Announcements and activities.

The Georgia Historical Society is pleased to announce the winners of its 2006 publication awards. The Malcolm Bell Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award, established in 1992, is given for the best book in Georgia history published in the previous year and is named in honor of Malcolm Bell Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell in recognition of their contributions to the recording of Georgia's history. The award carries a cash prize of $500. This year's winner is Erskine Clarke of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, for his book Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic, published by Yale University Press. The Lilla Mills Hawes Award recognizes the best book in Georgia county or local history published in the previous year. This award was established in 1993 and honors Lilla Hawes, the Society's director from 1948 to 1976. The award carries a cash prize of $500. This year's co-recipients are Ouida Dickey and Doyle Mathis, both of Berry College in Rome, for their book, Berry College: A History, published by the University of Georgia Press. The E. Merton Coulter Award is given for the best article in the Georgia Historical Quarterly in the previous year. The Coulter Award was established in 1973 in honor of E. Merton Coulter, editor of the Quarterly for fifty years. The award carries a cash prize of $250. This year the award goes to Andrew Moore of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, for his article, "Practicing What We Preach: White Catholics and the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta," which appeared in the 2005 fall issue.

Greenwood Press has engaged Joseph Byrne of Belmont University to edit the new two-volume A to Z reference work Encyclopedia of Plague, Pestilence, and Pandemic. Byrne is currently seeking qualified contributors on topics covering most of world history and a wide range of diseases. Articles cover major diseases and epidemics from antiquity to the present. Special emphasis will be on the social, cultural, and other historical effects of diseases and on the ways in which various cultures have responded to them. Articles will be from five hundred to three thousand words in length, with a few longer anchor pieces. Substantial contributors will be compensated with copies of the work and/or small cash honoraria. This is a first call for authors. For further information please contact Joseph Byrne at [e-mail] .edu or via the Honors Program, Belmont University, 1900 Belmont Blvd., Nashville, TN 37212.