Southwest Book Awards Winners

2025 Winners expand_more

Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the US-Mexico Borderlands by Lina-Marie Murillo
Borderlands: Stories from an El Paso Shelter by Deb Hansen
El Canto del Chanate y Otras Ficciones by Marlon Martínez Vela
The Jemez Mountains: A Cultural and Natural History by Thomas W. Swetnam
Mata Ortiz: Poetry of the Clay/ Poesia del Barro by Charmayne Samuelson
The Molino: A Memoir by Melani Martinez
Frontera Madre(hood): Brown Mothers Challenging Oppression and Transborder Violence at the U.S.- Mexico Border Edited by Cynthia Bejarano and Maria Cristina Morales

2024 Winners expand_more

2023 Winners expand_more

2022 Winners expand_more

2021 Winners expand_more

2020 Winners expand_more

2019 Winners expand_more

2018 Winners expand_more

2017 Winners expand_more

2016 Winners expand_more

Adventures In Physics and Pueblo Pottery: Memoirs of A Los Alamos Scientist, by Francis H. Harlow, with Dwight P. Lanmon, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2016.
Agaves, Yucca, and Their Kin: Seven Genera of The Southwest, by Jon L. Hawker, Texas Tech University Press, 2016.
Artistic Odyssey of Higinio V. Gonzales: A Tinsmith and Poet in Territorial New Mexico, by Maurice M. Dixon, Jr., University of Oklahoma Press, 2015.
Chasing the Cure in New Mexico: Tuberculosis and the Quest for Health, by Nancy Owen Lewis, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2016.
Coyota in the Kitchen: A Memoir of New and Old Mexico, by Anita Rodríguez, University of New Mexico Press, 2016.
Doña Teresa Confronts the Spanish Inquisition, by Frances Levine, University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.
In The Canyon, by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrations by Ashley Wolff, Beach Lane Books, 2015.
Irby Brown: Southwest Landscape Paintings, by Richard Brunson, edited by Joshua Falconer, University of New Mexico Press, 2015.
Irwin Klein and the New Settlers: Photographs of Counterculture in New Mexico, by Benjamin Klein, UNP - Bison Books, 2016.
Ladies of the Canyons: A League of Extraordinary Women and Their Adventures in the American Southwest, by Lesley Poling-Kempes, University of Arizona Press, 2015.
The Sonoran Desert: A Literary Field Guide, edited by Eric Magrane & Christopher Cokinos, University of Arizona Press, 2016.
Uprooting Community: Japanese Mexicans, World War II, and the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, by Selfa A. Chew, University of Arizona Press, 2016.

2015 Winners expand_more

ADVOCATES FOR THE OPPRESSED: HISPANOS, INDIANS, GENÍZAROS, AND THEIR LAND IN NEW MEXICO, by Malcolm Ebright, University of New Mexico Press, 2014.
THE GREAT CALL-UP: THE GUARD, THE BORDER, AND THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION, by Charles H. Harris III & Louis R. Sadler, University of Oklahoma Press, 2015.
LAGUNA PUEBLO: A PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY, by Lee Marmon & Tom Corbett, University of New Mexico Press, 2015.
MYSTERIOUS NEW MEXICO: MIRACLES, MAGIC, AND MONSTERS IN THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT, by Benjamin Radford, University of New Mexico Press, 2014.
ON THE BURNING EDGE: A FATEFUL FIRE AND THE MEN WHO FOUGHT IT, by Kyle Dickman, Ballantine Books, 2015.
POWER LINES: PHOENIX AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN SOUTHWEST, by Andrew Needham, Princeton University Press, 2014.
A STRANGE MIXTURE: THE ART AND POLITICS OF PAINTING PUEBLO INDIANS, by Sascha T. Scott, University of Oklahoma Press, 2015.
SOUTH SUN RISES: A BILINGUAL POETIC NARRATIVE OF THE BORDERLAND, by Valentin Sandoval, Sherman Asher Publishing, 2014.
SYSTEMIC EVIL: MAT PEREZ V. THE FBI, by Samuel C. Martinez, CreateSpace Publishing, 2014.
WASTELANDING: LEGACIES OF URANIUM MINING IN NAVAJO COUNTRY, by Traci Brynne Voyles, University of Minnesota Press, 2015.
THE YAQUIS AND THE EMPIRE: VIOLENCE, SPANISH IMPERIAL POWER, AND NATIVE RESILIENCE IN COLONIAL MEXICO, by Raphael Brewster Folsom, Yale University Press, 2014.

2014 Winners expand_more

Among Unknown Tribes: Rediscovering the Photographs of Explorer Carl Lumholtz, by Bill Broyles, Ann Christine Eek, Phyllis La Farge, Richard Laugharn, Eugenia Macías Guzmán, University of Texas Press, 2014.
The Art & Legacy of Bernardo Miera Y Pacheco: New Spain's Explorer, Cartographer, And Artist, edited by Josef Díaz, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2013.
Authentic Texas: People of the Big Bend, by Marcia Hatfield Daudistel and Bill Wright, University of Texas Press, 2013.
Chasing the Santa Fe Ring: Power and Privilege in Territorial New Mexico, by David L. Caffey, University of New Mexico Press, 2014.
Crónicas Del Siglo Pasado: Ciudad Juárez Su Vida Su Gente, by Raúl Flores Simental, Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, 2013.
Detonography: The Explosive Art of Evelyn Rosenberg, by Evelyn Rosenberg, photographs by John Trotter, University of New Mexico Press, 2013.
El Paso Days, by Elroy Bode, Wings Press, 2014.
Four Square Leagues: Pueblo Indian Land In New Mexico, by Malcolm Ebright, Rick Hendricks, and Richard W. Hughes, University of New Mexico Press, 2014.
How Chile Came To New Mexico, by Rudolfo Anaya, illustrations by Nicolás Otero, translation by Nasario García, Rio Grande Press, 2014.
Law of the Desert Born, by Louis L'Amour, Charles Santino, Beau L'Amour, Kathy Nolan, illustrated by Thomas Yeates, Random House, 2013.
Miera Y Pacheco: A Renaissance Spaniard in Eighteenth-Century New Mexico, by John Kessell, University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.
Sagrado: A Photopoetics Across the Chicano Homeland, by Spencer R. Herrera and Levi Romero, photographs by Robert Kaiser, University of New Mexico Press, 2013.
Texas People, Texas Places: More Musings of The Rambling Boy, by Lonn Taylor, TCU Press, 2014.

2013 Winners expand_more

Anay's Will to Learn: A Woman's Education in the Shadow of the Maquiladoras, by Elaine Hampton, with Anay Palomeque de Carrillo, University of Texas Press, 2013.
Dragoons In Apacheland: Conquest and Resistance In Southern New Mexico, 1846-1861, by William S. Kiser, University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.
Everything Begins and Ends at The Kentucky Club, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Cinco Puntos Press, 2012.
Forty-Seventh Star: New Mexico's Struggle for Statehood, by David V. Holtby, University of Oklahoma Press, 2012.
Hell Paso: The Story of Dallas Stoudenmire, by Jaime Portillo, Jimmy Daze Comics, 2013.
In The Shadow Of Billy The Kid: Susan McSween And The Lincoln County War, by Kathleen Chamberlain, University of New Mexico Press, 2013
Our Lost Border: Essays on Life Amid the Narco-Violence, by Sarah Cortez and Sergio Troncoso, Arte Público Press, 2013.
The Pottery of Acoma Pueblo, by Dwight P. Lanmon and Francis H. Harlow, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2013.
Rock Art of the Grand Canyon Region, by Don D. Christensen, Jerry Dickey, and Steven M. Freers, Sunbelt Publications, 2013.
Trigueña (Solar-Narrativa), by Juana Moriel-Payne, Instituto Chihuahuense de la Cultura, 2013.
Waiting For José: The Minutemen's Pursuit of America, by Harel Shapira, Princeton University Press, 2013.
With Blood in Their Eyes, by Thomas Cobb, University of Arizona Press, 2012.

2012 Winners expand_more

2011 Winners expand_more

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2009 Winners expand_more

2008 Winners expand_more

Border Citizens: The Making of Indians, Mexicans and Anglos in Arizona, by Eric V. Meeks, University of Texas Press, 2007.
Bruce Aiken's Grand Canyon: An Intimate Affair, by Susan Hallsten McGarry, Grand Canyon Association, 2007.
Fragmented Lives Assembled Parts: Culture, Capitalism, and Conquest at the U. S.-Mexico Border, by Alejandro Lugo, University of Texas Press, 2008.
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre, by Richard Grant, Free Press, 2008.
He Forgot to Say Goodbye, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2008.
Kartchner Caverns: How Two Cavers Discovered and Saved One of the Wonders of the Natural World, by Neil Miller, University of Arizona Press, 2008.
Marsden Hartley and the West: The Search for an American Modernism, by Heather Hole, Yale University Press and The Georgia O'Keefe Museum, 2007.
The Reminiscences of Major General Zenas R. Bliss 1854-1876, edited by Thomas T. Smith, Jerry D. Thompson, Robert Wooster, and Ben E Pingenot, Texas State Historical Association, 2007.
Salt Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande, by Paul Cool, Texas A & M University Press, 2008.
Violence and Activism at The Border: Gender, Fear and Everyday Life in Ciudad Juarez, by Kathleen Staudt, University of Texas Press, 2008.
We Became as Mountains: Poems of the Pueblo Conquest, by Nancy Wood, Western Edge Press, 2008.

2007 Winners expand_more

2006 Winners expand_more

The Civil War in Arizona: The Story of the California Volunteers, 1861-1865, by Andrew E. Masich, University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.
Classic Hopi and Zuni Kachina Figures, photographs by Andrea Portago, text by Barton Wright, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2006.
Crossing the Wire, by Will Hobbs, HarperCollins Childrens Books, 2006.
Distant Bugles, Distant Drums: The Union Response to the Confederate Invasion of New Mexico, by Flint Whitlock, University Press of Colorado, 2006.
Fine Indian Jewelry of The Southwest: The Millicent Rogers Museum Collection, by Shelby J. Tisdale, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2006.
The General and The Jaguar: The Hunt For Pancho Villa: A True Story of Revolution and Revenge, by Eileen Welsome, Little, Brown & Company, 2006.
Inferno, by Charles Bowden, photographs by Michael P. Berman, University of Texas Press, 2006.
Making A Hand: Growing Up Cowboy in New Mexico, photographs by Gene Peach, text by Max Evans, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2005.
Navajo and Pueblo Earrings, 1850-1945, Collected by Robert V. Gallegos, by Robert Bauver, Rio Grande Books, 2006
Ringside Seat to A Revolution: An Underground Cultural History of El Paso And Juarez: 1893-1923, by David Dorado Romo, Cinco Puntos Press, 2005.
Sunshot: Peril and Wonder In The Gran Desierto, text by Bill Broyles, photographs by Michael P. Berman, University of Arizona Press, 2006.
To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico, by Stanley M. Hordes, Columbia University Press, 2005.

2005 Winners expand_more

2004 Winners expand_more

2003 Winners expand_more

2002 Winners expand_more

2001 Winners expand_more

BONES INCANDESCENT, edited with essays by Shelley Armitage, Texas Tech University Press, 2001.
FRANK APPLEGATE OF SANTA FE: ARTIST & PRESERVATIONIST, by Daria Labinsky and Stan Hieronymus, LPD Press, 2001.
THE HOT EMPIRE OF CHILE, by Kent Ian Paterson, Bilingual Review/Press, 2000.
LA MIRADA DESENTERRADA: JUAREZ Y EL PASO VISTOS POR EL CINE (1896-1916), by Willivaldo Delgadillo and Maribel Limongi, edited by Miguel Angel Berumen Campos, Cuadro por Cuadro, 2000.
NUEVO MEXICO PROFUNDO: RITUALS OF AN INDO-HISPANO HOMELAND, photographs by Miguel Gandert, essays by Enrique R. Lamadrid, Ramón A. Gutiérrez, Lucy R. Lippard, and Chris Wilson, Museum of New Mexico Press / National Hispanic Cultural Center of New Mexico, 2000.
SANTA BARRAZA: ARTIST OF THE BORDERLANDS, edited by María Herrera-Sobek, Texas A&M University Press, 2001.
SOUTHWEST WRITER HARVEY FERGUSSON: A COLLECTOR'S VIEW AND CHECKLIST, by Saul Cohen, foreward by Lawrence Clark Powell, Press of the Palace of Governors Museum of New Mexico, 2001.
SURVIVING THE WINTER: THE EVOLUTION OF QUILTMAKING IN NEW MEXICO, by Dorothy R. Zopf, University of New Mexico Press, 2001.
TRADICIONES NUEVOMEXICANAS: HISPANO ARTS AND CULTURE OF NEW MEXICO, by Mary Montaño, University of New Mexico Press, 2001.
TUNNEL KIDS, by Lawrence J. Taylor and Maeve Hickey, University of Arizona Press, 2001.
UNDER THE SUN: A SONORAN DESERT ODYSSEY, by Adriel Heisey, Rio Nuevo Press, 2000.
VILLISTA PRISONERS OF 1916-1917, by James W. Hurst, Yucca Tree Press, 2000.

2000 Winners expand_more

1999 Winners expand_more

1998 Winners expand_more

The Chief's Blanket, by Michael Chanin, illustrated by Kim Howard. H. J. Kramer, Inc., 1997.
Culture Across Borders, edited by David R. Maciel and Maria Herrera-Sobek. University of Arizona Press, 1998
Juarez, The Laboratory of Our Future, by Charles Bowden, photographs by Javier Aguilar, Jaime Bailleres, Gabriel Cardona, Julian Cardona, Alfredo Carrillo, Raul Lodoza, Jaime Murrieta, Miguel Perea, Margarita Reyes, Ernesto Rodriguez, Manuel Saenz, Lucio Soria Espino, Aurelio Suarez Nunez. Aperture, 1998.
La Vida Nortena, Photographs of Sonora, Mexico, by David Burckhalter, essays by Gary Nabhan and Thomas E. Sheridan. University of New Mexico Press, 1998.See March Border Bookshelf
The Making of A Mexican American Mayor: Raymond L. Telles Of El Paso, by Mario T. Garcia. Texas Western Press, 1998. See July Border Bookshelf
One Book at A Time: The History Of The Library In New Mexico, by Linda G. Harris. New Mexico Library Foundation, 1998. See July Border Bookshelf
The Raptors of Arizona, edited by Richard L. Glinski. University of Arizona Press, 1998. See May Border Bookshelf
San Elizario: Spanish Presidio to Texas County Seat, by Rick Hendricks and W. H. Timmons. Texas Western Press, 1998. See September Border Bookshelf
The Southwest in American Literature And Art: The Rise Of A Desert Aesthetic, by David W. Teague. University of Arizona Press, 1997. See May Border Bookshelf
Una Linda Raza: Cultural and Artistic Traditions of The Hispanic Southwest, by Angel Vigil. Fulcrum Publishing Inc, 1998.
The World of Flower Blue, Pop Chalee: An Artistic Biography, by Margaret Cesa. Red Crane Books, 1997

1997 Winners expand_more

1996 Winners expand_more

Answered Prayers: Miracles and Milagros Along The Border, by Eileen Oktavec. University of Arizona Press, 1995.
Border Correspondent: Selected Writings, 1955-1970, by Ruben Salazar. Edited and with an introduction by Mario T. Garcia. University of California Press, 1995.
Exiled: The Tigua Indians of Ysleta Del Sur, by Randy Lee Eickhoff. Republic of Texas Press, 1996.
Following The Sun and Moon: Hopi Kachina Tradition, by Alph H. Secakuku, Northland Publishing in cooperation with the Heard Museum, 1995.
Growing Desert Plants: From Windowsill to Garden, by Theodore B. Hodoba. Red Crane Books, 1995.
Modern By Tradition: American Indian Painting in The Studio Style, by Bruce Bernstein and W. Jackson Rushing. Museum of New Mexico Press, 1995.
The Place Names Of New Mexico, by Robert Julyan. University of New Mexico Press, 1996.
Rodant Del Mon: Roaming About the World with Urbici Soler, Sculptor (1890-1953), by Paul Dean Daniggelis. International Association for the Visual Arts, 1995.
San Cristobal: Voices and Visions of The Galisteo Basin, by Christina Singleton Mednick. Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico, 1996.
Tag Against Time, by Helen Hughes Vick. Harbinger House, 1996.
Trading in Santa Fe: John M. Kingsbury's Correspondence with James Josiah Webb, edited by Jane Lenz Elder and David J. Weber. Southern Methodist University Press, 1996.
Utopian Vistas: The Mabel Dodge Luhan House and The American Counterculture, by Lois Palken Rudnick. University of New Mexico Press, 1996.

Southwest Book Award Winners