Book Prizes
The Kempner Family Book Prizes
awarded by the Philosophical Society of Texas
The Philosophical Society of Texas awards The Kempner Family Book Prizes annually in three categories, each with a $2,500 prize: one for a work of fiction, one for a nonfiction book, and one for a volume of poetry. The winning authors are invited to attend the Annual Meeting to receive the awards and sign books. Judges may withhold the prizes and/or name honorable mentions at their discretion.
See the press release announcing the winners of the most recent prizes (for books published in 2024) here.
The deadline for submissions for the Society's 2026 Prizes (for books published in 2025) is May 31, 2026.
Submission guidelines are here. Please contact Society staff with questions.
Nonfiction Prize Winners
|
Publication Date |
Title |
Author |
Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Winner - The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History | Karen Valby | Blackstone Publishing |
| 2024 | Honorable Mention - The Lost War for Texas: Mexican Rebels, American Burrites, and the Texas Revolution of 1811 | James Aalen Bernsen | Texas A&M University Press |
| 2024 | Honorable Mention - Making the Unknown Known: Women in Early Texas Art, 1860s-1960s | Victoria H. Cummins and Light T. Cummins | Texas A&M University Press |
| 2023 | Winner - Texas Lithographs, A Century of History in Images | Ron Tyler | University of Texas Press |
| 2023 | Honorable Mention - Texas State Parks: The First 100 Years 1923-2023 | George Bristol | TCU Press |
| 2023 | Honorable Mention - Before Lawrence v. Texas: The Making of a Queer Social Movement | Wesley G. Phelps | University of Texas Press |
|
2022 |
Winner - Unsettled Land: From Revolution to Republic, the Struggle for Texas |
Sam W. Haynes |
Basic Books |
|
2022 |
Honorable Mention - Brackenridge: San Antonio’s Acclaimed Urban Park |
Lewis F. Fisher |
Trinity University Press |
|
2021 |
Winner - Inside the Texas Revolution: The Enigmatic Memoir of Herman Ehrenberg |
James E. Crisp |
Texas State Historical Association |
|
2021 |
Honorable Mention - With the Bark Off: A Journalist's Memories of LBJ and a Life in the News Media |
Neal Spelce with Thomas Zigal |
University of Chicago Press |
|
2020 |
Winner - The People's Revolt: Texas Populists and the Roots of American Liberalism |
Gregg Cantrell |
Yale University Press |
|
2020 |
Honorable Mention - George T. Ruby: Champion of Equal Rights in Reconstruction Texas |
Carl H. Moneyhon |
Texas Christian University Press |
| 2019 | Winner - Big Wonderful Thing | Stephen Harrigan | University of Texas Press |
| 2018 | Winner - Seasons at Selah: The Legacy of Bamberger Ranch Preserve | Andrew Sansom | Texas A&M University Press |
| 2017 | Winner - Of Texas Rivers and Texas Art | Andrew Sansom | Texas A&M University Press |
| 2016 | Winner - The Material Culture of German Texans | Kenneth Hafertepe | Texas A&M University Press |
| 2016 | Honorable Mention - The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail, 1858 to 1861 | Glen Sample Ely | University of Oklahoma Press |
| 2016 | Honorable Mention - The Texas Landscape Project: Nature and People | David Todd and Jonathan Ogren | Texas A&M University Press |
Fiction Prize Winners
| Publication Date | Title | Author | Publisher |
| 2025 | Winner - The Border Between Us | Rudy Ruiz | Blackstone Publishing |
| 2025 | Honorable Mention - Sarita | Natalie Musgrave Dossett | Atmosphere Press |
| 2025 | Honorable Mention - We Burn Daylight | Bret Anthony Johnston | Random House |
| 2024 | Winner - The Madstone | Elizabeth Crook | Little, Brown |
| 2024 | Honorable Mention - Holler, Child | LaToya Watkins | Little Reparations Books |
| 2023 | Winner - The Leopard is Loose | Stephen Harrigan | Knopf |
| 2023 | Honorable Mention - More Than You’ll Ever Know | Katie Gutierrez | William Morrow |
| 2023 | Honorable Mention - Nobody's Pilgrims | Sergio Troncoso | Lee & Low Books: Cinco Puntos Press |
| 2022 | Winner - The Song Leader | Jan Reid | Texas Christian University Press |
| 2021 | Winner - Simon the Fiddler | Paulette Jiles | William Morrow |
| 2021 | Honorable Mention - The End of October | Lawrence G. Wright | Knopf |
| 2021 | Honorable Mention - Valentine | Elizabeth Wetmore | Harper |
| 2020 | Winner - Dragonfly | Leila Meacham | Grand Central Publishing |
Poetry Prize Winners
| Publication Date | Title | Author | Publisher |
| 2025 | Winner - Pollen, Salt and Chimes | Kurt Heinzelman | Pinyon Publishing |
| 2024 | Winner - Suggest Paradise | Ray Gonzalez | University of New Mexico Press |
| 2023 | Winner - Anchor | Rebecca Aronson | Orison Books |
| 2022 | Winner - Speaking with Grackles by Soapberry Trees | César Leonardo de Leon | Flowersong Press |
| 2022 | Honorable Mention - Welcome to Midland | Logen Cure | Deep Vellum Publishing |
| 2021 | Winner - Improvisation Without Accompaniment | Matt Morton | BOA Editions |
| 2021 | Honorable Mention - Maps of Injury | Chera Hammons | Sundress Publlications |
| 2020 | Winner - JazzHouse | Eduard Vidaurre | Prickly Pear Publishing |
| 2018 | Winner - Girldom | Megan Peak | Perugia Press |
| 2016 | Winner - Barbarossa | Jonathon Fink | Dzanc Books |
| 2015 | Winner - New and Selcted Poems | James Hoggard | Texas Christian University Press |
| 2014 (Inaugural Prize) | Winner - Once in the West | Christian Wiman | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |