Great Plains Studies announces Distinguished Book Prize finalists

Lincoln, Neb., March 10, 2010 -- The Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has announced the finalists for this year's Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize.

The four books selected by a panel of judges are:

* "Dakota Philosopher: Charles Eastman and American Indian Thought" by David Martinez (Minnesota Historical Society Press);

* "Great Plains: America's Lingering Wild" by Michael Forsberg with Dan O'Brien, David Wishart, and Ted Kooser (University of Chicago Press);

* "North for the Harvest: Mexican Workers, Growers, and the Sugar Beet Industry" by Jim Norris (Minnesota Historical Society Press); and

* "Sex, Murder and the Unwritten Law: Courting Judicial Mayhem, Texas Style" by Bill Neal (Texas Tech University Press).

Martinez is assistant professor of American Indian studies at Arizona State University. He is an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community, and has published his research in Wicazo Sa Review, the Canadian Journal of Native Studies and the American Indian Quarterly. He is editing an anthology of historically important writings by American Indian writers.

Forsberg is a conservation photographer whose work has appeared in Audubon, National Geographic, National Wildlife and Natural History. In 2004, he was awarded a Conservation Education Award from The Wildlife Society. O'Brien is a South Dakota writer, wildlife biologist and rancher who is known for his book, "Buffalo for The Broken Heart." Wishart is professor of geography at UNL and the editor of "The Encyclopedia of the Great Plains." Kooser is a poet and essayist, Presidential Professor of English at UNL and served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2004-06.

Norris is associate professor of history at North Dakota State University. As a Latin-American historian, he has focused his research on the Spanish frontier in North America and Mexican migrant labor. He is also the author of "Bargaining for Beets: Migrants and Growers in the Red River Valley."

Neal is a retired trial lawyer who has capitalized on his 40 years in criminal law to write about early-day murder trials in Texas and the Oklahoma Territory. He received the Rupert N. Richardson award for two of his books, "From Guns to Gavels," and "Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier."

The winner of the $5,000 cash prize will be announced May 5. The author will be invited to travel to UNL to present a lecture on the topic of the book. Only first edition, full-length, nonfiction books published in 2009 were evaluated for the award. Nominations were made by publishers or authors, but no more than five titles by any one publisher could be submitted.

The Center for Great Plains Studies is an interdisciplinary, intercollegiate, regional research and teaching program chartered in 1976 by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Its mission is to promote a greater understanding of the people, culture, history, and environment of the Great Plains through a variety of research, teaching, and outreach programs.

For more information, contact the Center for Great Plains Studies at (402) 472-3082 or visit www.unl.edu/plains.