Hello Virginia Forum partners and supporters,

The Virginia Forum Board of Directors is delighted to solicit nominations for the 2025 Virginia Forum Best Book Prize, which recognizes the best book on Virginia, its peoples, and their histories. The book prize competition is open to books published in 2025.

Eligible books include single- and multi-authored monographs as well as biographies, memoirs, and autobiographies that illuminate a particular historical actor, period, or process. All eligible books must have undergone peer review. The prize committee will not consider any works of fiction or poetry, edited volumes or anthologies, or published editions of primary sources.

Self-nominations we welcome, as are nominations from publishers, peer reviewers, and/or the public.

The winner will be announced at the annual meeting of the Virginia Forum held March 19-21, 2026 at Shenandoah University.

Please nominate books by Friday, January 30. Submit nominations, including title information, ISBN if available, and a copy of the book or PDF of final pages, to:  virginiaforumbookprize@gmail.com.