Southwest Book Awards Announced
Date: January 20, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The Border Regional Library Association is pleased to announce the forty-first annual Southwest Book Awards. Since 1971, the awards have been presented in recognition of outstanding books about the Southwest published each year in any genre (e.g. fiction, nonfiction or reference) and directed toward any audience (scholarly, popular or children’s). Original video and audio materials are also considered.
The winners of the forty-first annual Southwest Book 
Awards are:
- Alexandre Hogue: An American Visionary – Paintings and Works on Paper by Susie Kalil (TAMU Press, 2011).
- La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City by Lydia R. Otero (University of Arizona Press, 2011).
- The Jar of Severed Hands: The Spanish Deportation of Apache Prisoners of War, 1770 – 1810 by Mark Santiago (University of Oklahoma Press, 2011).
- Randy Lopez Goes Home by Rudolfo Anaya (University of Oklahoma Press, 2011).
- El Sicario: The Autobiography of a Mexican Assassin edited by Molly Molloy and Charles Bowden (Nation Books, 2011).
- Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity by Glen Sample Ely (Texas Tech University Press, 2011).
- Wild Horses of the West: History and Politics of America’s Mustangs by J. Edward de Steiguer (University of Arizona Press, 2011).
- Working the Line by David Taylor (Radius Books, 2010).
Eligibility for this year’s Southwest Book Awards was based on five criteria:
- About the Southwest, defined as West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico.
- Appearing in book or non-print format for the first time.
- Published between August 1, 2010 and July 31, 2011.
- Of high quality, both in the context of the current year’s entries and in the existing body of Southwestern literature.
- Books which reflect and interpret the Southwest. A scholarly work must make a well documented contribution to scholarship in some aspect of Southwestern history or culture. Other nonfiction works should make reliable information accessible to the general reader. Poetry and fiction must reflect Southwestern culture and/or be set in the southwest.
The Southwest Book Awards, as well as awards for Librarian of the Year and Library Staff Person of the Year, will be presented at the Border Regional Library Association Awards Banquet being held at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing on Saturday, February 25, 2012, beginning at 6 p.m. The cost is $30 and reservations must be made and paid for by Monday, February 20. The public is welcome.
The Border Regional Library Association (BRLA) is an organization founded in 1966 for the promotion of library service and librarianship in the El Paso/Las Cruces/Juárez region. Current membership includes over one hundred librarians, paraprofessionals, media specialists and library friends and trustees from all types of libraries in the tri-state area of Trans-Pecos Texas, Southern New Mexico and Northern Chihuahua.
Librarians and information specialists find that the organization provides a forum for local issues, which impact the future of all types of libraries in the region. BRLA also serves as a support group to promote libraries as important educational and cultural institutions, which have a direct impact on communities and democratic action. Annual dues are low in cost but high in rewarding returns. BRLA welcomes and encourages membership and involvement.
For more information please contact John Sandstrom, the Acquisitions Librarian at the New Mexico State University Library, at (575) 646-8093 or jsand713@nmsu.edu.
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