The International Society for Contemporary Legend Research has established an annual book prize in honor of Brian McConnell. The purpose of the award is to encourage scholarship in the field, to recognize and inspire standards of excellence in contemporary legend publications and to commemorate the life and work of Brian McConnell, a long time member of ISCLR, celebrated crime reporter, author and legend scholar.

The prize is for a book receiving its first publication in the period 1st April to the following 31st March, for award the following summer. Only books published during the proceeding twelve months will be considered. Eligible books will include original material or new scholarly editions of previously published texts, but excludes reprints.

Three copies of each book submitted for the award should reach the judges, c/o the Society’s President, by March 31st. Books submitted for the award will not be returned. The winner will be announced at the Annual General Meeting of ISCLR. The main prize will be the award itself, but the winning author (or authors) will also be presented with $250 (US).

There will be three judges appointed by the Society’s Council. The judges may, at their discretion, consider books which have not been formally submitted for the prize. The winning book will be that which, in the opinion of the judges made the most distinguished contribution to the study of contemporary legend in the year in question.

Books to be considered for the McConnell Award should be sent in triplicate to:

Virginia Siegel

Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts

University of Arkansas Libraries

MULN 425
365 North McIlroy Avenue
Fayetteville, AR 72701-4002

USA

isclr.secretary@gmail.com or vdsiegel@uark.edu

 

Recent winners

The Brian McConnell Book Award, 2023

The Brian McConnell Book Award Committee is pleased to announce that this year’s winner is Simon Young’s book The Nail in the Skull and other Victorian Urban Legends.

Simon Young’s The Nail in the Skull provides a significant model for long-term research into legend motifs and types by means of historical exploration into the Victorian Era. The book advocates for the scholarly use of newly accessible, digital databases of 19th-century publications. His introduction is a concise and promising discussion of the ways in which we can identify once-living contemporary legends of a previous era through “printed folklore,” i.e., occasional columns in ephemeral publications for a semi-literate audience. The global digitalization of such periodicals gives folklorists a vastly larger archive for tracing the evolution of legends and related materials. Young uses a variety of clues (including rhetoric and variation) to identify previously unstudied complexes of legend. Some are surprisingly “modern” in content, such as the various panics caused by criminals incapacitating their victims with the newly discovered anesthetic chloroform.  Others display concerns that are not as prominent in following centuries, such as stolen children (and their disfigurement to make them apt beggars). A wide range of social and political issues are illustrated and discussed, including warnings against Evil Others, including Catholics, Romani travelers, and the ethnic subjects of Great Britain in foreign countries. In recognition of its potential for invigorating the study of legend history, ISCLR is proud to award the Brian McConnell Book Award to The Nail in the Skull as the year’s most distinguished contribution to the study of contemporary legend.

The jury would like to make an honorable mention of Patricia Turner’s Trash Talk: Anti-Obama Lore and Race in the Twenty-First Century.

2022
David J. Puglia, North American Monsters. A Contemporary Legend Casebook. Utah State University Press, 2022.

2021
Tom Mould, Overthrowing the Queen. Telling Stories of Welfare in America. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2020.

2020
Andrea Kitta, The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination and Folklore.  Logan:  Utah State University Press, 2019. (Download here)

2019
Lynne S. McNeill and Elizabeth Tucker (eds.), Legend Tripping: A Contemporary Legend Casebook. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2018.

2018
Not awarded

2017
Not awarded

2016
Keagan LeJeune, Legendary Louisiana Outlaws: The Villains and Heroes of Folk Justice. Baton Rouge:  Louisiana State University Press, 2016.

2015
Joel Best and Kathleen A. Bogle, Kids Gone Wild: From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype over Teen Sex. New York and London: NYU Press, 2014.

2014
Eda Kalmre, The Human Sausage Factory: A Study of Post-War Rumour in Tartu. Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2013.

2013
Not awarded

2012
Andrea Kitta, Vaccinations and Public Concern in Concern in History: Legend, Rumor, and Risk Perception. New York: Routledge, 2012.

2011
Shelley R. Adler, Sleep Paralysys: Night-mares, Nocebos, and the Mind-Body Connection. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2011.

2010
Not awarded

2009
Not awarded

2008
Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas, Haunting Experiences: Ghosts in Contemporary Folklore. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2007.