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Washington State Book Award

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The Washington State Book Awards is a literary awards program presented annually in recognition of notable books written by Washington authors in the previous year. The program was established in 1967 as the Governor's Writers Awards. Each year, up to ten outstanding books of any genre, which have been written by Washington authors in the previous year are recognized with awards based on literary merit, lasting importance, and overall quality of the publication.

History

When the Governor's Writers Awards was established in 1967, it was based at the Washington State Library in Olympia. In 2001, the Washington Center for the Book based at the Seattle Public Library took over the administration of the program, renaming it as the Washington State Book Awards.

In 2005, an additional category was added to represent children's books. Since established, two children's books are honored each year with the Scandiuzzi Children's Book Awards. One book is honored for picture books, while the other for middle grades and young adults.

In 2006, the Center for the Book divided the entire awards program into categories, significantly reducing the number of awards presented. From 2006 through 2010, the genres of History and Biography formed one category. In 2011, Biography was regrouped with Memoir, while History was regrouped with General Nonfiction. As of 2013, the categories encompass General Nonfiction (History), Biography and Memoir, Fiction, Poetry, and two to four Scandiuzzi Children's Books Awards.

Washington State Book Award winners and finalists

2015

Fiction

  • Winner: Bruce Holbert, The Hour of Lead (Counterpoint Press)
  • Finalists: Heather Brittain Bergstrom, Steal the North; Adrianne Harun, A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain; Martin Limón, The Iron Sickle ; Peter Mountford, The Dismal Science

Poetry

  • Winners: Tod Marshall, Bugle (Canarium Books); Red Pine (translator), The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse (Copper Canyon Press)
  • Finalists: Kelli Russell Agodon, Hourglass Museum; Kim-An Lieberman, In Orbit

Biography/Memoir

  • Winner: Charles D’Ambrosio, Loitering: New and Collected Essays (Tin House Books)
  • Finalists: Bryce Andrews, Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West; Kathleen Flinn, Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family; Tom Robbins, Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life; Elissa Washuta, My Body Is a Book of Rules

History/General Nonfiction

  • Winner: Justin Wadland, Trying Home: The Rise and Fall of an Anarchist Utopia on Puget Sound (Oregon State University Press)
  • Finalists: Greg Atkinson, In Season: Culinary Adventures of a Pacific Northwest Chef; William Dietrich, The North Cascades: Finding Beauty and Renewal in the Wild Nearby; Greg Gordon, When Money Grew on Trees: A.B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber Baron; Frances McCue, Mary Randlett Portraits

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Picture Book: Jennifer K. Mann (author/illustrator), Two Speckled Eggs (Candlewick Press)
  • Finalists: Keith Baker (author/illustrator), Little Green Peas: A Big Book of Color; George Shannon (author) and Taeeun Yoo (illustrator), Hands Say Love; Hannah Viano (author/illustrator), S Is for Salmon: A Pacific Northwest Alphabet
  • Winner, Middle Readers (ages 9 to 12): Dana Simpson, Phoebe and Her Unicorn (full title: Phoebe and Her Unicorn: A Heavenly Nostrils Chronicle, Andrews McMeel Publishing)
  • Finalists: Ken Jennings, Ken Jennings’ Junior Genius Guides: Maps and Geography; Maureen McQuerry, Time Out of Time: Book One: Beyond the Door
  • Winner, Young Adults: Leslye Walton, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender (Candlewick Press)
  • Finalists: Mary Cronk Farrell, Pure Grit: How American World War II Nurses Survived Battle and Prison Camp in the Pacific; Katherine Kirkpatrick, Between Two Worlds; Jennifer Longo, Six Feet Over It
2014

Fiction

  • Winner: Nicola Griffith, Hild (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
  • Finalists: Scott Elliott, Temple Grove; Gregory Spatz, Half as Happy; Jess Walter, We Live in Water; Lance Weller, Wilderness

Poetry

  • Winner: Ed Skoog, Rough Day (Copper Canyon Press)
  • Finalists: Sherman Alexie, What I've Stolen, What I've Earned; Rebecca Hoogs, Self-Storage; Derek Sheffield, Through the Second Skin; Nance van Ninckel, Pacific Walkers

Biography/Memoir

  • Winner: David Laskin, The Family: Three Journeys Into the Heart of the Twentieth Century (Viking Press / Penguin Group)
  • Finalists: Peter Bagge, Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story; Nicole Hardy, Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin; Jonathan Raban, Driving Home: An American Journey

History/General Nonfiction

  • Winner: Daniel James Brown, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (Viking Press / Penguin Group)
  • Finalists: Nancy Bartley, The Boy Who Shot the Sheriff: The Redemption of Herbert Niccolls, Jr.; Langdon Cook, The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America; David Moskowitz, Wolves in the Land of Salmon

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Picture Book: Kobi Yamada (author) and Mae Besom (illustrator), What Do You Do With an Idea? (Compendium Inc.)
  • Finalists: Brenda Guiberson (author) and Gennady Spirin (illustrator), Frog Song; Jack Prelutsky (author) and Carin Berger (illustrator), Stardines Swim High Across the Sky and Other Poems; Nina Laden (author) and Renata Liwska (illustrator), Once Upon a Memory; George Shannon (author) and Julie Paschkis (illustrator), Who Put the Cookies in the Cookie Jar?
  • Winner, Early Readers (ages 6 to 8): M.H. Clark, And Then, Story Starters (Compendium Inc.)
  • Winner, Middle Readers (ages 9 to 12): Suzanne Selfors, The Sasquatch Escape (Little, Brown and Company)
  • Winner, Young Adults (ages 13 to 18): Patrick Flores-Scott, Jumped In (Christy Ottaviano Books / Henry Holt and Company)
  • Finalists: Steven Arntson, The Wrap-Up List; Sean Beaudoin, Wise Young Fool; Thatcher Heldring, The League; Kirby Larson, Duke

Note: The News Release in the Seattle Public Library's archive lists the finalists for the Early Readers, Middle Readers and Young Adults as a group without an age designation.

2013

Fiction

Poetry

  • Winner: Kathleen Flenniken, Plume (University of Washington Press)
  • Finalists: Bruce Beasley, Theophobia; Andrew Feld, Raptor; Colleen McElroy, Here I Throw Down My Heart; Claire McQuerry, Lacemakers

Biography/Memoir

  • Winner: Timothy Egan, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
  • Finalists: Ellen Forney, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo & Me; Karl Marlantes, What It Is Like to Go to War; Domingo Martinez, The Boy Kings of Texas

History/General Nonfiction

  • Winner: David R. Montgomery, The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood
  • Finalists: Kirsten Grind, The Lost Bank: The Story of the Biggest Bank Failure in American History; Blaine Harden, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West; Jack Nisbet, David Douglas, A Naturalist at Work: An Illustrated Exploration Across Two Centuries in the Pacific Northwest; Douglas Smith, Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Picture Book: Barbara Kerley, Those Rebels, John & Tom
  • Winner, Young Adults: J. Anderson Coats, The Wicked and the Just
2012

Fiction

Poetry

Biography/Memoir

  • Winner: Paul Lindholdt, In Earshot of Water: Notes from the Columbia Plateau (University of Iowa Press)
  • Finalists: Jana Harris, Horses Never Lie About Love: The Heartwarming Story of a Remarkable Horse Who Changed the World Around Her; Shiro Kashiba, Shiro: Wit, Wisdom & Recipes from a Sushi Pioneer; Katherine Malmo, Who In This Room: The Realities of Cancer, Fish, and Demolition; Ana Maria Spanga, Potluck: Community on the Edge of Wilderness

History/General Nonfiction

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Picture Book: Nikki McClure (author and illustrator, To Market, To Market (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
  • Winner, Middle Grades and Young Adults: Katherine Schlick Noe, Something to Hold (Clarion Books)
2011

Fiction

Poetry

Biography/Memoir

  • Winner: Doug Merlino, The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White (Bloomsbury)
  • Finalists: Claire Dederer, Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses; Kurt Hoelting, The Circumference of Home: One Man's Yearlong Quest for A Radically Local Life; Robert Michael Pyle, The Mariposa Road: The First Butterfly Big Year; Ana Maria Spagna, Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter's Civil Rights Journey

History/General Nonfiction

  • Winner: David Laskin, The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War (Harper)
  • Finalists: Thea Cooper, Breakthrough: Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of A Medical Miracle; Frances McCue, The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs: Revisiting the Northwest Towns of Richard Hugo; David Shields, Reality Hunger: A Manifesto; Craig Welch, Shell Games: Rogues, Smugglers, and the Hunt for Nature's Bounty

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Picture Book: Erik Brooks (author and illustrator), Polar Opposites (Marshall Cavendish)
  • Winner, Early Readers: Patrick Jennings (writer), Guinea Dog (Egmont USA)
  • Winner, Middle Grades and Young Adults: Lish McBride, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (Henry Holt)
2010

Fiction

Poetry

General Nonfiction

History/Biography

  • Winner: Timothy Egan, The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
  • Finalists: Daniel James Brown, The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride; Lynda Mapes, Breaking Ground: The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and Unearthing of Tse-whit-zen Village; Jack Nisbet, The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest; Mishna Wolff, I'm Down: A Memoir

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Picture Book: Samantha Vamos, Before You Were Here, Mi Amor (illustrated by Santiago Cohen) (Viking Children's Books)
  • Winner, Early Readers: Bonny Becker, The Magical Ms. Plum (Knopf)
  • Winner, Middle Grades and Young Adults: Michael Harmon, Brutal (Knopf)
2009

Fiction

Poetry

General Nonfiction

  • Winner: Barbara Brotherton, editor, S'abadeb: The Gifts: Pacific Coast Salish Arts and Artists (Seattle Art Museum/University of Washington Press)
  • Finalists: Paul Bannick, The Owl and the Woodpecker: Encounters with North America’s Most Iconic Birds; Bruce Barcott, The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman’s Fight to Save the World’s Most Beautiful Bird; Cliff Mass, The Weather of the Pacific Northwest; David Shields, The Thing About Life is That One Day You’ll Be Dead

History/Biography

  • Winner: Robert Clark, Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces (Doubleday)
  • Finalists: Kate Jackson, Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo; Debra Jarvis, It’s Not About the Hair: And Other Uncertainties of Life & Cancer; Jim Kershner, Carl Maxey: A Fighting Life; Richard Scheuermann, Finding Chief Kamiakin: The Life and Legacy of a Northwest Patriot

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Picture Book: Barbara Kerley, What To Do About Alice? How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy! (illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham) (Scholastic Press)
  • Honorable Mention, Picture Book: Bonny Becker, A Visitor for Bear (illustrated by Kady M. Denton)
  • Winner, Middle Grades and Young Adults: Richard Farr, Emperors of the Ice: A True Story of Disaster in the Antarctic, 1910-13 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
2008

Fiction

Poetry

General Nonfiction

History/Biography

  • Winner: Coll Thrush, Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place (University of Washington Press)
  • Finalists: Michael Honey, Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign; Jeffrey Karl Ochsner, Lionel H. Pries, Architect, Artist, Educator: from Arts and Crafts to Modern Architecture

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Picture Book: George Shannon, Rabbit's Gift (illustrated by Laura Dronzek) (Harcourt)
  • Winner, Middle Grades and Young Adults: Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (illustrated by Ellen Forney) (Little, Brown)
2007

Fiction

Poetry

General Nonfiction

  • William D. Layman, River of Memory: The Everlasting Columbia (University of Washington Press)

History/Biography

  • Winner: Jlie Phillips, James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon (St. Martins Press)
  • Finalists: Daniel James Brown, Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894; Charles R. Cross, Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix; Lyanda Lynn Haupt, Pilgrim on the Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks; Joshua Wolf Shenk, Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Picture Book: Jack Prelutsky, Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems (illustrated by Carin Berger) (Greenwillow)
  • Finalist, Picture Book: Finalist: Karma Wilson, Moose Tracks (illustrated by Jack E. Davis)
  • Winner, Middle Grades and Young Adults: Brent Hartinger, Grand & Humble (Harper Tempest)
  • Finalists: Kirby Larson, Hattie Big Sky; Michele Torrey, Voyage of Plunder
2006

Fiction

Poetry

General Nonfiction

History/Biography

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Picture Book: Karla Kuskin, So, What's It Like to Be a Cat? (illustrated by Betsy Lewin)
  • Finalist, Picture Book: Carole Lexa Schaefer, The Bora-Bora Dress (illustrated by Catherine Stock)
  • Winner, Middle Grades and Young Adults: Michael Gruber, The Witch's Boy
  • Finalist, Middle Grades and Young Adults: Deb Caletti, Wild Roses
2005

General Books

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award

  • Winner, Middle Grades and Young Adults: Deb Caletti, Honey, Baby, Sweetheart
  • Winner, Picture Book: Carmela D'Amico, Ella the Elegant Elephant (illustrated by Steven D'Amico)
2004

2004 was the last year in which there were no categories.

  • Gary Atkins, Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging
  • Fred Beckey, Range of Glaciers: The Exploration and Survey of the Northern Cascade Range
  • Karen Cushman, Rodzina
  • Chris Forhan, The Actual Moon, the Actual Stars
  • Alan Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717
  • Linda Lawrence Hunt, Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America
  • Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair
  • David R. Montgomery, King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon
  • Jack Nisbet, Visible Bones: Journey Across Time in the Columbia River Country
  • Matt Ruff, Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls
2003
2002