Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Summer 2012
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 32:3 (Summer 2012).
Abstract
Selecting a single book to win a prize is a tremendous challenge. There can be something unsatisfying about ranking creative scholarly works knowing there is no such thing as a sole "best" book in a group of quality titles. And yet, each year that I've been a part of the Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize committee, it has happened relatively easily: a book is chosen as the prize winner. The ease does not emerge from a casual attitude toward the selection. On the contrary, the many people involved with choosing the Book Prize winner take it very seriously. I also know that the ease does not come from a lack of quality books to choose from, as each year there are numerous terrific submissions that get very serious consideration for the prize. No, I think the selection of the prize-winning book has been fairly straightforward during my tenure on the committee because of both the thoughtful, systematic process by which the books are chosen and the collegiality of the committee members and their subcommittees of readers.
Comments
Copyright © 2012 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.