The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, the indie bookstore booster behind this blog, announced the winners of their annual book awards today. Congratulations are in order for Sherman Alexie (Seattle, WA) for Blasphemy; Jonathan Evison (Bainbridge Island, WA) for The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving; Eowyn Ivey (Palmer, AK) for The Snow Child; Lucia Perillo (Olympia, WA) for On the Spectrum of Possible Deaths; Cheryl Strayed (Portland, OR) for Wild; and G. Willow Wilson (Seattle, WA) for Alif the Unseen.
The six winning books were chosen by a volunteer committee of nine independent booksellers who spent ten months whittling a pile of more than 250 books published in 2012. The PNBA Awards are fairly unique, as prizes are not tied to particular genres or categories. The committee simply chooses the best books of the year—the ones they’re most excited to sell in their stores.
NW Book Lovers will publish original pieces from the winning authors over the next several weeks, starting this Wednesday. Winners will also appear at their hometown independent bookstores for celebratory events in the coming weeks. NWBL will do our best to keep our readers in the loop as to the who, when and where of those events. The why, we know. These are the best.
Read selection committee comments on this year’s winning titles and brush up on past winners here.
Congratulations, committee, on a job well done! Cheryl (former committee member — I have an idea of how much reading you did!)
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