BSA John D. Bell Book Prize

The BSA is accepting nominations at this time for the annual John D. Bell Memorial Book Prize. This non-monetary award is established for the most outstanding recent scholarly book within any area of Bulgarian studies. The author of the winning book receives a BSA award certificate, and a notification letter is sent by the BSA to the book's publisher. The award announcement is made at the BSA Annual meeting and is then posted on the BSA webpage. The BSA also sends an announcement of the winning book to the AAASS NewsNet, the AATSEEL Newsletter where appropriate, and any other relevant newsletters.

The BSA is now accepting nominations for the 2013 John D. Bell Memorial Book Prize, for the most outstanding scholarly book within any area of Bulgarian studies published between 2011 and 2013. Books published anywhere in the world and in any language are eliglbe, and nominated authors do not need to be BSA members. Self-nominations are also acceptable. The deadline for submitting nominations is OCTOBER 1, 2013. If you would like to serve on the book prize committee, please contact Cynthia Vakareliyska and indicate in the e-mail your area(s) of expertise.

BSA Book Prize Awards

2012

The Bulgarian Studies Association has awarded the 2012 John D. Bell Memorial Book Prize to Gerald W. Greed for his book Masquerade and Postsocialism: Ritual and Cultural Dispossession in Bulgaria (Indiana University Press, 2011). In its arguments, the Book Prize Committee states: "[This] is a highly interesting and illuminating socio-anthropological study of the well-known Bulgarian kukeri mumming tradition as it is practiced in various regions of postsocialist rural Bulgaria, where it is alive and well, albeit somewhat changed to accommodate current conditions and outlooks. The book examines mumming in its current adaptations across a wide range of villages for what it shows about current gender and sexuality issues for Bulgarian men in these locations, the understanding of civil society and democracy, nationalism, and the complex relationship between rural Bulgarians and their Roma neighbors. As such, it is a very important contribution to several fields: ethnography, sociology, ethnic studies, and politics [as well as] a fascinating read."

2010

Victor A. Friedman (editor and translator), Christina E. Kramer, Grace E. Fielder and Catherine Rudin (translators), Bai Ganyo: Incredible Tales of a Modern Bulgarian. University of Wisconsin Press, 2010.
In announcing its decision, the BSA book prize committee wrote: 'As evidence of the high praise this book is already garnering, the following is an excerpt from a review written by Christo Stamenov of Sofia University that will appear in the 2011 volume of Balkanistica: "Aleko Konstantinov, Bai Ganyo. Incredible Tales of a Modern Bulgarian is a major contribution to the presentation of Bulgarian literature to the English-speaking world at large. It is a successful attempt to make an important Balkan/Bulgarian text available in English despite the considerable difficulties which face the translator. It is also an example of fine editorial work."'

Victor A. Friedman and Christina E. Kramer

2009

Cynthia M. Vareliyska, The Curzon Gospel. Vol. I: An Annotated Edition. Vol. II: A Linguistic and Textual Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

2001

Ronelle Alexander, Intensive Bulgarian: A Textbook and Reference Grammar, Volumes 1 and 2 . Univ. of Wisconsin 2000, by Ronelle Alexander, with the assistance of Olga M. Mladenova.

2000

Kjetil Rå Hauge, A Short Grammar of Contemporary Bulgarian . (Slavica Publishers 1999).

1999

Ali Eminov, Turkish and Other Muslim Minorities of Bulgaria . (Routledge-New York, 1997).

1998

Gerald Creed, Domesticating Revolution: From Socialist Reform to Ambivalent Transition in a Bulgarian Village. (Penn State University Press, 1998).

Thomas Butler, Monumenta Bulgarica: A Bilingual Anthology of Bulgarian Texts from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Centuries. (special award for Outstanding Contribution to the General Field of Bulgarian Studies).

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Webpage maintained by Kjetil Rå Hauge; last updated 4 February, 2010.