A new category has been added to the Minnesota Book Awards. The Hognander Minnesota History Award will recognize a scholarly work on the topic of Minnesota history, and will be given every other year.

It will be supported by the Hognander Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization based in Minneapolis.

Nominations are open through Dec. 9. Nominees must be book-length works of scholarship on some topic of Minnesota history, published in 2010 or 2011. Authors do not have to live in Minnesota.

The first Hognander Award will be presented at the Minnesota Book Awards gala next April.

The Minnesota Book Awards have, for 24 years, recognized Minnesota books and authors. The awards are in children's literature, general nonfiction, genre fiction, memoir and creative nonfiction, Minnesota, novel and short story, poetry, and young people's literature, as well as the Readers' Choice Award, the Minnesota Book Artist Award and the Kay Sexton Award.