The Book Club of California congratulates the recipients of the 2022 Oscar Lewis Awards:
MARY RISALA LAIRD
Oscar Lewis Award for the Book Arts
Mary Risala Laird, MFA printmaking, University of Wisconsin, Madison, has been doing letterpress books since 1969 as Quelquefois Press. She partnered in Perishable Press Limited editions from 1969-84. Ms. Laird has taught letterpress at San Francisco State University, Kala Institute in Berkeley, Naropa University, and at the San Francisco Center for the Book as well as workshops in Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Washington state.
For fifteen years she worked with the entire 7th grade class at a local school as a guest artist, making handmade journals. Her focus in printing is poetry. She binds the editions she prints. Her work is in many collections across the country and around the world, including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Library of Congress, University of Wisconsin, Madison, the British Library, Yale University, University of Washington, and UC Santa Cruz.
She has three grown children, lives in Berkeley, California with her husband John Malork, and is a member of the Sufi community. She served as a board member at the San Francisco Center for the Book for six years and she is an active member of the Book Club of California.
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CHARLES WOLLENBERG
Oscar Lewis Award for Western History
Charles Wollenberg specializes in California social history of the 20th Century and has produced a steady stream of books and articles on Bay Area history going back to the 1970s. Among his many books are: All Deliberate Speed: Segregation And Exclusion In California Schools 1855-1975 (UC Press, 1978), Golden Gate Metropolis: Perspectives On Bay Area History (IGS, 1985), and Photographing The Second Gold Rush: Dorothea Lange And The Bay Area At War 1941-45 (Heyday Books, 1995). Rebel Lawyer: Wayne Collins and the Defense of Japanese American Rights (Heyday Press, 2017) was the winner of the 2017 California Historical Society Award.
Utilized by historians while also being accessible to the general public, his work has ranged from groundbreaking studies to popular histories. His research has been recognized as comprehensive and his scholarship thorough. His writing has been described as daring and his thinking both fresh and original.
He has served the people of California for more than five decades as an educator including teaching at Laney College and Berkeley City College, where he served as the Chair of Social Sciences. He also served on the board of the California Historical Society and was a founding member of the California Studies Association. Now retired, he continues to be a sought-after lecturer and presenter.
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The Oscar Lewis Awards were established by the Book Club of California in 1994 in honor of Oscar Lewis (1893-1992), San Francisco author, historian, and club secretary from 1921-1946.
Past recipients of the Oscar Lewis Award for Western History:
Charles Fracchia (2021)
John Briscoe (2020)
Dr. Rose Marie Beebe and Dr. Robert Senkewicz (2019)
Brewster Kahle (2018)
Robert Bringhurst (2017)
James Karman (2016)
Dr. Gray Brechin (2015)
Rebecca Solnit (2014)
W. Michael Mathes (2012)
Philip P. Choy (2011)
Thomas Pinney (2010)
Robert J. Chandler (2009)
Malcolm Margolin (2008)
Carl Nolte (2007)
Robert V. Hine (2006)
David F. Myrick (2005)
Robert G. Harlan (2004)
Kevin Starr (2003)
Ferol Egan (2002)
Muir Dawson (2001) and Glen Dawson (2001)
J. S. Holliday (2000), Msgr. Francis J. Weber (2000)
Allan R. Ottley (1999)
Gary F. Kurutz (1998)
Richard H. Dillon (1997)
Lawrence Clark Powell (1996)
Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., (1996)
Michael Harrison (1995)
Dr. Albert Shumate (1994)
Past recipients of the Oscar Lewis Award for the Book Arts:
Wesley B. Tanner (2021)
Mary Austin & Kathleen Burch (2020)
Fred and Barbara Voltmer (2019)
Betsy Davids (2018)
Kitty Maryatt (2017)
Richard Wagener (2016)
Harry & Sandra Reese (2015)
Johanna Drucker (2014)
Carolee Campbell (2013)
Jonathan Clark (2012)
Clifford Burke (2011)
Charles Hobson (2010)
Graham Mackintosh (2009)
David Lance Goines (2008)
Patrick W. Reagh (2007)
Peter Rutledge Koch (2006)
Joseph J. D’Ambrosio (2005)
Eleanore Edwards Ramsey (2004)
Joanne Margarethe Sonnichsen (2003)
Carolyn and James Robertson (2002)
Wolfgang Lederer (2001)
Andrew Hoyem (2000)
Jack W. Stauffacher (1999)
S. Gale Herrick (1998)
Sandra Kirshenbaum (1998)
Marjorie G. Stern (1997)
Lewis and Dorothy Allen (1996)
Albert Sperisen (1995)
Stella Patri (1995)
Ward Ritchie (1994)