Previous Winners

Evans Biography Awards Winners

evans award token
Year Winner
2020 and 2021 Terryl L. Givens. Stretching the Heavens: The Life of Eugene England and the Crisis of Modern Mormonism. The University of North Carolina Press
2018 and 2019 James R. Swensen. In a Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and the Three Mormon Towns Collaboration, 1953-1954. The University of Utah Press 
Finalist Colleen Whitley. Feed My Sheep: The Life of Alberta Henry.  The University of Utah Press
2017 Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870. Alfred A. Knopf
Finalist Thomas G. Smith. Stewart L. Udall: Steward of the Land. University of New Mexico Press
2016 Gregory A. Prince. Leonard Arrington and the Writing of Mormon History. The University of Utah Press
Finalist Paul Andrew Hutton. The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, The Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History. Crown
2015 Angela Pulley Hudson. Real Native Genius: How an Ex-Slave and a White Mormon Became Famous Indians. The University of North Carolina Press
2014 Lily Yuriko Nakai Havey. Gasa Gasa Girl Goes To Camp: A Nisei Youth Behind a World War II Fence. University of Utah Press
2013 Todd M. Compton. A Frontier Life: Jacob Hamblin, Explorer and Indian Missionary. University of Utah Press
2012 Timothy Egan. Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
2011 William M. Adler. The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon. Bloomsbury
2009 and 2010 Matthew J. Grow. Liberty to the Downtrodden: Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer. Yale University Press
2008 Janet Chapman and Karen Barrie. Kenneth Milton Chapman: A Life Dedicated to Indian Arts and Artists. University of New Mexico Press
2007 Frederick H. Swanson. Dave Rust: A Life in the Canyons. University of Utah Press
2006 Sandra Ailey Petree ed.  Recollections of Past Days: The Autobiography of Patience Loader Roxsa Archer.  Utah State University Press
2005 Richard Lyman Bushman. Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling.  Alfred A. Knopf
2004 Eva Tulene Watt with assistance from Keith H. Basso.  Don’t Let the Sun Step Over You: A White Mountain Apache Family Life, 1860-1975. University of Arizona Press
2003 Virginia Kerns.  Scenes from the High Desert: Julian Steward’s Life and Theory.  University of Illinois Press
2002 Ronald O. Barney. One Side by Himself: The Life and Times of Lewis Barney 1808-1894.  Utah State University Press
2001 Sally Zanjani. Sarah Winnemucca. University of Nebraska Press
2000 Donald Worster. A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell. Oxford University Press    
1999 Davis Bitton. George Q. Cannon: A Biography. Deseret Book Company
1998 Valeen Tippetts Avery. From Mission to Madness: Last Son of the Mormon Prophet. University of Illinois Press
1997 Thomas Toone. Mahonri Young: His Life and Art. Signature Books
1996 Jackson J. Benson. Wallace Stegner: His Life and Work. Viking Penguin
1995 Mary Lythgoe Bradford. Lowell L. Bennion: Teacher, Counselor, Humanitarian. Dialogue Foundation
1995 Robert Alan Goldberg. Barry Goldwater. Yale University Press
1994 LeRoy Ashby and Rod Gramer. Fighting the Odds: The Life of Senator Frank Church. Washington State University Press
1993 Shirley A. Leckie. Elizabeth Bacon Custer and the Making of a Myth. University of Oklahoma Press
1992 Ivan Doig. Heart Earth. Atheneum/Macmillan
1991 Terry Tempest Williams. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Pantheon Books
1991 Thomas G. Alexander. Things in Heaven and Earth: The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff. Signature Books
1990 William DeBuys and Alex Harris. River of Traps. University of New Mexico Press
1988 Roger D. Lanius. Joseph Smith III: Pragmatic Prophet. University of Illinois Press
1987 Levi S. Peterson. Juanita Brooks: Mormon Woman Historian. University of Utah Press
1986 Joseph C. Porter. Paper Medicine Man: John Gregory Bourke and His American West. University of Oklahoma Press
1986 James B. Allen. Trials of Discipleship: The Story of William Clayton, A Mormon. University of Illinois Press
1985 Paul Hutton. Phil Sheridan and His Army. University of Nebraska Press
1984 Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery. Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith. Doubleday
1984 Richard Bushman. Joseph Smith and the Beginning of Mormonism. University of Illinois Press
1983 Leonard J. Arrington.  Brigham Young: American Moses. Knopf/Random House

Evans Handcart Awards Winners

evans handcart award token
Year Winner
2020 and 2021 Judy Y. Kawamoto. Forced Out: A Nikkei Woman's Search for a Home in America. University Press of Colorado
Finalist Grace Olmstead. Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We've Left Behind. Sentinel
Finalist Lisa Hendrickson. Burning the Breeze: Three Generations of Women in the American West. University of Nebraska Press
2018 and 2019        Tara Westover. Educated. Random House
Finalist Mary Budd Flitner. My Ranch, Too: A Wyoming Memoir. University of Oklahoma Press
2017 Rodney Frey. Carry Forth the Stories: An Ethnographer's Journey into Native Oral Tradition. Washington State University Press
Finalist Michael Branch. Raising Wild: Dispatches from a Home in the Wilderness. Roost Books
2016 Pete Fromm. The Names of the Stars: A Life in the Wilds. Thomas Dunne Books
2015 James M. Aton. The Art and Life of Jimmie Jones: Landscape Artist of the Canyon Country. Gibbs Smith
2013 Evelyn I. Funda. Weeds: A Farm Daughter’s Lament. University of Nebraska Press
2012 Erin Ann Thomas. Coal in Our Veins: A Personal Journey. Utah State University Press
2011 Alwin J. Girdner . Diné Tah: My Reservation Days 1923-1939. Rio Nuevo Publishers
2009 and 2010 Ronald G. Watt.  The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt: First British Convert, Scribe for Zion. Utah State University Press
2008 William B. Smart.  Mormonism’s Last Colonizer: The Life and Times of William H. Smart.  Utah State University Press
2007 Jedediah Rogers, ed.  In the President’s Office. Signature Books
2006 Kenneth W. Merrell.  Scottish Shepherd: The Life and Times of John Murray Murdoch, Utah Pioneer.  University of Utah Press
2005 Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Wright.  David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism.  University of Utah Press
2004 Stephen L. Prince.  Gathering in Harmony: A Saga of Southern Utah Families, Their Roots and Pioneering Heritage, and the Tale of Atone Prince, Sheriff of Washington County.  The Arthur H. Clark Company
2003 Ripley Hugo.  Writing for Her Life: The Novelist Mildred Walker.  The University of Nebraska Press
2002 Margaret Bell, ed and afterword by Mary Clearman Blew.  When Montana and I Were Young: A Frontier Childhood.  University of Nebraska Press
2001 Eilean Adams. Hell or High Water: James White’s Disputed Passage through Grand Canyon, 1867. Utah State University Press
2000 Robert S. McPherson, ed. The Journey of Navajo Oshley: An Autobiography and Life History. Utah State University Press
1999 Scott R. Christensen. Sagwitch: Shoshone Chieftain, Mormon Elder, 1822-1887.  Utah State University Press
1998 Debra Hickenlooper Sowell. The Christensen Brothers: An American Dance Epic. Harwood Academic Publishers
1997 Donna Toland Smart, ed. Mormon Midwife: The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions. Utah State University Press
1996 Maurine Carr Ward, ed. Winter Quarters: The 1846-1848 Life Writings of Mary Haskin Parker Richards. Utah State University Press