 4, 2009 although earlier submission is preferable. Judges will announce the 2008 prize winner on August 1, 2009.

Judges will announce the 2007 prize winner on August 1, 2008.

For further information, contact:

David Weber, Director,
Clements Center for Southwest Studies,
Southern Methodist University,
Dallas, TX 75275-0176,
(214) 768-3684, e-mail: dweber@smu.edu.

Clements Prize Judges:

David Farmer, Committee Chair
   For USPS Delivery:
   P.O. Box 1106
   El Prado, NM 87529

   For FedX or UPS Delivery:
   #6 Bad Dog Road
   El Prado, NM 87529

Susan Deeds, Professor
   Department of History
   Northern Arizona University
   Box 6023
   Flagstaff, AZ 86011                                         Term: 2007-2009

John Nieto-Phillips, Associate Professor
   Department of History
   Indiana University
   Ballantine Hall 742
   Bloomington, IN 47405                                       Term: 2005-2008

Katherine Morrissey, Associate Professor
   Department of History
   University of Arizona
   215 Social Sciences Bldg.
   Tucson, AZ 85721                                               Term: 2008-2010

2006 Award

Ned Blackhawk

Violence over the Land:
Indians and Empires in the
Early American West
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006.

2005 Award

Claudio Saunt

Black, White, and Indian:
Race and the Unmaking of an American Family
New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

2004 Award

Jefferson Morgenthaler

The River Has Never Divided Us:
A Border History of La Junta de los Rios.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.

2003 Award

Virginia Kerns

Scenes from the High Desert:
Julian Steward's Life and Theory.
Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003.

2002 Award

Martha A. Sandweiss

Print the Legend:
Photography and the American West.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.

2001 Award

Donald Worster

A River Running West:
The Life of John Wesley Powell.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

2000 Award

No prize awarded.

1999 Award

William DeBuys

Salt Dreams: Land & Water in Low-Down California.
Photographs by Joan Myers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.

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Last updated February 25, 2008.

Clements Book Prize Winner 2006

Violence over the Land:
Indians and Empires in the
Early American West
by Ned Blackhawk

Past Clements
Book Prize Winners

2005- Claudio Saunt

2004 - Jefferson Morgenthaler

2003 - Virginia Kerns

2002 - Martha Sandweiss

2001- Donald Worster

1999 - William DeBuys