AATSEEL Annual AwardsThe AATSEEL Publications Committee is responsible for overseeing the appointment of editors for the AATSEEL Newsletter and Slavic and East European Journal, and also for the award of prizes for publications in the various disciplines participating in AATSEEL. For information on our activities, please follow the appropriate link below:
Nominees for the 2012 AATSEEL book prizes (Nomination will be closed as of 1 May)
Book Prize Winners for 2011Best Contribution to Language PedagogyWade, Terence. Using Russian Vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.  Terence Wade’s Using Russian Vocabulary occupies a singular place in the library of pedagogical materials and reference books for teaching Russian. While the field has many Russian grammars and dictionaries, Wade’s text offers an original, well-organized and thoughtfully explicated tour of Russian’s core vocabulary. An ambitious project, the book combines word lists with etymological information, discussions of word formation, strategies for memorizing words, and varied exercises for practicing word meanings and forms. Every page of Wade’s work reveals the author’s deep philological knowledge, and his book’s elegant structure is inspired by his fine-tuned pedagogical intuition. This work not only acquaints students with Russian words, but also lets them in on the secret of the language’s cultural mapping of the world. Best Contribution to Slavic LinguisticsBabby, Leonard H. The Syntax of Argument Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.  Leonard Babby's The Syntax of Argument Structure is a major contribution to Slavic as well as theoretical linguistics, in which an intimate and sophisticated knowledge of Slavic morphosyntax is brought to bear on important theoretical questions in syntax for language in general. The book reaches well beyond Slavic, using Russian as a test case for specific proposals about argument structure, rather than simply using argument structure and generative grammar models as a way of looking at Russian. Babby shows how the argument structure of a verb determines the nature of the syntactic projection in a host of languages in addition to Russian, a view that contradicts the traditional syntax-based approach to the problem. A model of meticulous argumentation and clarity of vision, the book brings together strong and nuanced empirical evidence in favor of a position that Babby has argued for throughout much of his work, and through its accessibility to non-Slavic as well as Slavic linguists, it should initiate much-needed dialogue between Slavists and general linguists on the nature of argument structure. Best Book in Literary/Cultural StudiesOushakine, Serguei Alex. The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.  With The Patriotism of Despair, Sergei Oushakine has given us an ambitious and nuanced analysis of post-Soviet culture shock, addressing the question “How did ordinary Russians create workable subjectivities in the face of total social collapse?” Working as an ethnographer impressively conversant in literary and cultural theory, he clarifies patterns of symbolic meaning in the array of material culture he has archived. Oushakine contends that Russian citizens rebuilt social bonds around a narrative of loss that replaced state affiliation with ethnic and kinship relations – a dynamic that has had enduring political reverberations. As a native of Barnaul, Altai, the main site where he conducted his investigations, he speaks from both inside and outside, as both native son and trained scholar, yielding an angle on his subject that is simultaneously clear-eyed and compassionate. He has written a sophisticated, moving and consequential account of the sometimes dismaying, sometimes inspiring strivings of people in crisis, an achievement for which he has richly earned the AATSEEL prize for Best Book of Literary/Cultural Criticism. Best Literary Translation into EnglishŠteger, Aleš. The Book of Things: Poems. Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, 2010. Translated from the Slovenian and with an introduction by Brian Henry.  Slovene poet Ales Steger, born in 1973, is not as well-known in this country as he should be. In this volume, Brian Henry has made an outstanding translation of Steger’s fourth book of poems, Knjiga reči. The things represented in the poems are quite various – ranging from foods to pets to body parts and gadgets – but each poem moves from its point of origin to unexpected, sometimes disturbing conclusions. Brian Henry creates a voice for Steger’s poems that is at once down-to-earth and expansive, conveying the surprises of the originals and Steger’s deadpan humor. Congratulations are also due to BOA Editions, which has published the work with a handsome, quirky design well suited to its contents. Best Scholarly Translation into EnglishEfron, Ariadna. No Love Without Poetry: The Memoirs of Marina Tsvetaeva's Daughter. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2009. Edited and translated from the Russian by Diane Nemec Ignashev.  Diane Nemec Ignashev’s translation of Ariadna Efron’s memoirs gives a varied selection of writings in a rendering that is both punctilious and lyrical. The book is not only a rich and valuable source on the life and work of Tsvetaeva, as its subtitle advertises, but proof that Ariadna Efron was herself a wonderful writer. The book will attract not only fans of Tsvetaeva, but anyone with an interest in Russia in the early twentieth century or Russian emigre life of the 1920s and 30s. Along with her admirable translation, Nemec Ignashev provides useful apparatus of notes and a biographical glossary of the individuals mentioned in the text. We recommend this beautiful and useful book to everyone. Nominees for the 2012 AATSEEL Book PrizesBest Contribution to Language Pedagogy (books or other material published in 2009, 2010 and 2011 eligible):
Best Contribution to Slavic Linguistics (books published in 2010 and 2011 eligible):
Best Book in Literary/Cultural Studies (books published in 2010 and 2011 eligible):
Best Translation into English (books published in 2010 and 2011 eligible):
Eligibility requirements and selection procedures for the AATSEEL book prizes:AATSEEL awards prizes to outstanding publications in the fields of 1) language pedagogy, 2) linguistics, 3) literary and/or cultural scholarship, and 4) translations into English. For more on the specific eligibility requirements of the individual prizes, and for recent recipients of the prizes, see below. General eligibility requirements and nomination procedures pertinent to all the prizes include:
Specific eligibility guidelines for each prize:Best Contribution to Language Pedagogy:The prize in pedagogy may recognize either language-pedagogical materials or contributions to literature on the theory and practice of language teaching. The former category should be understood broadly to include textbooks, computer software, testing materials, and other instructional tools. Nominated works in the latter category should be single or multi-author books. At the committee's discretion, the prize may in some years be granted not to a single publication, but to the aggregate works of one individual whose publications as a whole have made an outstanding contribution to the field of language pedagogy. Best Contribution to the Study of Slavic Linguistics: Nominated works should be scholarly monographs (including grammars and dictionaries) that treat topics in any field of linguistic inquiry. Typically, translated and edited volumes would not be considered. Best Book in Literary/Cultural Scholarship: Nominated works should be scholarly books which treat topics in any field of literary or cultural studies. Normally, this will exclude works of historical scholarship, unless these are devoted to the history of literary or cultural institutions or to interdisciplinary topics uniting history and cultural life. Best Translation into English: Nominees for this prize should be book-length translations of a literary work, an epiliterary genre (letters, memoirs, essays, etc.), or a scholarly work. At the discretion of the jury, two prizes may be awarded, one for a literary or epiliterary work, the other for a translation of a strictly scholarly character. Back to topAn explanation of recent modifications in eligibility and selection procedures for the book prizesThe Publications Committee of AATSEEL, with the approval of the Executive Council, has instituted the following changes in the eligibility and selection procedures for the AATSEEL book prizes, which became effective during the 2002 competition. Eligibility for the prizes in linguistics, literary/cultural criticism, and translation extends to books published in the preceding two calendar years (in the present case 2009 and 2010), but does not include those published in the current year (2011). For the prize in language pedagogy eligibility extends for the preceding three calendar years (2008-2010, in this case), but not the current year (2011). Rationale: In the past, eligibility for all prizes has extended to books published in a three year period including the year in which the competition takes place. This gave an unfair advantage to books published early in the year, which in effect were eligible for a year longer than books published late in the year. It also made it difficult for jury members to examine some nominated books, which were not available in time for the committee's deliberations. This change addressed these issues. Further, the reduction of the eligibility window from three years to two for all prizes except that for pedagogy reflects the well-established nature of these prizes, which ensures that books are nominated in a timely manner. The prize for pedagogy has been implemented more recently than the others and needs more time to come into its own before a similar reduction in the eligibility window can be instituted. Back to topPublications Committee membership and contact informationThe AATSEEL Publications Committee consists of fifteen members who serve staggered three-year terms, each of whom is assigned to one of four book-prize juries corresponding to his or her disciplinary affiliation and qualifications. All correspondence for the committee should be addressed to the current chair (term ends Dec. 2014):Professor Justin Weir Language pedagogy jury:
Linguistics jury:
Literary/cultural studies jury:
Translation jury:
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