The 2024 Zócalo Book Prize Honors Nonfiction on Connectedness and Social Cohesion

Recognizing Authors Whose Work Enhances Our Understanding of Community

Zócalo Public Square’s annual book prize honors the U.S.-published nonfiction book that best enhances our understanding of community and the forces that strengthen or undermine human connectedness and social cohesion. Zócalo is grateful to screenwriter and philanthropist Tim Disney for his continuing sponsorship of our literary prize program, which also includes the Zócalo Public Square Poetry Prize.

Our mission is to connect people to ideas and to each other, which is why we have honored authors who explore these themes since 2011. Our annual award ceremony—which includes a lecture, interview, and …

Where Local People Build Local Change

2023 Book Prize Winner Michelle Wilde Anderson Says Strong Communities Need New Narratives, New Networks—And Investments in the People Who Already Live There

Four of the poorest, most maligned places in America have become beacons of hope—and burgeoning centers of trust, in people and local government—since going broke in the Great Recession. How …

The Fight to Save Stockton

In the Once-Bankrupt City, a Stanford Scholar Finds That People Are Poor Because Their Governments Are Poor

If California wants to curb poverty, its local governments must become richer.

That may be the most important lesson of the recent history of Stockton, as recounted by Stanford Law School …

A cut out of Michelle Wilde Anderson against a yellow-orange background. She wears a black blazer and is smiling, looking slightly to the right. Hovering to her right is a cut out of two copies of her book 'The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America.' Below the books is the Zócalo Book Prize logo.

Michelle Wilde Anderson Wins the 2023 Zócalo Book Prize

The Fight to Save the Town Highlights the Work of Sewing Society Back Together

Michelle Wilde Anderson is the winner of the 2023 Zócalo Public Square Book Prize for The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America.

Zócalo awards the $10,000 prize annually to …

2022 Zócalo Book Prize Heather McGhee | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

LA84 Foundation’s Renata Simril

Sports Brings People Together

Renata Simril is the president and CEO of LA84 Foundation, which supports youth sport programs and public education around sports and youth development. Previously, she has worked with the Los …

2022 Zócalo Book Prize Heather McGhee | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

2022 Zócalo Book Prize Winner Heather McGhee

I’m Always Trying to Curate a Nice Experience for People

Heather McGhee is the former president and currently a trustee emeritus of Demos, a non-profit progressive U.S. think tank. The 12th annual winner of the Zócalo Book Prize for The Sum of …