Congratulations to the following UNP authors who were Nebraska Book Award Winners!

Winners will be honored at the Nebraska Celebration of Books (N.COB) literary festival on November 15 at the UNL City Campus Union. The awards ceremony will feature readings by some of the winning authors, designers, and illustrators of books with a Nebraska connection published in 2024.

History

Journey to Freedom: Uncovering the Grayson Sisters’ Escape from Nebraska Territory (Bison Books, 2024) by Gail Shaffer Blankenau.

Journey to Freedom provides the first detailed history of Black enslavement in Nebraska Territory and the escape of two enslaved Black women from Nebraska City. Poised on the “frontier,” the Graysons’ escape demonstrated that unique opportunities beckoned at the confluence of Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas, and their actions challenged slavery’s tentative expansion into the West and its eventual demise in an era of territorial fluidity. Their escape and the violence that followed prompted considerable debate across the country and led to the Nebraska legislature’s move to prohibit slavery.

Design

Creative Genius: The Art of the Nebraska Capitol (Bison Books, 2024) by Susanne Shore, Kevin Moser and Drew Davies

Few buildings reveal truths, inspire greatness, and narrate the creation of humanity. Creative Genius documents such a place. The Nebraska Capitol—once called “a peak in the history of building accomplishment”—breaks the boundaries of architecture and art. This book reveals the themes driving the art, chronicles the stories behind artists and their creations, and celebrates the beauty embodied in this influential building.

Nonfiction Nebraska as Place

The Nebraska Sandhills (Bison Books, 2024) edited by Monica Norby, Judy Diamond, Aaron Sutherlen, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Kim Hachiya, Doug Norby, and Michael Forsberg

The Nebraska Sandhills features nearly forty essays about the history, people, geography, geology, ecology, and conservation of the Nebraska Sandhills. Illustrated with hundreds of remarkable color photographs of the area, this is the most up-to-date and illuminating portrayal of this remarkable yet largely unknown region of the United States.