“Zócalo is the best thing to happen to Los Angeles intellectual life in decades. I can’t imagine a better organization to honor today’s best thinking on the nature of community.”
— Author Greg Critser
The Zócalo Public Square Book Prize is awarded annually to the U.S.-published book that most enhances our understanding of community — the forces that strengthen or undermine human connectedness and social cohesion — be it locally, regionally, nationally or globally.
Consistent with our organizational mission, as well as with the form and content of our web magazine and events, the Zócalo Public Square Book Prize seeks to honor the best contemporary thinking on the oldest of human dilemmas: how best to live and work together.
Because community is such a vast subject that can be explored in myriad ways, we accept submissions on a broad array of topics and themes and from just as many fields and disciplines.
But like everything else we feature, we are most on the lookout for that rare combination of brilliance and clarity, excellence and accessibility.
Three finalists will be announced in March 2012. The author of the winning book, as determined by a panel of judges, will receive $5,000 and deliver a lecture at the Award Ceremony in April 2012. Peter Lovenheim won the first annual book prize for his book In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time.
We’re also hosting an essay contest for Los Angeles area high school seniors on how to make communities stronger, in hopes of finding fresh ideas from new voices. For more details, see here.
Our judges:
Kimberly Freeman, director of community relations for the Southern California Gas Company
Franklin Gilliam, Jr., dean of UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs
Gregory Rodriguez, founding director of Zócalo Public Square
Thaddeus Russell, professor of history and American studies at Occidental College and author of A Renegade History of the United States
Michele Siqueiros, executive director of the Campaign for College Opportunity
D.J. Waldie, essayist and author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir
Michael Woo, dean of California Poly Pomona’s College of Environmental Design and former Los Angeles city council member
The Zócalo Book Prize is sponsored by the Southern California Gas Company. Additional support provided by the Shepard Broad Foundation.
