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The Phi Beta Kappa Society has announced the
 2025 Book Awards Short List

           


The ΦΒΚ Book Awards are administered in the following three, non-fiction categories:

The Christian Gauss Award: Celebrates outstanding books in the field of literary scholarship or criticism.
The Phi Beta Kappa Award for Science: Recognizes superior books by scientists written to illuminate aspects of science for a broad readership.
The Ralph Waldo Emerson Award: Honors scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity.

Finalists and award-winning authors are selected by a panel of experts in each category. Award-winning authors will each receive a $10,000 prize. For more information please email Micayla Nadeau-Williams. The winners will be announced in October.
The Christian Gauss Award

 
 
every valley

Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah

By Charles King,
Doubleday

reading genesis

Reading Genesis

By Marilynne Robinson,
Farrar, Straus and Giroux  

the black box

The Black Box: Writing the Race

By Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 
Penguin Press

the freaks came out to write

The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the Village Voice, the Radical Paper that Changed American Culture

By Tricia Romano, 
PublicAffairs

the playbook

The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War 

By James Shapiro,
Penguin Press

The Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science

 
 
crisis averted

Crisis Averted: The Hidden Science of Fighting Outbreaks

By Caitlin Rivers,
Viking

then i am myself the world

Then I Am Myself the World: What Consciousness Is and How to Expand It 

By Christof Koch,
Basic Books

what if we get it right

What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures

By Ayana Elizabeth Johnson,
One World

why we remember

Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters

By Charan Ranganath, 
Doubleday

wicked problems

Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World

By Guru Madhavan,
W.W. Norton & Company

The Ralph Waldo Emerson Award

 
 
everyone who is gone is here

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis 

By Jonathan Blitzer,
Penguin Press

native nations

Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

By Kathleen DuVal,
Random House

smoke and ashes

Smoke and Ashes: Opium’s Hidden Histories

By Amitav Ghosh, 
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

soldiers and kings

Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling

By Jason De León,
Viking

the invention of prehistory

The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins

By Stefanos Geroulanos,
Liveright

Staff Contact


Please email Micayla Nadeau-Williams at awards@pbk.org with any inquiries.