TAA Council Awards

Nominate yourself or a colleague for one of seven TAA Council Awards. These awards, which recognize individual achievements in writing or in service to TAA or fellow authors, are selected each year by the TAA Council of Fellows and Awards Committee. 

The deadline for nominations is May 1, 2025.

Service Awards

President's Award | Author Mentoring Award | Keedy-Anderson Award

Writing Awards

Rising Star | The Social Justice Award | Pynn-Silverman Lifetime Achievement Award | Council of Fellows 

View Awards Criteria

Submit a Nomination

Click here for a list of previous Council Award winners.

Questions? Contact Kim Pawlak at [email protected].


Service Awards


2019 TAA Council Award winnersPresident’s Award

This is an award determined by the TAA President (not the Awards Committee) based primarily on service to TAA during the past year. It may be awarded to a member or friend of TAA at any career stage.

Author Mentoring Award

Author Mentoring is a service award for a teacher, administrator, fellow author, or other professional colleague who takes extraordinary care to encourage and advise earlier career authors. It is the only Council Award that may not be self-nominated. Eligible candidates will typically be in the middle or late stages of their career. Learn more

Keedy-Anderson Award

Keedy-Anderson is a service award for TAA members who display devotion to TAA and/or the authoring community through continuous acts of support and service. The award is named for founding member Mike Keedy, and charter member Paul Anderson, both of whom exemplified service to TAA and authors. The award will typically be conferred on someone late in their career who has served over a long period of time. Learn more


Writing Awards


Rising Star

Rising Star is intended to recognize authors earlier in their careers whose published work(s) to date have had impact in their discipline and indicate a likelihood of significant future contributions. Learn more

The Social Justice Award

The Social Justice Award recognizes individuals that make a significant contribution to authoring or educating academic authors in social justice, human rights, and/or diversity, equity, and inclusion. Learn more

Pynn-Silverman Lifetime Achievement Award 

The Pynn-Silverman Award recognizes authors whose writing, teaching, and service over a full career have demonstrated the highest degree of excellence in authoring and commitment to the community. Learn more

Council of Fellows

The TAA Council of Fellows honors distinguished authors who have a long record of successful publishing. Any author whose textbook or other instructional and academic works have established his/her presence in scholarly publishing over time, who has been innovative in the presentation of material, is qualified for nomination into the TAA Council of Fellows. Induction into the Council of Fellows is the premier honor bestowed by TAA. Learn more


Council Award Criteria


Author Mentoring Award

The TAA Author Mentoring Award recognizes an individual with a long and distinguished record of mentoring authors—either through TAA or individual efforts.

Nominations
Candidates may be nominated by any member of TAA, but need not themselves be a TAA member. Candidates may not self-nominate for this award.

A minimum of two letters of nomination should be submitted. Letters should describe how the nominee was successful in mentoring multiple authors or academics over a sustained period of time. Examples of mentoring success should be provided. You may also include any specific diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Award Criteria
Candidates are judged on two primary factors:

  • Description and examples of a long history of mentoring successes.
  • Evidence of mentoring multiple authors and/or academics.

Selection Process
The TAA Council established and authorized the TAA Council of Fellows and Awards Committee to have responsibility for seeking and evaluating nominations and establishing the process that is followed each year. Deadlines for nominations and other information relevant to the award are posted on the TAA website. In general, deadlines are in January or February each year for the awards to be presented at that year’s Annual Conference.

Awards are made at the discretion of the TAA Awards Committee, which may choose to grant a maximum of one award per year.


The Keedy-Anderson Service Award

The Keedy-Anderson Service Award recognizes individuals with a long record of providing service to authors, to TAA, or to the individual’s discipline, either through TAA, another organization, or through individual efforts. Strong nominees promote TAA to their colleagues, at their university, or within the authoring community. The award is named for Paul Anderson and Mike Keedy, two charter members of TAA who exemplified service to TAA and authors.

Nominations
Anyone may nominate him/herself or a colleague for the Keedy-Anderson Service Award and must present evidence to reflect the criteria.

Award Criteria

  • Service to TAA. Successful candidates contributed to the success of TAA over a sustained period of service. Such accomplishments may include activities in membership, public advocacy, or committee service. Multiple accomplishments in these areas should be part of the nomination letter.
  • Service to the Authoring Community. Successful candidates enhanced the lives and careers of authors through TAA, another professional organization, or through individual efforts. Such accomplishments may include activities such as teaching, mentoring, leading diversity, equity or inclusion initiatives, or otherwise serving authors.

Selection Process
The TAA Council established and authorized the TAA Council of Fellows and Awards Committee to have responsibility for seeking and evaluating nominations and establishing the process that is followed each year. 

The Committee typically selects one awardee annually but may determine in any given year that no awards are given, or that two candidates are to be awarded.


Rising Star Award

The TAA Rising Star Award is intended to recognize emerging talent in educational and academic authoring whose work reflects a level of quality that holds promise for future contributions to the recipient’s academic discipline. The work may be a textbook, book chapter, monograph or journal article but must be scholarly in nature.

Nominations
Candidates must be in the developing stage of their careers, but there is no age restriction. Candidates may nominate themselves or a colleague for this award. Membership in TAA is not a prerequisite for this award. Candidates may not be currently serving on the TAA Council or the TAA Awards Committee. Candidates may not have received other Council awards recognizing authoring contributions from the TAA (Publication and Contract Review Grants may have been earned, but not writing awards). A letter with detail supporting the nomination should be submitted to the Committee.

Award Criteria
The Rising Star award may be based on recognition of a particular work of excellence—it may even be the first work produced by the candidate—however, the selection committee is looking for indications that the candidate is poised to make ongoing contributions to the discipline. Also under consideration are whether the work(s) represent a significant finding; an innovative research methodology; a major contribution to diversity, equity or inclusion efforts; or a particularly impactful work for peers or students.

Although the award is primarily bestowed for authoring of scholarly or educational works, candidates should demonstrate achievements/contributions in one or more of the following areas:

  • Scholarship/writing which may include research, textbook authoring, academic publication, presentations, or other scholarly and creative activities, but need not include a long list of publications. It is understood that this award in intended for early-career authors, so a first publication may even be submitted.
  • Professional service which may include service to TAA, or work at the community, state, or national levels that represents or promotes academic and educational publishing.

Selection Process
The TAA Council established and authorized the TAA Council of Fellows and Awards Committee to have responsibility for seeking and evaluating nominations and establishing the process that is followed each year. Deadlines for nominations and other information relevant to the award are posted on the TAA website. In general, deadlines are in January or February each year for the awards to be presented at that year’s Annual Conference.

The Committee typically selects one awardee annually but may determine in any given year that no awards will be given, or that two candidates are to be awarded.


The Social Justice Award

The Social Justice Award recognizes individuals that make a significant contribution to authoring or educating academic authors in social justice, human rights, and/or diversity, equity, and inclusion. Strong nominees have the following characteristics: have authored a work or works that address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in a meaningful way or have provided trainings or other efforts to improve how academic authors address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their writing.

Nominations 
Candidates may nominate themselves or a colleague for this award and must present evidence to reflect the criteria. Candidates are not required to be members of TAA.  A letter with detail supporting the nomination should be submitted to the Committee.

Award Criteria 
A successful nominee’s work must demonstrate a significant contribution to authoring or providing knowledge/training with attention to social justice, human rights, and/or diversity, equity, and inclusion. This may include an influential journal article, a textbook, book chapter, presentation/webinar, providing training, or developing other resources of value to academic authors. Information should be provided that outlines the significance of the work either to its discipline, in social justice, or in diversity, equity, or inclusion.  

Selection Process 
The TAA Council established and authorized the TAA Council of Fellows and Awards Committee to have responsibility for seeking and evaluating nominations and establishing the process that is followed each year. If necessary, consultation with the CDEI can be part of the selection process. The committee strives to select one awardee annually but may determine in any given year that no awards are given, or that two candidates are to be awarded.


The Pynn-Silverman Lifetime Achievement Award

The Pynn-Silverman Lifetime Achievement Award was established to honor individuals whose achievements over a career of devoted effort and service, demonstrate the highest degree of commitment to excellence in authoring works to advance their discipline, encourage, enlighten and support the work of colleagues, and educate students in the field. The award is named for Ron Pynn and Franklin Silverman, two charter members of TAA who pursued and modeled these qualities in their own work.

Nominations
Candidates may nominate themselves or a colleague for this award and must present evidence to reflect the criteria. Candidates are not required to be members of TAA. A letter with detail supporting the nomination should be submitted to the Committee.

Award Criteria

Publication History
Successful candidates authored a considerable body of work in their field that has proven over time to reflect the best understanding of their discipline at the time, and to have helped advance knowledge of the discipline. Works that also address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion and/or have been instrumental in resisting oppression and discrimination are encouraged.

While co-authored works are eligible for consideration, it is expected that the candidate authored a number of works alone. There is no set number of works required to qualify, but a successful candidate authored a substantial number of article-length works and/or several book-length works.

Textbooks, courseware, monographs, and journal articles may all be considered, but the essential element is high-quality and proven value over time. Other considerations that may indicate a strong candidate might be having published in more than one discipline or specialty area, and evidence of recognition of the quality of the author’s works as shown by winning TAA Textbook awards, or other national awards for teaching or writing.

Professional Public Standing
Successful candidates provide evidence of their standing as prominent contributors to their discipline. This might be shown through awards or citations for teaching, recognition as a regular speaker, especially keynotes, at national conferences in the awardee’s discipline, or other indicators as appropriate.

Successful candidates are able to show their work contributed to increased public understanding and appreciation of their field and/or of academic standards. For example, a candidate may provide newspaper and magazine articles, or television appearances representing them as recognized experts who can translate issues in their discipline to the public.

Selection Process
The TAA Council established and authorized the TAA Council of Fellows and Awards Committee to have responsibility for seeking and evaluating nominations and establishing the process that is followed each year. 

The committee typically selects one awardee annually but may determine in any given year that no awards are given, or that two candidates are to be awarded.


TAA Council of Fellows

The TAA Council of Fellows honors distinguished authors who have a long record of successful publishing. Any author whose textbook or other instructional materials have established his/her presence in the marketplace over time, who has been innovative in the presentation of material, is qualified for nomination into the TAA Council of Fellows. Induction into the Council of Fellows is the premier honor bestowed by TAA.

Council of Fellows members are chosen by a TAA Selection Committee based on a set of criteria which includes their:

  • Level of participation in TAA activities
  • Teaching excellence
  • Quality and quantity of textbooks (if textbook authors)
  • Quality and quantity of professional journal articles, monographs and edited books (if academic authors)

Applications must include documentation in support of the Council of Fellows Criteria. 

 View the current Council of Fellows