2022 Nonfiction Shortlist

Steve Beaven, who grew up in Evansville, spent time in Indianapolis and now lives in Portland, Ore., for We Will Rise: A True Story of Tragedy and Resurrection in the American Heartland, which describes how the Evansville community recovered after a plane carrying the championship-winning University of Evansville basketball team and its coach crashed in 1977 just after takeoff, killing everyone onboard.

Ray Boomhower, Indianapolis, for Richard Tregaskis: Reporting Under Fire from Gualdalcanal to Vietnam, about award-winning war correspondent whose reporting from Guadalcanal during World War II and Cold War conflicts in Korea and Vietnam acknowledged the effects of war on the men who fought it.

Craig Fehrman, Bloomington, for Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote, the story of America’s presidents as authors. Addressing everything from beloved tomes to volumes lost to history, Author in Chief unearths insights about the presidents through their literary works and offers a window into their public and private lives.

James H. Madison, Bloomington, for The Ku Klux Klan in the Heartland, the history of the creation and reign of the Ku Klux Klan through the lens of their operations in Indiana and the Midwest. Starting from the KKK’s roots in respectable white protestant society, the book offers a detailed account of the infamous organization and its echoes in America today.

Michella M. Marino, Indianapolis, for Roller Derby: The History of an American Sport, about the history and future of roller derby, a sport that has thrilled fans and skaters with its constant action, hard hits and edgy attitude. With a focus on gender equality, roller derby simultaneously challenged and conformed to social norms and created gender politics unlike those of traditional sex-segregated sports.

Ruth D. Reichard, Indianapolis, for Blood and Steel: Ryan White, the AIDS Crisis and Deindustrialization in Kokomo, Indiana. Set against the backdrop of the Reagan era and industrial shifts, Reichard’s book tells the story of a lethal new disease and the teenage AIDS patient who defiantly struggled against fear in his community.