2015 CDA Book Award Winners
The recipients are:
The CDA Book Awards Committee led by Chair, Past President General Audrey Svensson has named the winners:
AWARD
Title:
Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause
Author:
Heath Hardage Lee
About
Varina Anne “Winnie” Davis, youngest daughter of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, was born in 1864 and hailed as a symbol of Southern hope. After the Civil War, she was raised abroad, later returning to be crowned the “Daughter of the Confederacy” in 1886. Idolized by veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Winnie became a living emblem of the Lost Cause. But her 1890 engagement to a Northern abolitionist’s grandson—and her later career as a writer in New York—shattered expectations. Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause explores her struggle to bridge heritage and personal conviction.
CITATION
Title:
The Art Deco Murals of Hildreth Meiere
Author:
Catherine Coleman Brawer and Kathleen Murphy Skolnik
Photographer:
Hildreth Meiere Dunn
About
Hildreth Meière, a trailblazing but often overlooked artist, was a driving force behind American Art Deco design. Her bold, intricate murals and mosaics grace landmarks like Radio City Music Hall, St. Bartholomew’s Church, and the Nebraska State Capitol. Blending Byzantine, classical, and Native American influences, Meière’s style shaped 20th-century liturgical and architectural art. This first monograph, richly illustrated with large-scale photographs by her granddaughter, celebrates her legacy across over 100 commissions. The Art Deco Murals of Hildreth Meière restores this unsung heroine to her rightful place in American art history.
YOUNG READER
Title:
The Nutcracker Comes to America: How Three Ballet-Loving Brothers Created a Holiday Tradition
Author:
Lesa Cline-Ransome
Narrator:
Sean Crisden
About
It wasn’t soft/It wasn’t black/It wasn’t sweet/It wasn’t white/It was swing. Brought together by the love of playing jazz music, Teddy Wilson and Benny Goodman broke the color barrier in entertainment when they formed the Benny Goodman Trio with Gene Krupa. This lush and lyrical picture book tells the story of how two musical prodigies from very different backgrounds – one a young black boy growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama, the other the son of struggling Russian-Jewish immigrants from the West Side of Chicago – were brought together by their love of music, and helped create the jazz style known as swing.