The Association of American Publishers has named University California Press the winner of its top PROSE Awards honor, the R.R. Hawkins Award for excellence in scholarly publishing, for Exit Wounds: How America's Guns Fuel Violence across the Border by Ieva Jusionyte.

“University of California Press is honored by the recognition,” said Erich van Rijn, executive director of the University of California Press, in a statement. “Building on her experience as an emergency responder in the borderlands and over five years of ethnographic fieldwork and archival research in both Mexico and the United States, Ieva Jusionyte has crafted a truly unique work of narrative nonfiction that connects with readers on a deeply human level.”

The AAP has also announced the four Area of Excellence winners of its annual PROSE Awards, recognizing outstanding scholarly publications in four categories: biological and life sciences, humanities, physical sciences and mathematics, and social sciences. This year’s winners are:

  • The Mindful Health Care Professional: A Path to Provider Wellness and Patient-Centered Care by Carmelina D'Arro (Elsevier) in the biological and life sciences category
  • Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States by Matthew D. Morrison (UC Press) in the humanities category
  • The Importance of Being Educable: A New Theory of Human Uniqueness by Leslie Valiant (Princeton University Press) for the physical science and mathematics category
  • Exit Wounds: How America's Guns Fuel Violence across the Border (UC Press), which, in addition to winning the R.R. Hawkins Award also took home the PROSE award in social sciences.

“We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the University of California Press, Elsevier Inc., and Princeton University Press, whose exceptional entries demonstrate groundbreaking scholarship and a dedication to publishing excellence,” said AAP COO Syreeta Swann “We also extend a thank you to our esteemed panel of judges, who year-after-year express unwavering commitment to evaluating submissions with care and expertise, as well as all entrants who continue to advance the scholarly publishing community.”

Awarded since 1976, the AAP’s PROSE Awards recognize publishers “who produce books, journals, and digital products of extraordinary merit that make a significant contribution to a field of study.”