Utah Book Award: Nonfiction

The Utah Book Award began in 1999 and is awarded each year by the Utah Humanities Council. Categories for the award (although not consistent each year) include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, children, and young adult.

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25th Street Confidential: Drama, Decadence, and Dissipation Along Ogden’s Rowdiest Road
Artist/Author/Cast:
Holley, Val
Call Number:
979.228 H7384t 2013
Description:

(2012/2013) From criminal hotspot to tourist destination, this title details the rich history of one of Utah’s most notorious streets.

An Accidental Soldier: Memoirs of a Mestizo in Vietnam
Artist/Author/Cast:
Garcia, Manny
Call Number:
959.704342 G2166a 2003
Description:
(2003) This memoir shares the author’s experiences in the Vietnam War, as well as the stories of the men with whom he served.
The Anthropology of Turquoise: Meditations on Landscape, Art, and Spirit
Artist/Author/Cast:
Meloy, Ellen
Call Number:
917.90433 M5288a
Description:

(2002) The author, an artist and naturalist, explores the relationship that turquoise, both the color and the gem, has had with human and natural history.

Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America
Artist/Author/Cast:
Trimble, Stephen
Call Number:
333.73 T831 2008
Description:

(2008) The author, a self-proclaimed environmentalist with experience in landownership and development, examines the battle over public lands in the West.

Comb Ridge and Its People: The Ethnohistory of a Rock
Artist/Author/Cast:
McPherson, Robert S.
Call Number:
979.259 M1726c 2009
Description:
(2009) This title studies the historical, cultural, and spiritual role that the Comb Ridge has had in Utah and the West.
Dave Rust: A Life in the Canyons
Artist/Author/Cast:
Swanson, Frederick H.; Anderson, Michael F. (Foreword by)
Call Number:
92 Rust 2007
Description:
(2007) The life of Dave Rust, a backcountry guide in Utah and Arizona’s Colorado Plateau area, is examined in this biographical title.
Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild
Artist/Author/Cast:
Meloy, Ellen
Call Number:
599.6497 M5288e 2005
Description:

(2005) In this exploration of Utah’s Southwestern bighorn sheep population, the author and naturalist also comments on the dwindling relationship between humans and nature.

FINDING ABBEY: THE SEARCH FOR EDWARD ABBEY AND HIS HIDDEN DESERT GRAVE
Artist/Author/Cast:
Prentiss, Sean
Call Number:
813.54 P9274f 2015
Description:

(2016) Author Sean Prentiss details his search for the hidden gravesite of environmentalist and writer Edward Abbey, the “Thoreau of the West.”

France Davis : An American Story Told
Artist/Author/Cast:
Davis, France A.; Atiya, Nayra
Call Number:
92 Davis 2007
Description:
(2006) France Davis tell the story of his journey from the segregated South to Salt Lake City and the Calvary Baptist Church.
Heart of the Desert Wild: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Call Number:
917.82 C5242h 2000
Description:

(2001) The history and unique biology of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is researched in this title, supplemented with panoramic photographs.

Leap
Artist/Author/Cast:
Williams, Terry Tempest
Call Number:
M241.2 W7273L
Description:

(2000) The author explores Hieronymus Bosch’s fifteenth-century triptych painting and examines the relationship between its unique imagery with the development of contemporary society.

The Salt Lake City 14th Ward Album Quilt, 1857: Stories of the Relief Society Women and Their Quilt
Artist/Author/Cast:
Nielson, Carol Holindrake
Call Number:
M257.2 N6697s 2004
Description:
(2004) When the author inherits part of an 1857 quilt, she is driven to find the other half and share the stories of the LDS women who created it.
Traces of Fremont: Society and Rock Art in Ancient Utah
Artist/Author/Cast:
Simms, Steven R. (Text by); Gohier, Francois (Photographer)
Call Number:
979.201 S5928t 2010
Description:
(2010) The Fremont culture, which existed from 300-1300 A.D., is explored in this title with photographs and historical evidence that illustrate this complex society.
THE YEAR OF LIVING VIRTUOUSLY: WEEKENDS OFF
Artist/Author/Cast:
Jordan, Teresa
Call Number:
179.9 J8247y 2014
Description:

(2015) Writer and visual artist Teresa Jordan describes her journey as she attempts to live her weekday life according to Benjamin Franklin’s idea of moral perfection.