Professor of Hebrew Bible Jacob L. Wright has earned a PROSE Award from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), honoring scholarly works published in 2023. Wright received the award for his book, Why the Bible Began: An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins, released in October 2023 by Cambridge University Press.
In the book, Wright explores the origins and circumstances surrounding the Bible’s creation. He argues that the Jewish people, faced with despair and displacement, turned to writing as a means to rediscover and redefine their communal identity, inadvertently producing the most significant literary work in human history.
The PROSE Awards honor excellence in the increasingly competitive landscape of academia. Wright won in the category of Theology and Religious Studies, one of 41 categories represented.
According to PROSE Awards Chief Judge Nigel Fletcher-Jones, “This year’s PROSE Awards were one of the most competitive to date, highlighting the broad array of high-quality scholarly works available to readers.”
The winner in each category now goes on to be considered for the PROSE Awards for Excellence, which will be announced later this spring. The Awards for Excellence are presented in the categories of biological and life sciences, humanities, physical sciences and mathematics, and social sciences. The four recipients of the Awards for Excellence will then be considered for the R.R. Hawkins Award, the PROSE Awards’ highest honor.
Why the Bible Began has garnered acclaim since its publication, including a starred review in Publishers Weekly, a review in The New Yorker, and inclusion in The New Yorker’s ongoing list of “Best Books We’ve Read This Week” and Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2023.