2024 Washington State Book Award Finalists 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 39 finalists in seven categories for the 2024 Washington State Book Awards (WSBA) for outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2023. This is the 58th year of the program, formerly called the Governor’s Writers Awards.
A winner in each category will be announced on Sept. 24, 2024.
2024 WSBA FINALISTS: BOOKS FOR ADULTS CATEGORIES
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir
101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered by Sadie Hartmann of Tacoma
(Page Street Publishing)
The Fine Art of Camouflage by Lauren Kay Johnson of Olympia
(MilSpeak Books)
Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City by Jane Wong of Seattle
(Tin House Books)
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer of Bainbridge Island
(Alfred A. Knopf)
Touching the Art by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore of Seattle
(Soft Skull Press)
We Are Not Strangers by Josh Tuininga of North Bend
(Abrams)
Fiction
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree of Spokane
(Tor Publishing)
I Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer by Robert Lashley of Bellingham
(Demersal Publishing)
Jewel Box: Stories by E. Lily Yu of Western Washington
(Erewhon Books, an imprint of Kensington Books)
The Laughter by Sonora Jha of Seattle
(Harper Via)
The Liberators by E.J. Koh of Seattle
(Tin House)
Return to Valetto by Dominic Smith of Seattle
(Farrar, Status and Giroux)
General Nonfiction/Biography
Biking Uphill in the Rain: The Story of Seattle from Behind the Handlebars by Tom Fucoloro of Seattle
(University of Washington Press)
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan of Seattle
(Viking)
Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by Matika Wilbur of Tulalip
(Ten Speed Press)
Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain: Washington’s Olympic Peninsula by Tim McNulty of Sequim
(Braided River)
Stomp and Shout: R&B and the Origins of Northwest Rock and Roll by Peter Blecha of Seattle
(University of Washington Press)
Unmaking the Bomb: Environmental Cleanup and the Politics of Impossibility by Shannon Cram of Duvall
(University of California Press)
Poetry
Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry by Derek Sheffield of Leavenworth, Elizabeth Bradfield, Cmarie Fuhrman et. al
(Mountaineers Books)
Childcare by Rob Schlegel of Walla Walla
(Four Way Books)
Flare, Corona by Jeannine Hall Gailey of Woodinville
(BOA Editions)
I Sing the Salmon Home: Poems from Washington State edited by Rena Priest of Lummi Nation, Bellingham
(Empty Bowl Press)
Judas Goat: Poems by Gabrielle Bates of Seattle
(Tin House)
They Never Asked: Senryu Poetry from the WWII Portland Assembly Center translated by Michael Freiling of Vancouver, Satsuki Takikawa of Vancouver, Shelley Barker-Gard, and Duane Watari
(Oregon State University Press)
2024 WSBA FINALISTS: BOOKS FOR YOUTH CATEGORIES
Picture Books
And Then Comes School by Tom Brenner of Vashon Island, illustrated by Jenn Hill
(Candewick Press)
Drake the Super-Excited, Overeager, In-Your-Face Snake by Michaele Razi of North Bend
(Little Bigfoot, an imprint of Sasquatch Books)
In the Dark by Kate Hoefler, Illustrated by Corinna Luyken of Olympia
(Random House Children’s Books)
Maurice by Jessixa Bagley of Seattle
(Chronicle Books)
Ploof by Ben Clanton and Andy Chou Musser of Seattle
(Tundra Books)
The Story of a Book by Joy McCullough of Shoreline, illustrated by Devon Holzwarth
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
Books for Young Readers
Alebrijes: Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera of Poulsbo
(Levine Querido)
The Beautiful Something Else by Ash Van Otterloo of Bremerton
(Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc.)
Code Red by Joy McCullough of Shoreline
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
Duel by Jessixa Bagley, illustrated by Aaron Bagley of Seattle
(Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
The Nighthouse Keeper by Lora Senf of Spokane
(Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
The Year My Life Went Down the Toilet by Jake Maia Arlow of Seattle
(Dial Books For Young Readers/Penguin)
Books for Young Adult Readers
Enter the Body by Joy McCullough of Shoreline
(Dutton Young Readers/Penguin Random House)
The Golden Needle by T.J. Carroll of Snohomish County
(Cumberstone Press)
Painted Devils by Margaret Owen of Seattle
(Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, c/o Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group)
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 2024 awards are administered by Sara Peté, Director of the Washington Center for the Book.
These awards honor outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2023. 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 2024 book awards, judges read and evaluated 292 books.
Submissions for the 2025 awards cycle are being accepted at this time. For more information, see the Washington Center for the Book’s website.
JUDGES
2024 WSBA Judges are librarians, authors, and independent booksellers.
Judges for adult titles:
Jennie Diaz, Seattle Public Library
Marcus Harrison Green, 2022 WSBA Finalist, Publisher, Author, Columnist, Speaker, & Podcaster
Sarah Jaffa, Kitsap Regional Library
Valerie McBeth, Northwest Indian College Lummi Library
Alex Yokom, Browsers Bookshop
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