A professor emerita of literature and creative writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Yamashita is the author of eight books and several plays. She has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
Adela Najarro of Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, Juliana Spahr of the Mills College campus of Northeastern University in Oakland, Beth Lew-Williams of Princeton University in New Jersey, and Deborah Willis of New York University have been announced as winners of an American Book Award.
Vanderbilt University's Shatema Threadcraft received two book awards from the American Political Science Association. Lisa Messeri of Yale University was honored by the Society for Cultural Anthropology and Fiona Cunningham of the University of Pennsylvania was honored by Cornell University.
The University of Georgia Libraries has honored Dr. Blain, professor of history and Africana studies at Brown University, for her latest book, Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights, an examination of the pivotal contributions of Black women at the forefront of national and international movements for civil and human rights.
Dr. Falleti is an endowed professor in political science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her 2010 book Decentralization and Subnational Politics in Latin America was recently recognized by the American Political Science Association as a lasting achievement in federalism and intergovernmental relations scholarship.
As the 2026 recipient of the Vanderbilt University Literary Prize, Huffman's new poetry collection, Dilemma, will be published by Vanderbilt University Press in 2027. Huffman, an instructor at Warren Wilson College, is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in English and literary arts at the University of Denver.
