A publication from a Tla’amin Nation elder was among the winners recently bestowed with American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) awards.
As I Remember It: Teachings (ʔəms tɑʔɑw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder by Elsie Paul, with Davis McKenzie, Paige Raibmon and Harmony Johnson, was first published in 2014. The digital edition, published by RavenSpace, went live in 2019 and pushed Paul's traditional Tla'amin knowledge to the next generation in an engaging and innovative format.
In January, the American Council of Learned Societies announced that As I Remember It was a finalist for 2024 ACLS Open Access Book Prizes and Arcadia Open Access Publishing Awards in the multimodal category. At an annual meeting on May 2, it was announced that Paul's book had won the prestigious award.
"These prizes recognize and reward the authors and publishers of exceptional, innovative and open access humanities books published from 2017 to 2022," stated ACLS in a media release.
As I Remember It: Teachings (ʔəms tɑʔɑw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder won in the multimodal category and Freedom Seekers: Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London by Simon P. Newman won in the history category.
Each prize winner was selected by a panel of judges from a short list of five finalists. The winning authors receive a cash award of $20,000, and the winning publishers receive a grant for $30,000 to support the immediate open access publication of at least two new books.
“ACLS is proud to award these outstanding authors and publishers, whose commitment to open access is helping transform the way scholarly insights reach people inside and outside the academy,” stated ACLS president Joy Connolly. “Their books freely provide communities worldwide with accurate research on topics that have been historically and often intentionally held at the margins of academic inquiry. We look forward to continuing our work with Arcadia to cultivate an ecosystem in which humanistic publications thrive in a larger circle of readers.”
Paul is one of the last mother-tongue speakers of the Tla'amin language, and, "with this immersive online publication, readers can learn about the Tla'amin language, listen to Elsie tell her stories, and watch short animations of legends and events,” stated RavenSpace about the digital version of the publication. “They can navigate by theme – colonialism, community, territory, wellness – explore the contents through interactive maps, browse the audio and visual galleries or make use of the instructional materials designed for teachers and students.”
All winners and finalists can be found at acls.org/2024-acls-open-access-book-prizes.
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