The SANA Book Prize is awarded every other year, with the most recent award given in 2019. The next award will be given in 2021 (for books published in 2020-2021).
2020-2021 Prize Winner: TBA
2018-2019 Prize Winner: Herlands
Keridwen N. Luis for Herlands: Exploring the Women’s Land Movement in the United States (University of Minnesota Press).
2016-2017 Prize Winners: The Land of Open Graves and Shapeshifters
There were many excellent nominations for the 2017 SANA Book award. The committee decided to share the award this year between two awardees.
- Jason De León for The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail (University of California Press).
- Aimee Meredith Cox for Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship. (Duke University Press).
2016-2017 Honorable Mention:
Sarah Horton, for the book They Leave their Kidneys in the Fields: Illness, Injury and Illegality among US workers (University of California Press).
2013-2014 Prize Winner: We are the Face of Oaxaca
Lynn Stephen & Collaborators for the book We are the Face of Oaxaca: Testimony and Social Movements (Duke University Press 2013).
2013-2014 Honorable Mentions:
Audra Simpson, for the book Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States (Duke University Press 2014).
Kenneth MacLeish, for the book Making War at Fort Hood: Life and Uncertaintly in a Military Community (Princeton University Press 2013).
2011-2012 Prize Winner: Tobacco Capitalism
Peter Benson for the book Tobacco Capitalism: Growers, Migrant Workers, and the Changing Face of a Global Industry (Princeton University Press 2011).
Peter Benson expertly handles grounding his topic in a broader historical and political economic context, telling a rich story while avoiding – and expressly dismantling – the oversimplified narratives that permeate the themes he engages. He succeeds in his aim to situate a nuanced, sensitive account of the workers’ experiences within a critical analysis of broader structural forces, illuminating a range of political projects that shape the contemporary historical moment.
2011-2012 Honorable Mention: Hound Pound Narrative
James Waldram for the book Hound Pound Narrative: Sexual Offender Habilitation and the Anthropology of North America (University of California Press).
Taking seriously and, without romanticization, James Waldram attempts to understand the situations of a nearly universally reviled group – sexual offenders – and does it well. He dodges the pitfalls of conventional tropes around these topics, problematizing and disrupting a range of assumptions along the way while examining the production and roots of the numerous discourses discussed. The rich ethnographic detail makes this a compelling story.