Newton - Dr. Francesco Ancona’s book, Femina Sapiens: Women, the First Truly Thinking Human Beings, has been nominated by the publisher, Wyndham Hall Press, for an N.J. Council for the Humanities book award. The publisher has also selected Femina Sapiens to be part of its Rhodes-Fulbright Library series. Each year, the council honors a non-fiction text in the humanities that “encourages critical reflection and makes scholarly knowledge accessible to a general audience.” The award is annual and granted to one work of non-fiction; however, up to five additional “honor books” may also be selected for excellence in the humanities. Authors must either live and/or work in New Jersey Femina Sapiens posits that women were the first truly thinking human beings. Part one argues for the feminine origin of human thought and creativity. Beginning with an analysis of prehistoric art, Femina Sapiens reveals an enigmatic message just starting to unfold: Were women the first human beings capable of analogical thought and what has been deemed “time-factored” thinking? And were our primitive artists women? Part two reveals a seductive narrative, titled, “The Greatest Story Never Told.” The story is a revelation of “Goddess” wisdom and tradition, an active participation in the journey towards spiritual epiphany and atonement with the “eternal feminine.” Ancona is a charismatic and popular professor at Sussex County Community College, where he teaches courses in “Myth, Dream and Image” and “Shakespeare.” He has been cited for “teaching excellence” by the N.J. Council of Community Colleges. Femina Sapiens is his fourth book; he has also written numerous articles. He is currently coauthoring a new book, She Says/He Says Shakespeare with Mary Ives-Thompson, a colleage at the college. Ancona is an associate editor of The Journal of Evolutionary Psychology and is a “distinguished scholar” for the state humanities council’s Horizon speakers bureau, lecturing throughout New Jersey on “Goddess tradition” and on The DaVinci Code. He also lectures on various topics, from dream interpretation and comparative mythology to psychoanalytic interpretations of arts and letters. Ancona, Vietnam-era verteran, is married to freelance artist, Janet Ancona.