Two authors, Terry Tempest Williams, Salt Lake City, and Thomas G. Alexander, Provo, will receive the Evans Biography Award for 1991, according to Ross Peterson, director of the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies at Utah State University. The center administers the annual prize.
The authors will be recognized at a banquet and formal announcement Monday, Sept. 28, at USU. The prize includes a $10,000 cash award to be shared by the winners.Although presented in 1992, the prize is awarded for work published in 1991. Williams is recognized for "Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place," published by Pantheon Books. Alexander is honored for "Things in Heaven and Earth: The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, A Mormon Prophet," published by Signature Books.
The Evans Biography Award was established by David W. and Beatrice C. Evans to encourage writing of biographies, according to the center's associate director, Shannon Hoskins.
The late David W. Evans was a prominent Salt Lake businessman. He was interested in the region he defined as "Mormon Country."
Williams' book "Refuge" blends environmental changes and the changes within three generations of a family, Hoskins said. This is a new trend in biographical writing.
Alexander's book on Wilford Woodruff is described by one juror as "a definitive biography. . .and a major contribution to Mormon, Western and American biography and history."