2023 Washington State Book Award Winners Announced!
The Washington Center for the Book (an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book administered by Washington State Library) has selected winners in seven categories for the 2023 Washington State Book Awards (WSBA) for outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2022. This is the 57th year of the program, formerly called the Governor’s Writers Awards.
2023 WSBA WINNERS: BOOKS FOR ADULTS CATEGORIES
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir
Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe of Tacoma
(Counterpoint Press)
Fiction
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu of Seattle
(Tin House)
General Nonfiction/Biography
The Wok: Recipes and Techniques by J. Kenji López-Alt of Seattle
(W.W. Norton & Company)
Poetry
We Had Our Reasons: Poems by Ricardo Ruiz and Other Hardworking Mexicans from Eastern Washington by Ricardo Ruiz of Seattle
(Pulley Press | Poetry From Rural America)
2023 WSBA WINNERS: BOOKS FOR YOUTH CATEGORIES
Picture Books
How to Hug a Pufferfish by Ellie Peterson of Kirkland
(Roaring Brook Press)
Books for Young Readers
Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone by Tae Keller of Seattle
(Random House)
Books for Young Adult Readers
The Language of Seabirds by Will Taylor of Seattle
(Scholastic Press)
2023 WSBA FINALISTS: BOOKS FOR ADULTS CATEGORIES
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir
Fearlessly Different by Mickey Rowe of Seattle
(Rowman & Littlefield)
Ma and Me: A Memoir by Putsata Reang of Burien
(MCD/FSG)
Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed by Janet Yoder of Seattle
(Girl Friday Books)
Fiction
The Angel of Rome and Other Stories by Jess Walter of Spokane
(HarperCollins)
The Final Case by David Guterson of Bainbridge Island
(Alfred A. Knopf)
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree of Spokane
(Tor Books)
Never Meant to Meet You by Alli Frank and Asha Youmans of Seattle
(Montlake, Seattle)
General Nonfiction/Biography
I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times by Mónica Guzmán of Seattle
(BenBella Books, Inc.)
Northwest Know-How: Beaches by Rena Priest of Bellingham
(Sasquatch Books)
Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives and the Making of White Power and Wealth by Clyde W. Ford of Bellingham
(Amistad Press, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World: A History by William Alexander of Bainbridge Island
(Grand Central Publishing)
Poetry
banana [ ] by Paul Hlava Ceballos of Seattle
(University of Pittsburgh Press)
Cipota Under the Moon by Claudia Castro Luna of Seattle
(Tia Chucha Press, distributed by Northwestern University Press)
Contemplations by Scott Oki of Bellevue
(o-kaisha Publishing)
The Necessity of Wildfire by Caitlin Scarano of Bellingham
(Blair)
When I Was the Wind by Hannah Lee Jones of Port Townsend
(June Road Press)
2023 WSBA FINALISTS: BOOKS FOR YOUTH CATEGORIES
Picture Books
The Birders: An Unexpected Encounter in the Northwest Woods by Rob Albanese of Seattle
(Sasquatch Books)
Old Wood Boat by Nikki McClure of Olympia and the Salish Sea
(Candlewick Press)
Working Boats: An Inside Look at Ten Amazing Watercraft by Tom Crestodina of Bellingham
(Sasquatch Books)
Books for Young Readers
Narwhalicorn and Jelly by Ben Clanton of Seattle
(Tundra Books)
Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence by Sonja Thomas of Vancouver
(Aladdin/Simon & Schuster)
Books for Young Adult Readers
Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson of Seattle
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
The Turning Pointe by Vanessa L. Torres of Olympia
(Knopf/Random House Children’s Books)
ABOUT THE AWARDS
The Washington State Book Awards are presented by the Washington Center for the Book (an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book administered by Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State). The 2023 awards are administered by Sara Peté, Director of the Washington Center for the Book.
These awards honor outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2022. An award is given based on the strength of the publication’s literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality to an author who is a current resident of Washington state. For the 2023 book awards, judges read and evaluated 242 books.
Submissions for the 2024 awards cycle are being accepted at this time. For more information, see the Washington Center for the Book’s website.
JUDGES
2023 WSBA Judges are librarians, authors, and independent booksellers.
Judges for adult titles:
Heather Carruth, Librarian, Ritzville Public Library
Andrea Y. Griffith, Owner, Browsers Bookshop
Sarah Jaffa, Librarian, Kitsap Regional Library
Valerie McBeth, Librarian, Northwest Indian College Library
Tiffany Midge, Author and 2020 WSBA Finalist
Judges for youth titles:
Lauren Kessel, Teacher-Librarian, Kent Elementary School
Jane López-Santillana, Librarian, Sno-Isle Libraries
Avery Mead, Teacher-Librarian, East Valley High School Library
Press coverage:
Here are the 2023 Washington State Book Award nominees, Seattle Times
Here Are the 2023 Washington State Book Awards Winners, Seattle Met
509-raised author up for regional award, Columbia Basin Herald
Washington State Book Awards 2023 winners announced, Seattle Times
Washington State Book Award winners talk lineage, generational storytelling, Northwest Public Broadcasting
She’s Coast Salish and punk. Tacoma author’s memoir garners praise, WA book award, News Tribune
He was once a high school dropout. Today he is one of Washington’s award-winning poets, News Tribune
Gets Real: Washington State Book Award winner shares her truth in “Red Paint”, Kiro 7
WA Book Award winners in picture book and young-reader categories, Seattle’s Child