Gruendler Book Prize
The Otto Gründler Book Prize
2014 Competition
Western Michigan University announces the seventeenth Otto Gründler Book Prize to be awarded in May 2014 at the 49th International Congress on Medieval Studies. It consists of an award of $1,000.00 to the author of a book or monograph in any area of medieval studies that is judged by the selection committee to be an outstanding contribution to its field.
The Prize was instituted by Dr. Diether H. Haenicke, then President of Western Michigan University, to honor Professor Gründler for his distinguished service to the university and his lifelong dedication to the international community of medievalists, and the first award was made in 1997.
Eligibility
Authors from any country are eligible. The book or monograph may be in any of the standard scholarly languages. To be eligible for the 2014 prize the book or monograph must have been published in 2012.
Nominations
Readers or publishers may nominate books. Letters of nomination, 2–4 pages in length, should include sufficient detail and rationale so as to assist the committee in its deliberations. Supporting materials should make the case for the award. Readers' reports, if appropriate, and other letters attesting to the significance of the work would be helpful.
Submission
Send letters of nomination and any supporting material by November 1, 2012, to:
Secretary, Gründler Prize Committee
The Medieval Institute
Western Michigan University
1903 W. Michigan Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5432
Further Notes
- For the purpose of this competition collections of essays, bibliographies, editions, and reference tools are not defined as books.
- The Prize is not a "life achievement award."
- Typically, the book will have one sole author.
- The Committee needs four copies of any book to pursue its work efficiently. All materials submitted become property of the Gründler Prize Committee.
- No student, staff, or faculty member at Western Michigan University, past or current, may receive the Gründler Prize.
Past Winners of the Otto Gründler Book Prize
(in reverse chronological order)
2012
Margot E. Fassler, The Virgin of Chartres: Making History through Liturgy and the Arts (Yale Univ. Press, 2010).
2011
Thomas F. X. Noble, Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2009). More. 
2010
John Van Engen, Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). More.
2009
Caroline Walker Bynum, Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in Late Medieval Northern Germany and Beyond (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2007). More.
2008
William Caferro, John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy (The Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2006). More.
2007
Charles McClendon, The Origins of Medieval Architecture: Building in Europe A.D. 600-900 (Yale Univ. Press, 2005).
2006
Dyan Elliot, Proving Woman: Spirituality and Inquisitional Culture in the Later Middle Ages (Princeton Univ. Press, 2004).
2005
Thomas F. Madden, Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice (The John Hopkins Univ. Press, 2003). More.
2004
Geraldine Carville, The Impact of the Cistercians on the Landscape of Ireland (K. B. Publications, 2002). More.
2003
David Burr, The Spiritual Franciscans: From Protest to Persecution in the Century After Saint Francis (Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 2001). More.
2002
John Lowden, The Making of the Bible Moralisées (Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 2000). More.
2001
Paul Freedman, Images of the Medieval Peasant (Stanford Univ. Press, 1999). More.
2000
Gordon Kipling, Enter the King: Theatre, Liturgy and Ritual in the Medieval Civic Triumph (Oxford Univ. Press, 1998). More.
1999
Jeffrey Hamburger, Nuns as Artists: The Visual Culture of a Medieval Convent (Univ. of California Press, 1997). More.
1998
Diane Cole Ahl, Benozzo Gozzoli (Yale Univ. Press, 1996)
and
Judith M. Bennett, Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in Medieval England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300–1600 (Oxford Univ. Press, 1996). More.
1997
Amy Hollywood, The Soul as Virgin Wife (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1995). More.
Photograph: Portrait of Otto Gründler