Author Awards

The Alliance joins with the History & Preservation Section of the New Jersey Library Association, Rutgers University Press, and Special Collections and University Archives of Rutgers University Libraries, to present annual awards to authors who have published recently on a topic about New Jersey. Committee members include: John Beekman, Regina Fitzpatrick, Laura Poll, Caryn Radick and Deborah Mercer, chair, along with a scholar appointed by the New Jersey Historical Commission

Criteria and rules for submission for the Author Awards may be found here.

Past recipients of the Author Awards are:

2021

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

The Princeton Fugitive Slave : The Trials of James Collins Johnson by Lolita Buckner Inniss (Fordham University Press, 2019)

Non-fiction Popular Category:

Beneath the Surface: Understanding Nature in the Mullica Valley Estuary by Kenneth Able (Rutgers University Press, 2020)

Edited Works:

A Mayor for all the People: Kenneth Gibson’s Newark by Robert Holmes & Richard Roper (Rutgers University Press, 2019)

2020

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

Beyond the City and the Bridge: East Asian Immigration in a New Jersey Suburb by Noriko Matsumoto (Rutgers University Press, 2018)

Non-fiction Popular Category:

The Franklin Park Tragedy: A Forgotten Story of Racial Injustice in New Jersey by Brian Armstrong (The History Press, 2019)

2019

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

Gigantino, James. William Livingston's American Revolution, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018

Non-fiction Popular Category:

Buck, Elaine & Beverly Mills. If These Stones Could Talk: African American Presence in the Hopewell Valley, Sourland Mountain, and Surrounding Regions of New Jersey. Lambertville, N.J.: Wild River Books, 2018

2018

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

Adams, Betty Livingston. Black Women's Christian Activism: Seeking Social Justice in a Northern Suburb, New York, NY: NYU Press, 2016

Non-fiction Popular Category:

Watterson, Kathryn. I Hear My People Singing: Voices of African American Princeton, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017

Reference category:

Felcone, Joe. The Printed Assembly Minutes & Laws of New Jersey 1703-1732: A Bibliographical Study, Princeton, NJ: Felcone, 2016

2017

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle by Garry Wheeler Stone (and Mark Edward Lender)

Non-fiction Popular Category:

Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital by Christina Mathews, Rusty Tagliareni and Robert Kirkbride

Reference category:

Envisioning New Jersey: An Illustrated History of the Garden State by Maxine N. Lurie and Richard F. Veit

2016

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

Molly Makris. Public Housing and School Choice in a Gentrified City: Youth Experiences of Uneven Opportunity, New York (NY): Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Non-fiction Popular Category:

Dale Russakoff. The Prize: Who’s In Charge of America’s Schools? Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt 2015.

Reference category:

Joseph R. Klett. Understanding New Jersey’s Geography in the Proprietary Period, Trenton (NJ): Genealogical Society of New Jersey, 2014.

Edited works category:

James J. Gigantino II (ed). The American Revolution in New Jersey: Where the Battlefront Meets the Home Front, New Brunswick (NJ): Rutgers University Press, 2015

2015

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

James J. Gigantino II. The Ragged Road to Abolition Slavery and Freedom in New Jersey, 1775-1865 (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014).

Non-fiction Popular Category:

Joseph A. Grabas. Owning New Jersey : historic tales of war, property disputes & the pursuit of happiness (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2014).

Reference category:

John M. Delaney. Nova Caesarea : a cartographic record of the Garden State 1666-1888 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Library, 2014).

2014

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

Walter D. Greason. Suburban Erasure: How the Suburbs Ended the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey (Madison, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, 2013).

Non-fiction Popular Category:

Leonard DeGraaf. Edison and the Rise of Innovation (New York: Sterling Publishing, 2013).

2013

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

Holly Metz. Killing the Poormaster: A Saga of Poverty, Corruption, and Murder in the Great Depression (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2012).

Non-fiction Popular Category:

John Whiteclay Chambers II. Cranbury: A New Jersey Town from the Colonial Era to the Present (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rivergate Books, 2012).

Edited works category:

Maxine N. Lurie and Richard Veit, eds. New Jersey: A History of the Garden State (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2012).

Reference category:

David Martin. New Jersey at Gettysburg Guidebook (Wood-Ridge, N.J.: New Jersey Civil War 150th Anniversary Committee, 2012).

Reproduction of primary sources category:

Joseph J. Felcone. Portrait of Place: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints of New Jersey, 1760-1898 (Princeton, N.J.: Morven Museum & Garden, 2012).

2012

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

McCabe, Thomas A. Miracle on High Street: the Rise, Fall and Resurrection of St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J. (Bronx, N.Y.: Fordham University Press, 2010, 2011).

Non-fiction popular category:

Zink, Clifford W. The Roebling Legacy (Princeton: Princeton Landmark Publications, 2011).

Edited works category:

Lurie, Maxine N. New Jersey Anthology, 2nd ed. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rivergate Press, Rutgers University Press, 2010).

Reference category:

Sinclair, Donald, comp. and David Fowler, ed. Railroads and New Jersey: A Bibliography of Contemporary Publications, 1812-1901 (New Brunswick: Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries, 2011).

2011

Non-fiction Scholarly Category:

Ezra Shales. Made in Newark: Cultivating Industrial Arts and Civic Identity in the Progressive Era (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2010).

Non-fiction Popular Category:

Michael S. Adelberg. The American Revolution in Monmouth County: The Theatre of Spoil and Destruction (Charleston, S.C.: History Press, 2010).

Non-fiction Reference Category:

Joseph G. Bilby, ed. New Jersey Goes to War: Biographies of 150 New Jerseyans Caught up in the Struggle of the Civil War (Hightstown, N.J.: Longstreet House, 2010).

Fiction and Poetry Category:

Irene Fleming. The Edge of Ruin, Emily Weiss Mystery ed. (New York, N.Y. : Minotaur Books, Macmillan, 2010).

2010

Reference Category:

Lurie, Maxine N. and Peter O. Wacker, eds., and Michael Siegel. Mapping New Jersey: an Evolving Landscape (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rivergate Books/Rutgers University Press, 2009).

Non-Fiction, Scholarly Category:

Sidorick, Daniel. Condensed Capitalism: Campbell Soup and the Pursuit of Cheap Production in the Twentieth Century (Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press/Cornell University Press, 2009).

and

Veit, Richard F. and Mark Nonestied. New Jersey Cemeteries and Tombstones: History in the Landscape (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rivergate Books/Rutgers University Press, 2008).

Non-fiction, Popular Category:

Mappen, Marc. There's More to New Jersey than the Sopranos (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rivergate Books/Rutgers University Press, 2009).

Reproduction of Primary Resources Category:

Gossen, Anne. Princeton 1783: the Nation's Capital (Princeton, N.J.: Morven Museum and Garden, 2009).

Fiction and Poetry Category:

Yampolsky, J. Louis. A Boardwalk Story (Plexus Publishing, 2009).

2009

Non-Fiction, Scholarly Category:

John Fea. The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).

Non-Fiction Popular Category:

Michael Aaron Rockland. The George Washington Bridge: Poetry in Steel (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rivergate Books, 2008).

2008

Frank A. Curcio. Hunterdon County's Forgotten Lime Industry : a Working Guide (Flemington, N.J.: Hunterton County Cultural & Heritage Commission, 2006).

Alan M. Kraut and Deborah A. Kraut. Covenent of Care : Newark Beth Israel and the Jewish Hospital in America (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2007).

Deborah Yaffe. Other People's Children : the Battle for Justice and Equality in New Jersey's Schools (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2007).

2007

Sora Friedman. No Place Like Home : the Founding and Transformation of the New Deal Town of Jersey Homesteads, New Jersey (Doctoral disseration, George Mason University, 2005). [Available via ProQuest Dissertations & Theses]

2006

Howard Gillette, Jr. Camden After the Fall : Decline and Renewal in a Post-industrial City (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).

2005

Dermot Quinn. The Irish in New Jersey : Four Centuries of American Life (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004).

Helen-Chantal Pike. Asbury Park's Glory Days : the Story of an American Resort (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2005).

2004

Jennifer Gillan, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, and Edvige Giunta, eds. Italian American writers on New Jersey : an Anthology of Poetry and Prose (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2003).

S. Mitra Kalita. Suburban Sahibs : Three Immigrant Families and Their Passage From India to America (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2003).

Kevin Coyne. Marching Home : to War and Back with the Men of One American Town (New York: Viking/Penguin, 2003).

Lloyd Gardner. The Case that Never Dies : the Lindbergh Kidnapping (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004).

Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen, eds. Encyclopedia of New Jersey (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2004).

2003

Richard Veit. Digging New Jersey's Past : Historical Archaeology in the Garden State (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2002).

Lucy Rosenfeld and Marina Harrison. A Guide to Green New Jersey : Nature Walks in the Garden State (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2003).

2002

Delight Dodyk, ed. The Diary of Sarah Tabitha Reid, 1868-1873 (Freehold, N.J.: Monmouth County Historical Association, 2001).

Helen-Chantal Pike. Greetings from New Jersey : a Postcard Tour of the Garden State (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2001).

2001

Firth Fabend. Zion on the Hudson : Dutch New York and New Jersey in the Age of Revivals (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2000).

Paul Wice. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and the American Justice System (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2000).

Merce Ridgeway. The Bayman : a Life on Barnegat Bay (Harvey Cedars, N.J.: Down the Shore Publishers, 2000).

2000

Mark Di Ionno. A Guide to New Jersey's Revolutionary War Trail : for Families and History Buffs (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2000).

Michael Immerso. Newark's Little Italy : the Vanished First Ward (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1997).

Meredith Bzdak and Douglas Peterson. Public Sculpture in New Jersey : Monuments to Collective Identity (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1999).

Troy Messenger. Holy Leisure : Recreation and Religion in God's Square Mile (Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1999).

Penelope Scambly Schott. Penelope : the Story of the Half-scalped Woman : a Narrative Poem (Gainsville : University Press of Florida, 1999).

1999

Donald Sinclair. Education and Schools in New Jersey Before 1900 : a Guide to Pertinent Resources in the Rutgers University Special Collection and University Archives (New Brunswick, N.J.: Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University, 1998).

1998

Mark Di Ionno. New Jersey's Coastal Heritage : a Guide (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1997).

1997

Joanna Burger. A Naturalist Along the Jersey Shore (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1996).

1996

Michael Rockland. Snowshoeing Through Sewers : Adventures in New York City, New Jersey, and Philadelphia (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994).