The 2018 Washington State Book Awards Ceremony took place on October 13, 2018
This summer we hosted a Passport to Washington Libraries activity (some may say “competition”) to encourage people to visit new libraries as they travel around the state. We asked people to stop by a new library, take a photo, and post that photo along with something they learned about that library on our Passport map. We added extra incentives –…
Last year The Seattle Public Library and the Washington State Library decided to join forces on the Washington Center for the Book (WCB). Each organization brought an existing program to the partnership, however we have also been working busily all year to lay the groundwork for new programs. One of the changes that was important to all of us was…
We are very pleased to announce that Washington’s Level 2 champion, Riya Sharma, has been selected as a National honor award winner for the letter she wrote about the book “The Confidence Code.” Riya is an 8th grade student at The Overlake School in Redmond. Honestly we were not one bit surprised by her recognition, though the question this year…
What do you get when you combine books, students, writing and a National contest? You get hope – hope for the future, hope for the country, hope and the knowledge that we are all in good hands with the next generation. Washington state has participated in the Letters About Literature contest (LAL) since 2005 and it impacts everyone who has…
It’s been a busy month for authors in Washington State. Fiction: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah: In 1974 a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam War a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni north, to Alaska, where they will live off…
All photos by Katrina Shelby Photography.
The Washington Center for the Book, a partnership of The Seattle Public Library and Washington State Library, announces the finalists in eight categories for the 2017 Washington State Book Awards (WSBA) for outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2016. This is the 51st year of the program, formerly called the Governor’s Writers Awards. Winners will be announced at the…
In September of 2001 the first National Book Festival was held in Washington D.C. Laura Bush, a retired librarian, then First Lady of the United States, worked with the Librarian of Congress to launch this new event to encourage a lifelong love of reading. James Billington, then Librarian of Congress, said, “We must all try, in every way we can, to…