Prestigious Evans Book Awards to Be Presented at Utah State University

Two book awards, the Evans Biography Award and the Evans Handcart Award, will be presented at Utah State University March 27. Ronald O. Barney will receive the $10,000 Evans Biography Award. Mary Clearman Blew will be honored with the $1,000 Handcart prize.

Coordinated by the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies at Utah State, the awards are designed to encourage writing about the people who have shaped the growth and character of western America. The Evans Biography Award was established in 1983 to recognize outstanding scholarship and writing in this field. The Handcart Award was established in 1996 to recognize a biography of merit.

The public is invited to attend the awards ceremony and reception, which begin at 3 p.m. in the Tanner Room of the Merrill Library on the Utah State campus. The awards are presented for books published in 2002.

Barney, the biography winner, is recognized for his book "One Side by Himself: The Life and Times of Lewis Barney, 1808––1894," published by Utah State University Press and Scholarly Publications.

Seven distinguished reviewers selected Barney's book from a field of 10 nominees. The judges' review said the book "addresses an under-acknowledged subject, is based on fine research and is an empathetic and thorough exploration of the life of its subject."

The Evans Handcart Award is presented to Blew for her book "When Montana and I were Young: A Frontier Childhood," published by University of Nebraska Press. The work is based on a memoir by Margaret Bell (1888––1982), a rancher and horse breaker whose memoir tells the story of a frontier childhood on the high plains of Montana and Canada. Her memoir was lost for nearly 50 years.