By Erin Wood
The Arkansiana Award is presented biennially by the Arkansas Library Association to the author(s) whose books represent “a significant contribution to Arkansas heritage and culture.”
This year’s recipients are Little Rock writer, journalist, and musician Stephen Koch, for his book From Almeda to Zilphia: Arkansas Women Who Transformed American Popular Song, and Clinton writer and journalist Monica Potts for her New York Times bestseller, The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Lost Promise in Rural America.
The Award is accompanied by a $300 cash prize and was presented on October 18 at the Arkansas Library Association’s annual meeting, held at the Hot Springs Convention Center. First bestowed in 1979, past winners include Shirley Abbot, Griff Stockley, John Grisham, and Donald Harington.
Monica Potts was not able to be present to receive the award, but Stephen Koch noted how good it felt to be part of preserving the stories of the thirty women musicians represented in his book.
On Sunday, the second day of the two-day conference, Koch provided lunchtime musical entertainment during which he performed songs by Brinkley’s Louis Jordan (about whom Koch has written the biography Louis Jordan: Son of Arkansas, Father of R&B, and Cotton Plant’s Sister Rosetta Tharpe (featured in Koch’s Arkansiana Award-winning book From Almeda to Zilphia).
Find copies of both books at your favorite local bookstore or through Bookshop.org. Signed copies of From Almeda to Zilphia can be ordered at etaliapress.com.
Hot Springs native Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs etaliapress.com. Wood is the author of “Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives” (2019) and editor of and a contributor to “Scars: An Anthology” (2015).
