It’s award season, baby! No, I’m not talking about the Emmys or the VMAs, but the Washington Center for the Book’s 59th annual Washington State Book Awards, which may not be as glitzy or as nationally known, but nevertheless is extremely valuable in recognizing the genius literary works coming out of our state. The nominees were announced last month, and this week a panel of librarians, authors, and indie book sellers have whittled each category down to one winner based on “strength of the publication, literary merit, lasting importance, and overall quality.”
Amongst the winners includes Tessa Hull’s moving graphic novel (Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir), Ijeoma Oluo’s guide to fighting oppression (Be A Revolution), and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s poetry collection (Something About Living), which paints a picture of Palestine’s historic suffering along with delights to embrace while living through a violent era. See the full list of winners below.
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir Winner:
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls of Seattle/Port Townsend (MCD)
Fiction Winner:
Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco of Seattle (MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
General Nonfiction/Biography Winner:
Be A Revolution by Ijeoma Oluo of Seattle (HarperOne)
Poetry Winner:
Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha of Redmond (The University of Akron Press)
Picture Books Winner:
Daughter of the Light-Footed People by Belen Medina of Vancouver and Natalia Rojas
Castro (Atheneum – Simon & Schuster)
Books for Young Readers Winner:
Table Titans Club by Scott Kurtz of Bothell (Holiday House Publishing)
Young Adult Literature Winner:
Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell of Olympia (Heartdrum, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
