On Thursday, Andrew Jackson, Southerner was named the winner of the 2013 Tennessee History Book Award, given jointly by the Tennessee Library Association and the Tennessee Historical Commission.
While every author secretly hopes to win some sort of award, I never thought that I would actually win one. What I write about isn’t fashionable, and I still remember the criticism of my writing by one grad school professor (which I won’t share here, but it’s advice I think still holds true for me today). As Twitterstorians and the blogosphere have been discussing recently (here and here), academic rejection is something that hurts immensely. While this award brings with it a sense of accomplishment, I suspect that imposter syndrome will set back in quickly.
Until then, I’ll enjoy the award. I am grateful to TLA, THC, and the awards committee for recognizing something worthwhile in the book, and I hope readers think it worth their time as well.
Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics 
Fantastic! Congratulations, Mark.
Thanks, Boyd.
Congratulations. I know you deserve this honor. History goes through fads. Remember it takes guts to champion an individual who is not presently in fashion – both for you the author and for those who award the honor. It seems to be getting harder than ever to publish serious history on a subject that is not presently in vogue and littered with the buzzwords of today.
Thanks for the encouragement, Peter.
Congratulations!
Thanks, Jimmy.
Congratulations on the recognition. You deserve it.
Thanks, Rick. A bigger reward was that my Jacksonian students didn’t hate the book!
Congratulations. That’s a wonderful honor. Accept it for what it is, the opinion of your peers that you wrote an excellent book, in both scholarship and writing.
Thank you–I’ll try.
Mazel Tov! Well-deserved, and not an impostor in sight.
Thank you!