(* indicates title was shortlisted)

2026 William Mills Prize Recipient

Media Release

Sagnières, Hubert. For Glory, Not Gold: Expeditions through Arctic Lands 1818-1876. Paris: Éditions Flammarion, October 2025. ISBN: 978-2-08-048791-9.

2026 William Mills Prize Honorable Mentions

Cronin, Elizabeth, ed. The Awe of the Arctic: A Visual History. Essays by Elizabeth Cronin, Elizabeth C. Delinger, et al. Berlin: Hatje Cantz; and New York: The New York Public Library, March 2024. ISBN: 978-3-7757-4807-0.

Hince, Bernadette. Cold Words: A Polar Dictionary. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing, April 2025. ISBN: 9781486319459 (Paperback); 9781486319466 (ePDF); 9781486319473 (ePUB). Published in the UK as A Polar Dictionary: Cold Words (Wallingford, Oxfordshire: CABI, July 2025). ISBN: 9781836991519 (Hardback); 9781836991526 (Paperback); 9781836991533 (ePDF); 9781836991540 (ePUB).

2026 William Mills Prize Nominees

Adcock, Tina. A Cold Colonialism: Modern Exploration and the Canadian North. Vancouver: UBC Press, June 2025. ISBN: 9780774870122 (Hardcover); 9780774870139 (Paperback); 9780774870146 (EBOOK PDF); 9780774870153 (EBOOK EPUB).

Aglukark, Susan and Andrea Warner. Kihiani: A Memoir of Healing. Toronto: HarperCollins, September 2025. ISBN: 9781443472944 (Hardcover); 9781443472975 (Digital Audiobook); 9781443472968 (Paperback).

*Anthony, Jason C. The Roast Penguin Chronicles: Hoosh, Scurvy Days, Sleeping with Vegetables, and Other Adventures in Antarctic Cuisine. New York: Compass Rose Publishing, March 2025. ISBN: 979-8991456340 (Hardcover); 979-8991456333 (Paperback).

*Bennett, Mia and Klaus Dodds. Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, September 2025. ISBN: 978-0300259995 (Hardcover); 978-0300285819 (Ebook).

*Cannon, Chris. In the Footsteps of the Traveller: The Astronomy of Northern Dene. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, April 2025. ISBN: 9781772840988 (Paper); 9781772841008 (PDF); 9781772841015 (EPUB). Series: Contemporary Studies on the North.

Crooks, Katherine. At Home in the Cold: Domestic Culture in Arctic Exploration, 1890–1940. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, November 2025. ISBN: 9780228025610 (Hardcover); 9780228025627 (Ebook PDF); 9780228025634 (Ebook EPUB).

*De Deckker, Patrick.  The Belgica Expedition 1897-1899: The First Expedition to Winter in Antarctic Waters: A Tale of Extraordinary Scientific Achievements and Human Endurance. Seattle: Amazon Publishers, November 2025. ISBN: 978-1970479690.

Engelhard, Michael. Arctic Traverse: A Thousand-Mile Summer of Trekking the Brooks Range. Seattle: Mountaineers Books, March 2024. ISBN: 978-1-68051-678-4.

Engelhard, Michael. No Place Like Nome: The Bering Strait Seen Through Its Most Storied City. Fairbanks:  Corax Books, September 2025. ISBN paperback: 979-8-9899202-2-8 (Paperback); 979-8-9899202-3-5 (Ebook).

Fitzhugh, William W. and Richard D. Kortum. Ritual Landscape: Rock Art and Archaeology in the Mongolian Altai. With Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, Daniel Cole, Jean-Luc Houle, and Yadmaa Tserendagva. Union, ME: IPI Press; and Washington, DC: Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian Institution, January 2025. ISBN: 979-8-9884732-5-1.

*Fleming, Fergus, ed.  Arctic: The North Pole and the North-West Passage. London: The Folio Society, May 2025. ISBNs are not assigned by this publisher to its books.

*Forss, Charlotta. Mapping the North: Myth, Exploration, Encounter. Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing, September 2025. ISBN: 9781851245727.

Fraser, Crystal Gail. By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, December 2024. ISBN: 9781772840940 (Paper); 9781772840964 (PDF); 9781772840971 (EPUB). Series: Critical Studies in Native History.

Gebhardt, Maj. (Ret.) James F., translator and annotator. Arctic Naval Combat in Support of Ground Operations: Soviet Naval Support of the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation, October 1944. Edited by Lt.-Col. (Ret.) Lester W. Grau and Lt.-Col. Charles K. Bartles. Maps by Lt.-Col. Charles K. Bartles. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, December 2025. ISBN: 978-1-64642-790-1 (Hardcover); 978-1-64642-791-8 (Ebook).

Harper, Kenn. Give Me Winter, Give Me Dogs: Knud Rasmussen and the Fifth Thule Expedition. Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, November 2024. ISBN: 978-1-77227-550-6 (Hardcover); 978-1-77227-573-5 (EPUB).

Kagge, Erling. After the North Pole: A Story of Survival, Mythmaking and Melting Ice. Translated by Kari Dickson. New York: HarperOne, February 2025. ISBN: 9780063421783 (Hardcover); 9780063421806 (E-book); 9780063421813 (Digital Audiobook).

Kagge, Erling. The North Pole: The History of an Obsession. Translated by Kari Dickson. London: Viking, Penguin Random House UK, February 2025. ISBN: 978-0241645833 (Hardcover); 9780241999646 (Paperback); 9780241999622 (Ebook); 9781405973069 (Audio Download).

Mazzeo, Tilar J. The Sea Captain’s Wife: A True Story of Mutiny, Love, and Adventure at the Bottom of the World. New York: St. Martin’s Press, September 2025. ISBN 978-1-250-35258-3 (Hardcover); 978-1-250-35259-0 (Ebook).

Mønsted, Asta. Re-activating Indigenous Knowledge from Oral History: Landscape and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Greenland.Milton Park, Abington, Oxfordshire: Routledge, September 2025. ISBN: 9781032774831 (Hardback); 9781032774848 (Paperback); 9781003483373 (eBook). Series: Arctic Worlds: Communities, Political Ecology and Ways of Knowing.

Nicandri, David L. Discovering Nothing: In Pursuit of an Elusive Northwest Passage. Vancouver: UBC Press, June 2024. ISBN: 9780774868877 (Hardcover); 9780774868884 (Paperback); 9780774868891 (EBOOK PDF); 9780774868907 (EBOOK EPUB).

Phillips-Chan, Amy, ed. Stronger Together / Kammanatut Atausigun / Iknaqataghaghluta Qerngaamta: Bering Strait Communities Respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic. With contributions from RB Smith and Carol Gales. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, June 2024. ISBN: 978-1-64642-551-8 (Hardcover); 978-1-64642-552-5 (Paperback); 978-1-64642-553-2 (Ebook).

Shears, John and Nico Vincent. Endurance: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Legendary Ship. Washington: National Geographic, November 2024. ISBN: ‎ 978-1426223839.

Spear, Wayne K. and Georges Erasmus. Hòt’a! Enough! Georges Erasmus’s Fifty-Year Battle for Indigenous Rights. Toronto:  Dundurn Press, November 2024. ISBN: 9781459752900 (Paperback); 9781459752924 (EPub); 9781459752917 (PDF).

*Stewart, Alexandra. Race to the South Pole.Illustrated by Sarah Wilkins. London: Thames & Hudson, October 2025. ISBN: 978-0-500-65355-5 Series: Two-sided Stories.

Stump, Edmund. Otherworldly Antarctica: Ice, Rock, and Wind at the Polar Extreme. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, April 2024. ISBN: 9780226829906 (Cloth); 9780226829913 (ePub); 9780226829913 (PDF).

Tahan, Mary R. and Cornelia Lüdecke. Stranded at the Top of the World: A Story of Exploration and Heroic Rescue in the Arctic. Berlin: Springer Nature, August 2024. ISBN: 978-3-031-56287-7 (Hardcover); 978-3-031-56290-7 (Softcover); 978-3-031-56288-4 (eBook).

Wamsley, Douglas W. Dancing Chief: The Tragic Life of Lieutenant Frederick F. Kislingbury. Staunton, VA: American History Press, December 2025. ISBN: 978-1-939995-45-2 (Hardback); 978-1-939995-47-6 (Paperback); 978-1-939995-46-9 (eBook).