Great Plains Studies announces Distinguished Book Prize finalists

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:

* "Bad Land Pastoralism in Great Plains Fiction" by Matthew J. C. Cella (University of Iowa Press);

* "Bloodshed at Little Bighorn: Sitting Bull, Custer, and the Destinies of Nations" by Tim Lehman (The Johns Hopkins University Press);

* "Frontier Feminist: Clarina Howard Nichols and the Politics of Motherhood" by Marilyn S. Blackwell and Kristen T. Oertel (University Press of Kansas); and

* "Hancock's War: Conflict on the Southern Plains" by William Y. Chalfant with foreword by Jerome A. Greene (The Arthur H. Clark Co., an imprint of the University of Oklahoma Press).

Cella is assistant professor of English at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. The book is an extension of Cella's doctoral research, which he completed at the University of Connecticut in 2007. His first exposure to the subject matter of the book came from reading a book about Nebraska. He has been both managing editor and book review editor for MELUS, the journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States.

Lehman is professor of history and political science at Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Mont. "I decided to write the book after years of fielding students' questions from an honors class my colleague, Dr. Ron Cochran, and I taught," he said. "But I wanted to write from a perspective that included Native American voices not typically included in the story." Lehman is also the author of "Public Values, Private Lands: Federal Farmland Protection Policy, 1933-1985."

Blackwell is an independent scholar who has published widely on women's and Vermont history. Oertel is Mary Frances Barnard associate professor in 19th-century American history at the University of Tulsa and the author of "Bleeding Borders: Race, Gender, and Violence in Pre-Civil War Kansas." In their comprehensive portrait of Nichols, Blackwell and Oertel uncover the story of a complex woman while providing a window on presuffrage political engagement and the creation of public womanhood in the 19th century.

Chalfant was a practicing attorney in Hutchinson, Kan., and the author of several books, including "Cheyennes and Horse Soldiers: The 1857 Expedition and the Battle of Solomon's Fork." Greene is retired as a Research Historian for the National Park Service and is the author of many books, including "Washita: The U.S. Army and the Southern Cheyennes, 1867-1869."

The winner of the $5,000 cash prize will be announced May 4. 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 as copyrighted in 2010 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 its website.