The Minnesota Book Awards is a year-long program that connects readers and writers throughout Minnesota with the stories of our neighbors.
The process begins in the fall with book submissions and continues through winter with two rounds of judging. Winners are announced at the annual Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony each spring. Woven throughout the season are various activities and events that promote the authors and connect the world of Minnesota books – writers, artists, illustrators, publishers, editors, and more – to readers throughout the state.
A full list of winners and nominees can be found here: https://thefriends.org/minnesota-book-awards/minnesota-book-awards-winners/
Children's Literature
Big Papa and the Time Machine
By Bernstrom, Daniel
Discover the true meaning of being brave in this tender and whimsical picture book from Daniel Bernstrom (One Day in the Eucalytus, Eucalyptus Tree) and Shane Evans (Chocolate Me!) that follows a grandfather and grandson who travel through time in a beloved 1952 Ford.A little boy who lives with his grandpa isn't reprimanded for being afraid to go to school one day. Instead, Big Papa takes him away in his time machine - a 1952 Ford - back to all of the times when he, himself, was scared of something life was handing him. Full of heartfelt moments and thrilling magical realism, Big Papa and the Time Machine speaks to the African American experience in a touching dialogue between two family members from different generations, and emerges as a voice that shares history and asks questions about one family's experience in 20th-century black America."Wasn't you scared?""Oh, I was scared," Big Papa said. "Sometimes you gotta walk with giants if you ever gonna know what you made of. That's called being brave."
Publisher: n/a
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9780062463319
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Hardcover
General Nonfiction
Owls of the Eastern Ice
By Slaght, Jonathan C.
A field scientist and conservationist tracks the elusive Blakiston's Fish Owl in the forbidding reaches of eastern RussiaI saw my first Blakiston's fish owl in the Russian province of Primorye, a coastal talon of land hooking south into the belly of Northeast Asia . . . No scientist had seen a Blakiston's fish owl so far south in a hundred years, and my photographs were evidence that this rare, reclusive species still persisted.When he was still just a fledgling birdwatcher, Jonathan C. Slaght had a chance encounter with one of the most mysterious birds on Earth. Bigger than any owl he knew, it looked like a small bear with feathers. He wrote to experts. He started tagging along on walks through the lush, remote forest of eastern Russia. The first sighting sent him on a five-year journey to study these enormous, enigmatic creatures and set his calling as a scientist.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780374228484
|
Hardcover
Genre Fiction
The Deep, Deep Snow
By Freeman, Brian
In an intense, emotional mystery that spans a decade in the life of a small town, bestselling author Brian Freeman brings us an unforgettable heroine who discovers that the dead may sometimes be easier to rescue than the living. Deputy Shelby Lake was abandoned as a baby, saved by a stranger who found her in the freezing cold. Now, years later, a young boy is missing -- and Shelby is the one who must rescue a child. The only evidence of what happened to ten-year-old Jeremiah Sloan is a bicycle left behind on a lonely road. After a desperate search fails to locate him, the close bonds of Shelby's hometown begin to fray under the weight of accusations and suspicion. Everyone around her is keeping secrets. Her adoptive father, her best friend, her best friend's young daughter -- they all have something to hide.
Publisher: n/a
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9781094071329
|
Paperback
Memoir & Creative Nonfiction
Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify
By Holbrook, Carolyn
Carolyn Holbrook's life is peopled with ghosts - of the girl she was, the selves she shed and those who have caught up to her, the wounded and kind and malevolent spirits she's encountered, and also the beloved souls she's lost and those she never knew who beg to have their stories told. "Now don't you go stirring things up," one ghostly aunt counsels. Another smiles encouragingly: "Don't hold back, child. Someone out there needs to hear what you have to say."Once a pregnant sixteen-year-old incarcerated in the Minnesota juvenile justice system, now a celebrated writer, arts activist, and teacher who helps others unlock their creative power, Holbrook has heeded the call to tell the story of her life, and to find among its chapters - the horrific and the holy, the wild and the charmed - the lessons and necessary truths of those who have come before.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781517907631
|
Paperback
Middle Grade Literature
What If a Fish
By Fajardo, Anika
A whimsical and unflinchingly honest generational story of family and identity where hats turn into leeches, ghosts blow kisses from lemon trees, and the things you find at the end of your fishing line might not be a fish at all.Half-Colombian Eddie Aguado has never really felt Colombian. Especially after Papa died. And since Mama keeps her memories of Papa locked up where Eddie can't get to them, he only has Papa's third-place fishing tournament medal to remember him by. He'll have to figure out how to be more Colombian on his own. As if by magic, the perfect opportunity arises. Eddie - who's never left Minnesota - is invited to spend the summer in Colombia with his older half-brother. But as his adventure unfolds, he feels more and more like a fish out of water.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781534449831
|
Hardcover
Minnesota Nonfiction
Minnesotas Geologist
By Leaf, Sue
Winner of the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for Minnesota Nonfiction. The story of the scientist who first mapped Minnesotas geology, set against the backdrop of early scientific inquiry in the state. At twenty, Newton Horace Winchell declared, "I know nothing about rocks." At twenty-five, he decided to make them his lifes work. As a young geologist tasked with heading the Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey, Winchell (1839-1914) charted the prehistory of the region, its era of inland seas, its volcanic activity, and its several ice ages - laying the foundation for the monumental five-volume Geology of Minnesota. Tracing Winchells remarkable path from impoverished fifteen-year-old schoolteacher to a leading light of an emerging scientific field, Minnesotas Geologist also recreates the heady early days of scientific inquiry in Minnesota, a time when one mans determination and passion for learning could unlock the secrets of the states distant past and present landscape.Traveling by horse and cart, by sailboat and birchbark canoe, Winchell and his group surveyed rock outcrops, river valleys, basalt formations on Lake Superior, and the vast Red River Valley. He studied petrology at the Sorbonne in Paris, bringing cutting-edge knowledge to bear on the volcanic rocks of the Arrowhead region. As a founder of the American Geological Society and founding editor of American Geologist, the first journal for professional geologists, Winchell was the driving force behind scientific endeavor in early state history, serving as mentor to many young scientists and presiding over a household - the Winchell House, located on the University of Minnesotas present-day mall - that was a nexus of intellectual ferment. His life story, told here for the first time, draws an intimate picture of this influential scientist, set against a backdrop of Minnesotas geological complexity and splendor.
Publisher: n/a
|
9781517901684
|
Hardcover
Novel & Short Story
Sharks in the Time of Saviors
By Washburn, Kawai Strong
"Sharks in the Time of Saviors is the story of a family, a people, and a legend, all wrapped in one. Faith and grief, rage and love, this book pulses with all of it. Kawai Strong Washburn makes his debut with a wealth of talent and a true artist's eye." -- Victor LaValle, author of The ChangelingIn 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends.Nainoa's family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods -- a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities.
Publisher: n/a
|
9780374272081
|
Hardcover
Poetry
Homie
By Smith, Danez
FINALIST FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR POETRYFINALIST FOR THE 2021 NAACP IMAGE AWARD FOR POETRY. Danez Smith is our president. Homie is Danez Smiths magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss of one of Smiths close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer. In poems of rare power and generosity, Smith acknowledges that in a country overrun by violence, xenophobia, and disparity, and in a body defined by race, queerness, and diagnosis, it can be hard to survive, even harder to remember reasons for living. But then the phone lights up, or a shout comes up to the window, and family -- blood and chosen -- arrives with just the right food and some redemption. Part friendship diary, part bright elegy, part war cry, Homie is the exuberant new book written for Danez and for Danezs friends and for you and for yours.
Publisher: n/a
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9781644450109
|
Paperback
Young Adult Literature
My Eyes Are Up Here
By Zimmermann, Laura
Insightful, frank, and funny, My Eyes Are Up Here is a razor-sharp debut about a teenage girl struggling to rediscover her sense of self in the year after her body decided to change all the rules.A "monomial" is a simple algebraic expression consisting of a single term. 30H, for example. fifteen-year-old Greer Walsh hasn't been fazed by basic algebra since fifth grade, but for the last year, 30H has felt like an unsolvable equation--one that's made her world a very small, very lonely place. 30H is her bra size--or it was the last time anyone checked. She stopped letting people get that close to her with a tape measure a while ago.Ever since everything changed the summer before ninth grade, Greer has felt out of control. She can't control her first impressions, the whispers that follow, or the stares that linger after.
Children's Literature
Big Papa and the Time Machine
By Bernstrom, Daniel
Discover the true meaning of being brave in this tender and whimsical picture book from Daniel Bernstrom (One Day in the Eucalytus, Eucalyptus Tree) and Shane Evans (Chocolate Me!) that follows a grandfather and grandson who travel through time in a beloved 1952 Ford.A little boy who lives with his grandpa isn't reprimanded for being afraid to go to school one day. Instead, Big Papa takes him away in his time machine - a 1952 Ford - back to all of the times when he, himself, was scared of something life was handing him. Full of heartfelt moments and thrilling magical realism, Big Papa and the Time Machine speaks to the African American experience in a touching dialogue between two family members from different generations, and emerges as a voice that shares history and asks questions about one family's experience in 20th-century black America."Wasn't you scared?""Oh, I was scared," Big Papa said. "Sometimes you gotta walk with giants if you ever gonna know what you made of. That's called being brave."
General Nonfiction
Owls of the Eastern Ice
By Slaght, Jonathan C.
A field scientist and conservationist tracks the elusive Blakiston's Fish Owl in the forbidding reaches of eastern RussiaI saw my first Blakiston's fish owl in the Russian province of Primorye, a coastal talon of land hooking south into the belly of Northeast Asia . . . No scientist had seen a Blakiston's fish owl so far south in a hundred years, and my photographs were evidence that this rare, reclusive species still persisted.When he was still just a fledgling birdwatcher, Jonathan C. Slaght had a chance encounter with one of the most mysterious birds on Earth. Bigger than any owl he knew, it looked like a small bear with feathers. He wrote to experts. He started tagging along on walks through the lush, remote forest of eastern Russia. The first sighting sent him on a five-year journey to study these enormous, enigmatic creatures and set his calling as a scientist.
Genre Fiction
The Deep, Deep Snow
By Freeman, Brian
In an intense, emotional mystery that spans a decade in the life of a small town, bestselling author Brian Freeman brings us an unforgettable heroine who discovers that the dead may sometimes be easier to rescue than the living. Deputy Shelby Lake was abandoned as a baby, saved by a stranger who found her in the freezing cold. Now, years later, a young boy is missing -- and Shelby is the one who must rescue a child. The only evidence of what happened to ten-year-old Jeremiah Sloan is a bicycle left behind on a lonely road. After a desperate search fails to locate him, the close bonds of Shelby's hometown begin to fray under the weight of accusations and suspicion. Everyone around her is keeping secrets. Her adoptive father, her best friend, her best friend's young daughter -- they all have something to hide.
Memoir & Creative Nonfiction
Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify
By Holbrook, Carolyn
Carolyn Holbrook's life is peopled with ghosts - of the girl she was, the selves she shed and those who have caught up to her, the wounded and kind and malevolent spirits she's encountered, and also the beloved souls she's lost and those she never knew who beg to have their stories told. "Now don't you go stirring things up," one ghostly aunt counsels. Another smiles encouragingly: "Don't hold back, child. Someone out there needs to hear what you have to say."Once a pregnant sixteen-year-old incarcerated in the Minnesota juvenile justice system, now a celebrated writer, arts activist, and teacher who helps others unlock their creative power, Holbrook has heeded the call to tell the story of her life, and to find among its chapters - the horrific and the holy, the wild and the charmed - the lessons and necessary truths of those who have come before.
Middle Grade Literature
What If a Fish
By Fajardo, Anika
A whimsical and unflinchingly honest generational story of family and identity where hats turn into leeches, ghosts blow kisses from lemon trees, and the things you find at the end of your fishing line might not be a fish at all.Half-Colombian Eddie Aguado has never really felt Colombian. Especially after Papa died. And since Mama keeps her memories of Papa locked up where Eddie can't get to them, he only has Papa's third-place fishing tournament medal to remember him by. He'll have to figure out how to be more Colombian on his own. As if by magic, the perfect opportunity arises. Eddie - who's never left Minnesota - is invited to spend the summer in Colombia with his older half-brother. But as his adventure unfolds, he feels more and more like a fish out of water.
Minnesota Nonfiction
Minnesotas Geologist
By Leaf, Sue
Winner of the 2021 Minnesota Book Award for Minnesota Nonfiction. The story of the scientist who first mapped Minnesotas geology, set against the backdrop of early scientific inquiry in the state. At twenty, Newton Horace Winchell declared, "I know nothing about rocks." At twenty-five, he decided to make them his lifes work. As a young geologist tasked with heading the Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey, Winchell (1839-1914) charted the prehistory of the region, its era of inland seas, its volcanic activity, and its several ice ages - laying the foundation for the monumental five-volume Geology of Minnesota. Tracing Winchells remarkable path from impoverished fifteen-year-old schoolteacher to a leading light of an emerging scientific field, Minnesotas Geologist also recreates the heady early days of scientific inquiry in Minnesota, a time when one mans determination and passion for learning could unlock the secrets of the states distant past and present landscape.Traveling by horse and cart, by sailboat and birchbark canoe, Winchell and his group surveyed rock outcrops, river valleys, basalt formations on Lake Superior, and the vast Red River Valley. He studied petrology at the Sorbonne in Paris, bringing cutting-edge knowledge to bear on the volcanic rocks of the Arrowhead region. As a founder of the American Geological Society and founding editor of American Geologist, the first journal for professional geologists, Winchell was the driving force behind scientific endeavor in early state history, serving as mentor to many young scientists and presiding over a household - the Winchell House, located on the University of Minnesotas present-day mall - that was a nexus of intellectual ferment. His life story, told here for the first time, draws an intimate picture of this influential scientist, set against a backdrop of Minnesotas geological complexity and splendor.
Novel & Short Story
Sharks in the Time of Saviors
By Washburn, Kawai Strong
"Sharks in the Time of Saviors is the story of a family, a people, and a legend, all wrapped in one. Faith and grief, rage and love, this book pulses with all of it. Kawai Strong Washburn makes his debut with a wealth of talent and a true artist's eye." -- Victor LaValle, author of The ChangelingIn 1995 Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, on a rare family vacation, seven-year-old Nainoa Flores falls overboard a cruise ship into the Pacific Ocean. When a shiver of sharks appears in the water, everyone fears for the worst. But instead, Noa is gingerly delivered to his mother in the jaws of a shark, marking his story as the stuff of legends.Nainoa's family, struggling amidst the collapse of the sugarcane industry, hails his rescue as a sign of favor from ancient Hawaiian gods -- a belief that appears validated after he exhibits puzzling new abilities.
Poetry
Homie
By Smith, Danez
FINALIST FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR POETRYFINALIST FOR THE 2021 NAACP IMAGE AWARD FOR POETRY. Danez Smith is our president. Homie is Danez Smiths magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss of one of Smiths close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer. In poems of rare power and generosity, Smith acknowledges that in a country overrun by violence, xenophobia, and disparity, and in a body defined by race, queerness, and diagnosis, it can be hard to survive, even harder to remember reasons for living. But then the phone lights up, or a shout comes up to the window, and family -- blood and chosen -- arrives with just the right food and some redemption. Part friendship diary, part bright elegy, part war cry, Homie is the exuberant new book written for Danez and for Danezs friends and for you and for yours.
Young Adult Literature
My Eyes Are Up Here
By Zimmermann, Laura
Insightful, frank, and funny, My Eyes Are Up Here is a razor-sharp debut about a teenage girl struggling to rediscover her sense of self in the year after her body decided to change all the rules.A "monomial" is a simple algebraic expression consisting of a single term. 30H, for example. fifteen-year-old Greer Walsh hasn't been fazed by basic algebra since fifth grade, but for the last year, 30H has felt like an unsolvable equation--one that's made her world a very small, very lonely place. 30H is her bra size--or it was the last time anyone checked. She stopped letting people get that close to her with a tape measure a while ago.Ever since everything changed the summer before ninth grade, Greer has felt out of control. She can't control her first impressions, the whispers that follow, or the stares that linger after.