Looking for judges for the 2020 Washington State Book Awards
What a lineup! These are the finalists from the 2019 awards cycle.
We are looking for librarians and booksellers to judge our youth categories (picture books through young adult literature) and adult categories for the 2020 Washington State Book Awards.
If selected, you’ll be reading and evaluating books by Washington authors, collaborating with other judges through a series of online meetings, and meeting once (sometime between late May and early July, tbd) in downtown Seattle (in May or June) for in-person deliberations.
Youth panel: Three judges will review submissions in all categories — picture books, books for young readers, and young adult books.
Adult panel: Five judges will review submissions in all five categories — fiction, poetry, general nonfiction, creative nonfiction, and biography/memoir.
This is a significant time commitment with reviewing and writing deadlines. Last year, 337 submissions were evaluated by our judges, who also wrote annotations for all finalists and winning titles (30 to 40 annotations).
UPDATE: Applications for the 2020 Washington State Book Awards judging panels closed on January 10, 2020.