Washington Reads Freely is a months-long effort to celebrate the freedom to read. The effort encourages library patrons and the general public to share their stories of what reading freely means to them. The responses will be collected and shared during Banned Books Week in late September. (Sharing anonymously is an option for participants.) Libraries of Washington, this toolkit will…
Washington State Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo 2024 is here! Libraries and bookstores of Washington, please feel free to download, print, and distribute these Book Bingo forms to your community members! We’ve seen some libraries in Washington do a drawing for prizes at the end of the summer; we’ve also heard from readers who are excited to bring back…
Congratulations to the winners of the 9th Annual Washington State Zine Contest! Links to digitized zines will be added as soon as they are ready. Pre-4th Grade Tiny & Mighty by Wayland Ward (Wenatchee) Grades 4-6 Frosted Reflections by Sage Nightshade (Olympia) Grades 7-9 When the Olive Trees Grew by Aisha Mbowe (Everett) Grades 10-12 4 Manga Recommendations by Alina…
El Washington Center for the Book en colaboración con Seattle Escribe y Mineral School presentan: Una lectura en español por los autores que participan en el tercer retiro para escritores “Claudia Castro Luna” en Mineral School, el único retiro para escritores que escriben en español en los Estados Unidos.…
At the recent Washington Library Association conference in Spokane, we co-coordinated, along with The Seattle Public Library, our annual “WA Do I Read Next?” panel featuring library folks and authors (and sometimes both) talking about recent books by Washington authors that they have read and loved. This year’s panel included THREE incredible Washington State Book Award winning authors: Jess Walter,…
Meet our 2024 Washington State Book Award (WSBA) Judges! We are thrilled to introduce our wonderful panel of 2024 Washington State Book award judges who are currently deep into reading and reviewing hundreds of books (published in 2023) from authors across the state. Our judging panels are made up of academic, public, school, and Tribal librarians, booksellers, and authors. We…
The Washington Center for the Book (an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book administered by Washington State Library) has selected 30 finalists 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.…
The Washington Center for the Book (an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book administered by Washington State Library) and The Seattle Public Library have selected 39 finalists in eight categories for the 2022 Washington State Book Awards (WSBA) for outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2021. This is the 56th year of the program, formerly…
The Washington Center for Book has selected one youth book and one adult book by Washington authors to represent the state at the 2022 National Book Festival: “The Last Cuentista” by Donna Barba Higuera and “Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk” by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe. Both titles will be part of the National Center for the…
We are delighted to announce the eight winners and 35 finalists for the 2021 Washington State Book Awards (for books published in 2021)! Find the full list of 43 books from Washington authors and illustrators here. And here is a sneak peek at the winners: The eight award winners are: Jess Walter for “The Cold Millions” (Fiction); E.J. Koh for…