Center for History and Culture
of Southeast Texas and the Upper Gulf Coast
Founded in 2016 by Dr. Mary Scheer as one ÃÛÌÒAPP’s “Visionary Initiatives,” the Center serves the many constituencies of ÃÛÌÒAPP students and faculty, the communities of Southeast Texas and the greater Gulf Coast, and the scholars and creatives who explore the region’s past and present. The Center promotes the study of these regions with a commitment to multicultural, interdisciplinary, collaborative, and community-focused projects.
The Center hosts programs that highlight the work of artists, authors, scholars, community leaders, and others who represent varied specializations and backgrounds. It also awards two annual book prizes and funds original research, creativity, and community outreach through its fellowship program.
2025 Summer Book Prize: Creative
J. Bruce Fuller, How to Drown A Boy (LSU Press).
“How to Drown a Boy invokes a Southwest Louisiana where ‘The God of the Flood’ lives, and a boy raised on lessons from a wetland replete with death and destruction learns to embrace humanity. J. Bruce Fuller brilliantly invokes tension between old and young, despair and faith, death and life with sharp memorable images and poetic meditations respectful of place, ancestors, and traditions yet weary of instability and violence. In precise compelling poems, How to Drown a Boy teaches the uncomfortable ‘Old Testament’ lessons that come with life in the backwaters.” Randy Gonzales—Winner of the 2024 Summerlee Book Prize for Settling St. Malo (2023).
2025 Summer Book Prize: Nonfiction
John R Lundberg, The Texas Lowcountry (TAMU Press).
“While readers readily accept that in works of literature the personal, if correctly framed and deeply understood, can embody the universal, John R. Lundberg shows us how the same is true in historical research. Through vivid narratives and a vast array of archival sources, The Texas Lowcountry documents how the historical realities and broader issues of enslavement dominated the lives of the residents of the lower reaches of the Brazos and Colorado Rivers. In doing so, the important journey from slavery to freedom that residents of the Lowcountry endured becomes all the more real, all the more honest, and all the more valuable for us to learn.” Keagan LeJeune—Winner of the 2024 Summerlee Book Prize for Finding Myself Lost in Louisiana (2023).