$1,000 grand prize

Salguero applied with a collection unlike anything the judges had seen. His “Interspecies Library” explores through artists’ books the interconnectedness of the planet’s many forms of life. Consider, for example, the complex relationships we humans have with fungi, bacteria, plants, and everything that roams the earth. More than this, it reflects humanity’s relationship with the environment at a time of climate crisis. It preserves for posterity a snapshot of our thoughts and emotions when multiple climatic tipping points feel impossibly close. International in scope but strictly focused, his 200-book collection is as much a global survey of the subject as it is the expression of one collector. The judges loved it. “His work is really interesting and he’s doing something very different,” one said. “So clever and inventive,” another remarked. Frankly, some were caught off guard by the originality of the concept. Follow him on Instagram (@interspecieslibrary) as he works to de-center the human.

$500 second prize

The judges were undeniably impressed, too, by Harris’s entry. Their multi-genre collection on queer Africa documents the experiences of queer Africans, whether through poetry, graphic novels, magazines, or any other manifestation of print. The collection is a triumph, a symbol of queer Africans’ ongoing advocacy for their right to exist. Beyond this vital representation, the collection underscores the possibilities and the importance of collecting material outside major western distribution channels. Harris has collected this material while living and traveling in Africa. “Amazon doesn’t have the range,” she writes. “American booksellers don’t have the context.” This is material that generally can’t be found anywhere else. The judges were eager to reward their vision and methods. It’s a “unique and compelling” collection story, one judge said. Given the rarity of the material and the sheer difficulty obtaining it, they’re keen to see how it develops.

$250 third prize

Severson has assembled an alluring collection on the British long 18th century. This may be familiar territory for many. She even has many of the names that might come to mind. Swift, Pope, and Sterne, for example. But she’s tapped into a focus and a method much less conventional. The former is to seek especially work by or about women and people of color, pushing against decades, if not centuries, of collecting traditions for the British 18th century. Her method is to seek books in the absolute worst condition imaginable. She speaks proudly of her “rat-eaten” and “water-logged” books. Severson frames this as something much richer than bare economy. In her own words, taking her focus and method together: “I feel like I am working against this devaluation of books as part and parcel of how I work against the devaluation of authors or subjects in my period based on their gender or race.” Fully cognizant of the enduring maxim that condition is everything, she admits being fascinated by “the tension between the durability of these books and the fragility of their value.” It’s a refreshing perspective, both in focus and method, and the judges were pleased to reward it.

$1,000 grand prize

Drawn into book collecting during the pandemic by rare editions of 20th-century Black women writers, Valderrama, facing rich price tags and seeking the thrill of a chase, pivoted to a focus both original and compelling: not first editions of Toni Morrison’s novels, but the overlooked corpus of books Morrison edited during her time in publishing, as well as those she blurbed. The judges loved it. “A really excellent point of view to be taking,” one said, “requiring her to do research, requiring her to look beyond just the author’s name.” All agreed it’s a collection teeming with “great choices” and “really good judgments.” Evidence of Valderrama’s thoughtfulness and passion is obvious. She is blazing a trail through a collecting landscape with no guide. We can’t wait to see where it goes.

$500 second prize

The judges spared few superlatives when discussing Shi’s collection. While it started with a focus on Chinese books from the diaspora in New York City, it’s expanded along with Shi’s own path through the world. After extensive travel through Europe, the collection focuses broadly on Western and European attitudes toward China, and especially toward communism during the Cold War. Shi finds in her collection cultural objects that bridge the East and West. One judge called hers a “scholarly application,” another recognized Shi’s “really solid focus on what she’s looking for and why.” It’s an expansive collection, vast in geographical scope, but with one guiding plan: “to continue exploring the history of the Western world through its imagination of China and of Chinese people,” to quote Shi herself.

$250 third prize

After some dozen moves, her (rather heavy) collection in tow each time, none can deny Dr. Saffold’s collecting commitment. Her collection focuses on African American literature, Street Lit and Hip Hop especially. And like its peripatetic collector, the collection has been doing some heavy lifting. Dr. Saffold is on faculty at the University of New Orleans and this collection is very much a working one, providing primary sources for her forthcoming book, Books & Beats: The Cultural Kinship of Street Lit and Hip Hop. The collection is a cornerstone of and complement to Saffold’s larger project, a digital archive of the bestseller lists from Essence Magazine, 1994-2010. It’s no surprise that she came in with a “really compelling essay,” according to one judge. She approaches her collection with “a very clear vision,” and through it “she’s adding to scholarship, she’s sharing the scholarship.” Like this prize’s namesake, Saffold has roots in Black entrepreneurship. Her application shared a vision of a bookstore, one that would help bring young people into the Black book trade. We think David Ruggles would approve. Obviously we’re here for it.