49th Annual Southwest Book Award Winners

Southwest Book Awards announced by the Border Regional Library Association

The Border Regional Library Association has announced its forty-ninth annual Southwest Book Award winners. These awards have been presented since 1971 in recognition of outstanding books written about the Southwest.

This year’s winners of the Southwest Book Awards are:

• A Bad Peace and a Good War: Spain and the Mescalero Apache Uprising of 1975-1799 by Mark Santiago (University of Oklahoma Press)

• The Crossroads by Alexandra Diaz (Simon & Schuster / Paula Wiseman Books)

• Cutting the Wire: Photographs and Poetry from the U.S. – Mexico Border edited by Lisa McNiel, photographs by Bruce Berman, poetry by Ray Gonzalez and Lawrence Welsh, introduction by David Dorado Romo (University of New Mexico Press)

• D by Ruben Moreno Valenzuela (Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez)

• Hey Marfa by Jeffrey Yang (Graywolf Press)

• Medicine Women: The Story of the First Native American Nursing School by Jim Kristofic (University of New Mexico Press)

• Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair by Gary Paul Nabhan (Chelsea Green Publishing)

• Nobody Hugs a Cactus by Carter Goodrich (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

• Retablos: Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border by Octavio Solis (City Light Books)

• A Song for the River by Philip Connors (Cinco Puntos Press)

According to the Border Regional Library Association, the eligibility for this year’s Southwest Bok Awards was based on the following criteria:

1. about the Southwest, defined as West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico;
2. appearing in book or nonprint format for the first time;
3. published between August 1, 2018, and July 31, 2019;
4. of high quality, both in the context of the current year’s entries and in the existing body of Southwestern literature; and
5. books that 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 leader. Poetry and fiction must reflect Southwestern culture and/or be set in the Southwest.

The Southwest Book Awards will be presented at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing on Saturday, February 22, starting at 6 p.m.

Nominations for librarian of the year and library staff person of the year are open until Feb. 3, 2020.