The Canadian Association of Slavists’ Taylor & Francis Book Prize was established in 2014 and is sponsored by Taylor & Francis Publishers.  It is awarded annually for the best academic book in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies published in the previous calendar year by a Canadian author (citizen or permanent resident).

The book prize jury consists of three members chosen by the CAS executive. Nominations for the 2024 Book Prize competition are to be postmarked by or on 15 June 2024. The prize winner will be announced by e-mail to CAS members and on the CAS/CSP website in autumn 2024. The winner receives a cash award of $500 CAD and recognition at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Slavists, and a roundtable on the winning book will be published in Canadian Slavonic Papers.

Rules of eligibility

Rules of eligibility for the Canadian Association of Slavists’ Taylor & Francis Book Prize competition are as follows:

• The copyright date inside the book must list the previous calendar year as the date of publication (the book must have been published in 2023 to be eligible for the 2024 competition).
• The book must be in the form of a monograph, preferably by a single author, but by no more than two authors.
• Authors must be citizens or permanent residents of Canada, and at the time of nomination they must be members of the Canadian Association of Slavists.
• The work must originally be published in French or English (either in or outside Canada).
• Works may deal with any aspect of Slavic, East European, or Eurasian Studies (languages, literatures, cinemas, cultures, visual arts, politics, history, etc.).
• Textbooks in the strict sense of the word do not qualify, but a broad interpretive work of a major period or area qualifies.
• Translations, bibliographies, reference works, edited volumes, and smaller works such as pamphlets are not eligible.

Nominating instructions

• Nomination for the prize can come from an author, a publisher, or a third party. There is no limit on the number of entries a publisher may submit. 
• Send an e-mail message to Dr. Natalie Cornett at csp-books.rcs-livres@mcgill.ca to notify the Canadian Association of Slavists of your intent to nominate a publication for the CAS/Taylor & Francis Book Prize. Include publication information about the book. Please copy this e-mail to yourself, too. 
• After verifying eligibility, Dr. Cornett will arrange with the press’s representative or the author to send one copy of the eligible book to each member of the book prize jury. 
• Book nominations should be clearly marked “CAS/T&F Book Prize Nomination” and must be postmarked by 15 June 2024 to be eligible for the 2024 competition. 
• Please note that books sent to members of the jury will not normally be returned once the competition is over. However, special arrangements to return a book may be made between a jury member and nominator after the competition ends.

Winner of the 2023 Prize

We are pleased to announce that the 2023 Canadian Association of Slavists’ Taylor & Francis Book Prize in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies has been awarded to Ann Komaromi for Soviet Samizdat: Imagining a New Society (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2022). 

In its final report, the book prize committee offers the following commendation: “Ann Komaromi’s book Soviet Samizdat: Imagining a New Society stood out in an impressive field of studies by Canadian scholars of Slavic and related area studies that were published in 2022. Soviet Samizdat introduces a new approach to understanding the alternative textual culture of Soviet self-publishing, one that moves beyond the binary of dissidence versus regime, instead exploring samizdat as the generator of a network of reading communities. Komaromi has produced a well-conceived study that encompasses philosophy, cultural theory, print culture, literary theory, and the history of publics. Her book includes a full and comprehensive list of samizdat journals from the post-Stalin to the perestroika periods that is a testament to her many years of research in and her mastery of the world of underground and alternative textual culture in Russia.”

We are pleased also to announce that the selection committee has decided to grant honourable mention to the authors of two additional books (tied, in alphabetical order): 

• Jeff Hayton,  Culture from the Slums: Punk Rock in East and West Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022)
• Volodymyr Kravchenko, The Ukrainian-Russian Borderland: History versus Geography (Montréal and Kingston: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2022)

The committee writes: “In Culture from the Slums: Punk Rock in East and West Germany, Jeff Hayton explores punk’s history in divided Germany during the 1970s and 1980s. He skilfully compares East and West Germany, showing how punk’s quest for independence and individuality acted as a catalyst for social change. While in the West, it contributed to reshaping national identities and served as a platform for resisting consumerism, in the East, it fuelled resistance against repression and collaboration. This extensively researched and contextually rich study integrates a remarkable array of primary and secondary sources, bridging the gap between two histories that were previously examined separately. 

“Volodymyr Kravchenko’s The Ukrainian-Russian Borderland: History versus Geography deserves honourable mention for its exceptional insights into a complex and timely subject. The book discusses the interplay among various Ukrainian and Russian discourses of identity, revealing the intricate relationship between local elites and imperial power. Kravchenko’s book excels in its detailed and nuanced understanding of the historical and geopolitical dynamics shaping the Ukrainian-Russian borderland. Kravchenko’s analysis is remarkable for its depth, showcasing the region’s cultural and ethnic transformations and the pivotal role of Kharkiv in evolving Ukrainian, Russian, and Soviet historical narratives. His coherent analysis, eloquent writing, and rigorous research provide invaluable insights not only for scholars and students but also for a broader audience seeking to understand the historical underpinnings of current events.”

List of Past Book Prize Winners

2022: John-Paul Himka, Ukrainian Nationalists and the Holocaust: OUN and UPA’s Participation in the Destruction of Ukrainian Jewry, 1941-1944 (Stuttgart: Ibidem Press, 2021)

2021: Megan Swift, Picturing the Page: Illustrated Children’s Literature and Reading under Lenin and Stalin (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020)

2020: Jeff Sahadeo, Voices from the Soviet Edge: Southern Migrants in Leningrad and Moscow (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019)

2019: Zina Gimpelevich, The Portrayal of Jews in Modern Bielarusian Literature (Montréal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018)

2018: Lynne Viola, Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017).

2017: Max Bergholz, Violence as a Generative Force: Identity, Nationalism, and Memory in a Balkan Community (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2016).

2016: Myroslav Shkandrij, Ukrainian Nationalism: Politics, Ideology, and Literature, 1929-1956 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015).

2015: Alan Barenberg, Gulag Town, Company Town: Forced Labor and its Legacy in Vorkuta (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014).N