Just over a month ago, I noted that USU’s Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, which describes itself as ‘a humanities outreach center in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences,’” had announced the 2005 winners of its Evans Biography Award and Handcart Award.  The Evans Biography Award went to Richard Bushman’s biography of Joseph Smith, Rough Stone Rolling, and the Handcart Award went to Gregory Prince and Wm. Robert Wright’s biography of David O. McKay, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism.

This Friday evening, the Mormon History Association will be announcing its 2006 award winners at its annual meeting in Casper, Wyoming, including the MHA Best Book Award, the Smith-Pettit Best First Book Award, the Steven F. Christensen Award for Best Documentary/Bibliography, the Ella Larsen Turner-Ella Ruth Turner Bergera Award for Best Biography, the J. Talmage Jones Awards of Excellence (”[a]warded for the two outstanding published articles on Mormon history”), and the T. Edgar Lyon Award for Best Article of the Year.

For some reason, there is no suspense surrounding the recipient Turner-Bergera Award for Best Biography this year.  The University of Utah Press website has recently announced that David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism is the winner. 

Is this an upset win over Bushman’s book?  Or will Bushman pick up the MHA Best Book Award instead?  Casper bookies are taking all bets (you may encounter busy signals when you call; if so, keep trying).