The finalists for the 2017 Washington State Book Awards were announced on August 7.
2017 WSBA FINALISTS: BOOKS FOR ADULTS CATEGORIES
Fiction
- The Solace of Monsters by Laurie Blauner, of Seattle (Leapfrog Press)
- Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang, of Bellevue (Vintage Books; reissued 2016; original publication date 2002)
- Barkskins by Annie Proulx, of Carnation (Scribner)
- Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, of Seattle (HarperCollins Publishers)
- Daredevils by Shawn Vestal, of Spokane (Penguin Press)
Poetry
- Hardly War by Don Mee Choi, of Seattle (Wave Books)
- My, My, My, My, My by Tara Hardy, of Seattle (Write Bloody Publishing)
- Imaginary Vessels by Paisley Rekdal, who was born in Washington state and now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah (Copper Canyon Press)
- Blood Song by Michael Schmeltzer, of Seattle (Two Sylvias Press)
- Wintering by Megan Snyder-Camp, of Seattle (Tupelo Press)
Biography/Memoir
- Inside: One Woman’s Journey through the Inside Passage by Susan Marie Conrad, of Arlington (Epicenter Press)
- An Earlier Life by Brenda Miller, of Bellingham (Judith Kitchen’s Ovenbird Books)
- Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West, of Seattle (Hachette Books)
- My Old Man and the Mountain by Leif Whittaker, of Bellingham (Mountaineers Books)
History/General Nonfiction
- The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan, of Seattle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
- Eruption: The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens by Steve Olson, of Seattle (W.W. Norton & Company)
- While the City Slept: A Love Lost to Violence and a Young Man’s Descent into Madness by Eli Sanders, of Seattle (Viking / Penguin Random House)
- Turning Homeward: Restoring Hope and Nature in the Urban Wild by Adrienne Ross Scanlan, of Seattle (Mountaineers Books)
- Seawomen of Iceland: Survival on the Edge by Margaret Willson, of Seattle (University of Washington Press)
2017 WSBA FINALISTS: BOOKS FOR YOUTH CATEGORIES
Picture Books
- Thunder Boy Jr. written by Sherman Alexie, of Seattle, and illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
- A Ticket to the Pennant: A Tale of Baseball in Seattle written by Mark Holtzen, of Seattle, and illustrated by John Skewes, of Seattle (Little Bigfoot, an imprint of Sasquatch Books)
- Are You an Echo? The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko narrative written by David Jacobson, of Seattle with translation by Sally Ito and Michiko Tsuboi, and illustrated by Toshikado Hajiri (Chin Music Press)
- Journey: Based on the True Story of OR7, the Most Famous Wolf in the West illustrated by Robin James, of Snohomish, and written by Emma Bland Smith (Little Bigfoot, an imprint of Sasquatch Books)
Books for Young Readers (ages 6 to 8)
- Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea by Ben Clanton of Tacoma (Tundra Books)
- Zach and Lucy and the Museum of Natural Wonders written by the Pifferson Sisters – Jennifer Bradbury, of Burlington, and Stephanie Guerra, of Seattle (Simon Spotlight, an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
- Quackers by Liz Wong, of Edmonds (Alfred A. Knopf)
Books for Middle Readers (ages 8 to 12)
- Cleo Edison Oliver: Playground Millionaire by Sundee T. Frazier, of Renton (Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic)
- Some Kind of Courage by Dan Gemeinhart, of Cashmere (Scholastic Press)
- Audacity Jones to the Rescue by Kirby Larson, of Kenmore (Scholastic Press)
Books for Young Adults (ages 13 and up)
- Useless Bay by M.J. Beaufrand, of Seattle (Amulet Books, an imprint of Abrams)
- Essential Maps for the Lost by Deb Caletti, of Seattle (Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster)
- Up to This Pointe by Jennifer Longo, of Mercer Island (Random House)
The authors of the award-winning books, as well as the illustrator of the picture book, will receive a $500 honorarium, thanks to the generous support of The Seattle Public Library Foundation.
Winners will be announced at the Washington State Book Awards ceremony and reception on held on Oct. 14. All finalists (and their books) will be celebrated at The Seattle Public Library’s Central Library in downtown Seattle at the event, which is free and open to the public. Here are the details:
2017 Washington State Book Awards Celebration
7 p.m. Saturday, October 14, 2017
Seattle Public Library, Central Library
1000 Fourth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104