MINNESOTA BOOK AWARD FINALISTS

                                              
 The Minnesota Book Awards preliminary judging took place on Saturday, February 6.  Four titles were chosen for each of the eight categories.  Three judges are assigned to each category.
Preliminary judges read all entries for their category, sometimes reading as many as 30 or 40 books!
I will be a final judge for the Minnesota category.  I will read the four books in the Minnesota category, over the next month.  The final judging will take place on Saturday, March 5.
The Minnesota Book Awards event will be held on Saturday, April 16, at St. Paul's Union Depot.
The following finalist titles will be available through the Northfield Public Library.

Children’s Literature

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• Behold! A Baby by Stephanie Watson, illustrated by Joy Ang (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• Dad’s First Day by Mike Wohnoutka (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publishers)
• Ten Pigs: An Epic Bath Adventure by Derek Anderson(Orchard Books/Scholastic)

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General Nonfiction

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• Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture—and What We Can Do About It by Kate Harding (Da Capo Press/Perseus Books Group)
  
• John H. Howe, Architect: From Taliesin Apprentice to Master of Organic Design by Jane King Hession and Tim Quigley (University of Minnesota Press)*
  
• No House to Call My Home: Love, Family, and Other Transgressions by Ryan Berg (Nation Books/Perseus Books Group)
  
• Secrets from the Eating Lab: The Science of Weight Loss, the Myth of Willpower, and Why You Should Never Diet Again by Traci Mann (HarperWave/HarperCollins Publishers)

Genre Fiction:

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• The Devereaux Decision by Steve McEllistrem (Calumet Editions)*
  
• The Grave Soul by Ellen Hart (Minotaur Books)
  
• He’s Either Dead or in St. Paul by D.B. Moon (Three Waters Publishing, LLC)*
  
• Season of Fear by Brian Freeman (Quercus)

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Memoir & Creative Nonfiction

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• In Winter’s Kitchen by Beth Dooley (Milkweed Editions)*
  
• The War Came Home with Him: A Daughter’s Memoir by Catherine Madison (University of Minnesota Press)*
  
• Water and What We Know: Following the Roots of a Northern Life by Karen Babine (University of Minnesota Press)*
  
• We Know How This Ends: Living While Dying by Bruce Kramer, with Cathy Wurzer (University of Minnesota Press)*

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Minnesota

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• Minnesota Modern: Architecture and Life at Midcentury by Larry Millett, photographs by Denes Saari and Maria Forrai Saari (University of Minnesota Press)*
  
• Minnesota State of Wonders by Brian Peterson, stories by Kerri Westenberg (Mark Hirsch Publishing)
  
• North Shore: A Natural History of Minnesota’s Superior Coast by Chel Anderson and Adelheid Fischer (University of Minnesota Press)*
  
• Warrior Nation: A History of the Red Lake Ojibwe by Anton Treuer (Minnesota Historical Society Press)*

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Novel & Short Story

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• The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy (Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group)
  
• The Patron Saint of Lost Comfort Lake by Rachel Coyne (New Rivers Press)*
  
• Prudence by David Treuer (Riverhead Books/Penguin)
  
• There’s Something I Want You to Do by Charles Baxter (Pantheon Books/Random House)

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Poetry

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• Beautiful Wall by Ray Gonzalez (BOA Editions, Ltd.)
  
• Borrowed Wave by Rachel Moritz (Kore Press)
  
• Home Studies by Julie Gard (New Rivers Press)*
  
• Modern Love & Other Myths by Joyce Sutphen (Red Dragonfly Press)*

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Young People’s Literature

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• The Bamboo Sword by Margi Preus (Amulet Books/Abrams)
  
• The Firebug of Balrog County by David Oppegaard (Flux/Llewellyn Worldwide, Ltd.)*
  
• Isabelle Day Refuses to Die of a Broken Heart by Jane St. Anthony (University of Minnesota Press)*
  
• See No Color by Shannon Gibney (Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner

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