Category: Awards

2026 International Latino Book Award Winners

Posted on by Cameron Quan

October 8, 2026

We are pleased to share that four University of Arizona Press books have been selected as winners of the 2026 International Latino Book Awards!

The International Latino Book Awards recognize excellence in literature, honoring books written in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with the goal of “growing the awareness for books written by, for and about Latinos.”

See more about the winning books and their authors below.

Best Academic Themed Book, College Level (Gold Medal)

Book cover for The Rise of Necro/Narco Citizenship by Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez. A dark green and blue collage design features a border fence, silhouettes of rifles, scattered gold rectangles, and a circular black-and-white photo of two people.

The Rise of Necro/Narco Citizenship is not only a critical addition to the field of anthropology but also an invaluable resource for those interested in the sociopolitical landscape of the U.S.-Mexico border. Carlos G. Vélez-Ibáñez’s insights will resonate with scholars, students, and policymakers alike. This essential volume challenges us to rethink the narratives of violence, militarization, and resistance that define our understanding of the Southwest North American Region.

Best Arts Book (Silver Medal)

Minimalist book cover with a light gray beach background and a dark, irregular ring-shaped form centered on the page. The title “Scarred Landscapes” appears in large black letters, with the subtitle and author’s name, Stephanie Lewthwaite, below.

Scarred Landscapes is a groundbreaking exploration of the rich and complex works of Caribbean Latinx artists. Stephanie Lewthwaite explores how these artists practice “archipelagic memory,” a generative, decolonial, and coalitional form of memory work that envisions alternative modes of belonging. By connecting different people, pasts, and places, Caribbean Latinx artists expose the reverberations of trauma while imagining other worlds beyond it.

Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Book Award, One Author – Bilingual (Gold Medal)

Book cover featuring a surreal illustration of a human-like figure with an owl’s head, vine-covered limbs, and fruit growing from the body against a dark textured background. Flames rise along the bottom edge. The bilingual title appears in large white and olive-green block letters, with the author’s name, Manuel Iris, above.

In this highly imaginative work by Manuel Iris, the lives of the northern Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch and an imagined contemporary migrant worker known as Juan Domínguez, mirror each other across languages, time, and continents. By intertwining these two narratives, The Whole Earth Is a Garden of Monsters explores the idea that every human being represents all humanity at any moment in history.

Best Fiction Book Translation – Spanish to English (Bronze Medal)

Book cover with a black background filled with neon-outlined mushrooms. Small blue human figures are scattered among the mushroom stems and caps. The title “Carne de Dios” appears in large white serif letters at the center, with the author’s name, Homero Aridjis, and translator Chloe Garcia Roberts below.

Carne de Dios is a masterful and often humorous blend of history, myth, and poetic imagination, captured in a vivid translation by Chloe Garcia Roberts that mirrors the hallucinatory beauty of Aridjis’s original Spanish. Homero Aridjis’s intimate portrayal of María Sabina, informed by his personal connection to her, serves as both a tribute to her enduring legacy and a critical reflection on the wave of global interest in mushroom culture still gaining momentum today.

Congratulations to all!

Enrique C. Ochoa Receives AES Outstanding Book Award

Posted on by Cameron Quan

September 25, 2026

Please join us in celebrating the announcement from The Association for Ethnic Studies (AES) that Enrique C. Ochoa’s México Between Feast and Famine: Food, Corporate Power, and Inequality has been selected as the winner of the 2026 Outstanding Book Award. Congratulations, Enrique!

The AES states that the Outstanding Book Award is “the highest scholarly award bestowed by AES and recognizes excellence in scholarly and creative works in/or related to the field of ethnic studies.”

In México Between Feast and Famine, Enrique C. Ochoa unveils the historical and contemporary forces behind Mexico’s polarized food systems, providing one of the first comprehensive analyses of Mexico’s food systems and how they reflect the contradictions and inequalities at the heart of Mexico.

Learn more about the book:

Once again, congrats to Enrique on this achievement!

LASA Awards Honor Ochoa & López

Posted on by Cameron Quan

May 22, 2026

Please join us in celebrating two honors from the Latin American Studies Association’s (LASA) Mexico Section: Enrique C. Ochoa’s México Between Feast and Famine: Food, Corporate Power, and Inequality has been selected as the winner for the Mejor libro Ciencias Sociales (Best Social Sciences Book), and Rick A. López’s Rooted in Place: Botany, Indigeneity, and Art in the Construction of Mexican Nature, 1570–1914 was awarded an honorable mention for the Mejor libro Humanidades (Best Humanities Book). Congratulations to both authors!

About the books:

In México Between Feast and Famine, Enrique C. Ochoa unveils the historical and contemporary forces behind Mexico’s polarized food systems, providing one of the first comprehensive analyses of Mexico’s food systems and how they reflect the contradictions and inequalities at the heart of Mexico.

In Rooted in Place, historian Rick A. López explores the historical connections between political identities and the natural world. The book analyzes how scientific intellectuals laid claim to nature within Mexico, first on behalf of the Spanish Empire and then in the name of the republic, during three transformative moments, revealing how scientific endeavors were not just about cataloging flora but were deeply intertwined with the construction of identity and the political landscape at three pivotal moments in Mexican history.

Learn more about the books:

Once again, congrats to Enrique and Rick on these incredible achievements!

Amber McCrary Shortlisted for Reading the West Book Award

Posted on by Cameron Quan

May 1, 2026

Please join us in celebrating the news that Amber McCrary’s Blue Corn Tongue: Poems in the Mouth of the Desert has been shortlisted for a Reading the West Book Award in the Poetry category!

Being selected for the shortlist means that Blue Corn Tongue will be promoted extensively to the media, to over 350,000 bookstore customers, and to booksellers throughout the region.

You can help support Amber by voting for her book and sharing the news! Voting ends on May 31, so we encourage members of the public—poetry lovers, bibliophiles, friends, family, and colleagues—to vote now for Blue Corn Tongue on the Reading the West website.

About Blue Corn Tongue:

In a voice that is jubilant, irreverent, sometimes scouring, sometimes heartfelt, and always unmistakably her own, Amber McCrary remaps the deserts of Arizona through the blue corn story of a young Diné woman figuring out love and life with an O’odham man. Reflecting experiences of Indigenous joy, pain, and family, these shapeshifting poems celebrate the love between two Native partners, a love that flourishes alongside the traumas they face in the present and the past. From her ethereal connection with her saguaro muse, Hosh, to the intricate tapestry of her relationships with Diné relatives and her awakening to the complex world of toxic masculinity, McCrary brings together DIY zine aesthetics, life forms of juniper and mountains, and the beauty of Diné Bizaad to tell of the enduring bonds between people and place.

Blue Corn Tongue is part of the University of Arizona Press’s Sun Tracks Series. Launched in 1971, Sun Tracks was one of the first publishing programs to focus exclusively on the creative works of Native Americans. The series has included more than eighty volumes of poetry, prose, art, and photography by such distinguished artists as Joy Harjo, N. Scott Momaday, Simon J. Ortiz, Carter Revard, and Luci Tapahonso.

Congratulations to Amber!

Amanda Hernández Wins 2026 Ambroggio Prize

Posted on by Victoria Stapleton

April 1, 2026

The Academy of American Poets has announced that La única cosa importante / The Only Thing that Matters, written by Amanda Hernández and translated by Ana Portnoy Brimmer, was selected by poet and translator Aaron Coleman as the winner of the 2026 Ambroggio Prize. The Prize is given annually for a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation. The winners receive $1,000 and publication by the University of Arizona Press, a nationally recognized publisher of emerging and established voices in Latinx and Indigenous literature. This collection will be published in 2027. Previous winners include Manuel Iris; Octavio Quintanilla, author and co-translator with Natalia Treviño; Margarita Pintado Burgos, with translator Alejandra Quintana Arocho; and Elizabeth Torres.

Prize judge Aaron Coleman praised the collection’s “wild imagination fueling the courageous vulnerability and self-reflective voice of ‘The Only Thing that Matters,’” adding that it “dwells in the complexities of connection, the (unending) aftermaths of (neo)colonialism and how it has tried to scatter so many of us.”

Amanda Hernández is a Puerto Rican poet and editor based in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico. Her poetry collections include La distancia es un lugar (2020), Estrategias atómicas (2018), and Entre tanto amarillo (2016), all published by La Impresora. Hernandez’s poetry has been commissioned for musical works by the Puerto Rican composer Angélica Negrón, including pieces performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and presented as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series. In 2021, she was named an inaugural Letras Boricuas Fellow supported by the Flamboyán Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.

Ana Portnoy Brimmer is a poet, translator, and organizer from Puerto Rico. Her poetry debut, To Love an Island (2021), won YesYes Books’ 2019 Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest. Her Spanish-language collection Que tiemble was published by La Impresora in 2023 and later translated into French as Aimer une île (Editorial Pulpo, 2025). Portnoy Brimmer is a 2025 Letras Boricuas Fellow and a 2024 Hedgebrook Writer-in-Residence. She received a 2023 MASS MoCA fellowship for artists from Puerto Rico and was named one of Poets & Writers’ 2021 Debut Poets. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Latino Poetry: The Library of America Anthology (2024).

We are thrilled to be publishing this award-winning collection. Congratulations, Amanda and Ana!

2026 Southwest Books of the Year

Posted on by maryreynolds

February 15, 2026

Our art, non-fiction, memoir, and history books made the 2026 Southwest Books of the Year list! Each year, the Pima County Public Library releases this list, honoring “titles published during the calendar year that are about the Southwest, or are set in the Southwest.” Below, read about our books that were selected for 2026, and visit the Pima County Public Library website to see the full list.

Art & Photography Top Pick

Book cover for Mac Schweitzer by Anne Lane Hedlund

Mac Schweitzer: A Southwest Maverick and her Art and by Ann Lane Hedlund is a stylishly illustrated book that resurrects the creative legacy of Mary Alice “Mac” Cox Schweitzer. Hedlund draws from the artist’s letters, photo albums, and published reviews to tell the story of Mac’s creative and adventuresome life. Her watercolors, oil paintings, prints, and sculptures—a diverse body of work never before seen in public—range from naturalistic studies of Sonoran Desert animals to impressionistic landscapes to moody abstractions. A sharp observer of Indigenous life, she sketched and painted scenes of Navajo (Diné), Hopi, O’odham, and Yaqui people and events. These unique portrayals of the Southwest illustrate this saga of a maverick artist rediscovered.

Memoir Top Pick

book cover for A Chance to Make a Difference by John P. Schaefer

Author John P. Schaefer was only thirty-six years old when he assumed the role of fifteenth president of the University of Arizona in 1971. The son of hardworking German immigrants, Schaefer grew up in Queens, New York, where childhood centered on sports, academics, and the great outdoors. As president, he led the University of Arizona through a transformational period of growth and is credited with securing the university’s status as a top-tier research institution. A Chance to Make a Difference recounts poignant, eye-opening, and often humorous stories from childhood to presidency, revealing the characteristics of an inspiring university leader.

History Pick

Book cover for "The Hohokam and Their World" by Linda Gregonis and Victoria Evans. A desert landscape with sun rising behind mountains and Hohokam iconography faintly visible superimposed onto the sky.

The Hohokam and Their World: An Exploration of Art and Iconography offers readers the opportunity to explore how these various images and objects may have been used by the Hohokam, and what the icons and objects may have meant, including how the Hohokam conveyed ideas about water, the Sonoran Desert, the ocean, travel, ancestors, and the cosmos. In this beautifully illustrated book, authors Linda M. Gregonis and Victoria Riley Evans show how Hohokam people live on in art as well as oral histories, songs, poems, and stories, leaving enduring symbols and icons. Whether you’re planning a visit to national parks or museums in the Southwest or simply intrigued by ancient civilizations, The Hohokam and Their World is a must-read.

Non-Fiction Pick

book cover for Arizona Friend Trips by Lisa Schnebly Heidinger and Julie Morrison

In Arizona Friend Trips, Lisa Schnebly Heidinger and Julie Morrison invite readers to explore the state’s most cherished places through a blend of poetry, prose, and photography. From the iconic landmarks to hidden gems, each chapter of this captivating travelogue provides a rich tapestry of historical insight, personal anecdotes, and emotional reflections, painting a vivid portrait of Arizona’s diverse landscapes and vibrant culture. Be part of this unique journey as Lisa and Julie embark on an unforgettable adventure, filled with laughter, nostalgia, and a deep appreciation for the beauty of the Grand Canyon State.

Congratulations to all!

Kimberly Blaeser Wins National Book Foundation Prize

Posted on by maryreynolds

January 21, 2026

The National Book Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation today announced with The Associated Press that Ancient Light by Kimberly Blaeser is a 2026 Science +Literature selected title. Ancient Light is a poetry collection that uses lyric, narrative, and concrete poems to give voice to some of the most pressing ecological and social issues of our time. The Science + Literature program identifies three books annually that deepen readers’ understanding of science and technology, across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Blaeser is the author of six poetry collections and served as Wisconsin Poet Laureate from 2015–16. An Anishinaabe activist and environmentalist, Blaeser is an enrolled member of White Earth Nation, an MFA faculty member for Institute of American Indian Arts, and professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She also mentors Indigenous poets through Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po), an organization she founded in 2020. She

The Foundation’s announcement notes: “This year’s honored titles—all authored by women—include a poetry collection, memoir, and novel preoccupied with the past, present, and future of the natural world. In her latest poetry collection Ancient Light, Kimberly Blaeser reclaims Indigenous stories and knowledge, while reckoning with ongoing environmental destruction and violence against Native communities. Mycologist Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian connects the binary-defying study of eels, slugs, and fungi to her personal identity formation as a queer, neurodivergent scientist in her debut nonfiction book Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature. In the novel Bog Queen, a forensic anthropologist investigates the discovery of a 2,000-year-old Celtic druid, and author Anna North contends with the history of Celtic Europe alongside the environmental realities of contemporary England.”

Authors receive a $10,000 cash prize, are celebrated at a public ceremony in March, and are featured in associated national public programming. The National Book Foundation ceremony will be held on March 11, 2026, at The Cooper Union in New York City.

Congratulations, Kimberly!

Manuel Iris Featured on Lit Hub

Posted on by maryreynolds

January 14, 2026

Literary Hub named The Whole Earth Is a Garden of Monsters | Toda la tierra es un jardín de monstruos as one of the most anticipated poetry collections for 2026. Written by Manuel Iris and co-translated by Iris and Kevin McHugh, this winner of The Academy of American Poets’ Ambroggio Prize will be published in February 2026. Literary Hub’s Rebecca Morgan Frank wrote, “Iris’ collections in Spanish have garnered awards in Mexico, while his more recent turn to bilingual collections has resulted in honors from the Latino Book Awards and the Ohioana Book Awards.”

Manuel Iris is a Mexican-born American poet based in Ohio. He holds a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from the University of Cincinnati. The former Poet Laureate of Cincinnati, Iris currently serves as Writer-in-Residence for the Hamilton County Public Library; is Writer-in-Residence at Thomas More University; and is a member of Mexico’s National System of Art Creators. Kevin McHugh is a translator, poet, and editor with over thirty years of experience in writing and teaching. He holds an MA in English from the University of Windsor, specializing in Irish literature.

Congratulations Manuel and Kevin!

About the book:

This Ambroggio prize-winning bilingual collection intertwines the lives of a Renaissance painter and a modern migrant worker, offering a fresh perspective on art and migration. In this highly imaginative work, the lives of the northern Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516) and an imagined contemporary migrant worker named Juan Coyoc, later known as Juan Domínguez, run in parallel as they mirror each other across languages, time, and continents.

By comparing and at times intertwining these two poetic narratives, the book explores themes of art, migration, narco-violence, family, spirituality, and the idea that every human being represents all humanity at any moment in history. Both Hieronymus Bosch and Juan Domínguez become relatable and intimate figures, part of our own story.

Sarah Hernandez Receives Grant to Highlight Oceti Sakowin Literary Traditions

Posted on by maryreynolds

November 14, 2025

Sarah Hernandez, author of We Are the Stars: Colonizing and Decolonizing the Oceti Sakowin Literary Tradition received $150,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Indigenous Knowledge Initiative to publish The Oceti Sakowin Reader: An Anthology of Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota Literature. Hernandez is a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota Oyate; her scholarship and teaching emphasize Native/Indigenous literature, literary criticism, and community-engaged research.

The Oceti Sakowin Reader will expand on these efforts to make Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota literary traditions more accessible to students and educators. “This anthology will help increase access to our vibrant literary tradition so that tribal students can see themselves and their communities positively reflected in their classrooms and textbooks,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez will lead the two-year project in partnership with the Oceti Sakowin Writers Society (OSWS), which will serve as the project’s fiscal sponsor. Inspired by The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature (2019), this anthology will be the first to bring together Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota voices in a single volume. Funding from the Luce Foundation will support editorial development, community-based research, podcast production, and educational materials, ensuring the anthology preserves and shares Oceti Sakowin literature for generations.

Congratulations, Sarah!

2025 International Latino Book Award Winners

Posted on by Cameron Quan

November 7, 2025

We are pleased to share that four University of Arizona Press books were selected as winners and recently honored at the 2025 International Latino Book Awards in Los Angeles!

The International Latino Book Awards recognize excellence in literature, honoring books written in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, with the goal of “growing the awareness for books written by, for and about Latinos.”

See more about the winning books and their authors below.

Best Academic Themed Book, College Level – English (Gold Medal), Best Women’s Issues Book (Silver Medal), & Best Latina Themed Book (Silver Medal)

Founded in 1997, Mujeres de Maiz (MdM) is an Indigenous Xicana–led spiritual artivist organization and movement by and for women and feminists of color. Chronicling its quarter-century-long herstory, editors Amber Rose González, Felicia ‘Fe’ Montes, and Nadia Zepeda collect diverse stories with attention to their larger sociopolitical contexts. Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento: Spiritual Artivism, Healing Justice, and Feminist Praxis crosses conventional genre boundaries through the inclusion of poetry, visual art, testimonios, and essays.

Victor Villaseñor Best Latino Focused Nonfiction Book Award (Gold Medal)

A haunting, an obsession, a calling: Tim Z. Hernandez has been searching for people his whole life. Now, in this highly anticipated memoir, he takes us along on an investigative odyssey through personal and collective history to uncover the surprising conjunctions that bind our stories together. They Call You Back is the true chronicle of one man’s obsession to restore dignity to an undignified chapter in America’s past, while at the same time making a case for why we must heal our personal wounds if we are ever to heal our political ones.

Best Women’s Issues Book (Gold Medal)

Frontera Madre(hood) explores how the topic of mothers and mothering transcends all spaces, from popular culture to intellectual thought and critique. Editors Cynthia Bejarano and Maria Cristina Morales bring together this collection of essays that bridge both methodological and theoretical frameworks to explore forms of mothering that challenge hegemonic understandings of parenting and traditional notions of Latinx womxnhood. This book articulates the collective experiences of Latinx, Black, and Indigenous mothering from both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Best Academic Themed Book, College Level – English (Silver Medal)

Rafael A. Martínez, an undocu-scholar, intricately weaves his lived experience into this deeply insightful exploration. Martínez’s interdisciplinary approach will engage scholars and readers alike, resonating with disciplines such as history, American studies, Chicana and Chicano studies, and borderlands studies. Illegalized shows that undocumented youth and their activism represent a disruption to the social imaginary of the U.S. nation-state and its figurative and physical borders. It invites readers to explore how undocumented youth activists changed the way immigrant rights are discussed in the United States today.

Congratulations to all!

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