2023 Minnesota Book Awards finalists announced

Mary Ann Grossmann, Pioneer Press
·3 min read
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Friends of the St. Paul Public Library today announced finalists in nine categories for the 2023 Minnesota Book Awards, presented this year by Education Minnesota. Nominees were chosen by 27 judges from around the state — writers, teachers, librarians, booksellers and others from the literary community. Winners will be announced at the Book Awards ceremony Tuesday, May 2, at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in downtown St. Paul. The Kay Sexton Award for outstanding contributions to the literary community will also be presented that evening.

Here are the nominees:

Children’s Literature

The Dark Was Done by Lauren Stringer (Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster)

So Much Snow by Kristen Schroeder; illustrated by Sarah Jacoby (Random House Studio/Penguin Random House)

Where We Come From by Diane Wilson, Sun Yung Shin, Shannon Gibney & John Coy; illustrated by Dion MBD (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing*)

You Are Life by Bao Phi; illustrated by Hannah Li (Capstone Editions*)

General Nonfiction

Sponsored by The Duchess Harris Collection

Daughters of Arraweelo: Stories of Somali Women by Ayaan Adan (Minnesota Historical Society Press*)

They Don’t Want Her There: Fighting Sexual and Racial Harassment in the American University by Carolyn Chalmers (University of Iowa Press)

Through the Banks of the Red Cedar: My Father and the Team That Changed the Game by Maya Washington (Little A/Amazon Publishing)

Wilhelm’s Way: The Inspiring Story of the Iowa Chemist Who Saved the Manhattan Project by Teresa Wilhelm Waldof (Third Generation Publishing*)

Genre Fiction

Sponsored by Macalester College

The Quarry Girls by Jess Lourey (Thomas & Mercer/Amazon Publishing)

Sinister Graves by Marcie R. Rendon (Soho Press)

The Temps by Andrew DeYoung (Keylight Books/ Turner Publishing Company)

The Ursulina by Brian Freeman (Blackstone Publishing)

Memoir & Creative Nonfiction

Farewell Transmission: Notes from Hidden Spaces by Will McGrath (Dzanc Books)

Seven Aunts by Staci Lola Drouillard (University of Minnesota Press*)

Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide by Juliet Patterson (Milkweed Editions*)

The Way She Wants to Get There: Telling on Myself by Mary Moore Easter (Nodin Press*)

Middle Grade Literature

Sponsored by Education Minnesota

The Counterclockwise Heart by Brian Farrey (Algonquin Young Readers/Workman Publishing)

Meet Me Halfway by Anika Fajardo (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)

Monsters in the Mist by Juliana Brandt (Sourcebooks for Young Readers/Sourcebooks)

Windswept by Margi Preus (Amulet Books/Abrams)

Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction

A Natural Curiosity: The Story of the Bell Museum by Lansing Shepard, Don Luce, Barbara Coffin, and Gwen Schagrin (University of Minnesota Press*)

Rochester: An Urban Biography by Virginia M. Wright-Peterson (Minnesota Historical Society Press*)

The Steger Homestead Kitchen: Simple Recipes for an Abundant Life by Will Steger and Rita Mae Steger with Beth Dooley (University of Minnesota Press*)

When Minnehaha Flowed with Whiskey: A Spirited History of the Falls by Karen E. Cooper (Minnesota Historical Society Press*)

Novel & Short Story

Sponsored by Jeff and Bernadette Janisch

The Barrens by Kurt Johnson and Ellie Johnson (Arcade Publishing/Skyhorse Publishing)

The Evening Hero by Marie Myung-Ok Lee (Simon & Schuster)

Sirens & Muses by Antonia Angress (Ballantine Books/Penguin Random House)

Till the Wheels Fall Off by Brad Zellar (Coffee House Press*)

Poetry

Sponsored by Wellington Management, Inc.

How to Communicate by John Lee Clark (W.W. Norton & Co.)

Real Work by Janna Knittel (Nodin Press*)

Surface Displacements by Sheila Packa (Wildwood River Press*)

The Wet Hex by Sun Yung Shin (Coffee House Press*)

Young Adult Literature

Sponsored by Expedition Credit Union

Born in a Red Canoe by Katharine Johnson (Silver Fox Books/self-published)

The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen by Gary Eldon Peter (Fitzroy Books/Regal House Publishing)

Maxwell and the Legend of Inini-Makwa by Simon Hargreaves (AHR Publishing)

Mendel by Damone Bester (The Story Plant)

* Indicates a Minnesota-based publisher.

Tickets for the awards ceremony are $22 and will be available at thefriends.org/mnba beginning Monday, Jan. 30. The preface begins at 6 p.m., followed by the program at 7:30 p.m. There will be an option to access the livestream of the Ceremony for free online. The official hashtag for social media is #mnbookawards.

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