The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) is a non-profit association of independent bookstores from five Northwest states, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and British Columbia. The Association produces educational and promotional events and materials for its members and offers literacy, free speech, and author promotional vehicles through its member stores.
PNBA’s Awards Committee is comprised of nine volunteer booksellers from throughout our member region. This year’s Committee considered more than 370 nominated titles published during 2022 for the 2023 award.
These titles comprise the list from which up to six 2023 winners will be selected.
Winners be announced in early January 2023 and promoted by our member stores during the winter and spring of 2023.
For more information about these books, contributors, and the award, visit PNBA’s 2023 shortlist page on the association’s website.
Gunfight
My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America
Ryan Busse
A former firearms executive pulls back the curtain on America’s multibillion-dollar gun industry, exposing how it fostered extremism and racism, radicalizing the nation and bringing cultural division to a boiling point.
Public Affairs Books / Hachette
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
A Novel
Jamie Ford
Jamie Ford explores the relationship of mind, spirit, and personal history in this gorgeous, multigenerational novel.
Atria Books / Simon & Schuster
Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century
Stories
Kim Fu
Mesmerizing, electric, and wholly original, Kim Fu’s stories blur the boundaries of the real and fantastic, offering intricate and surprising insights into human nature.
Tin House
Red Paint
The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk
Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe
An Indigenous artist blends the aesthetics of punk rock with the traditional spiritual practices of the women in her lineage.
Counterpoint
The Wok
Recipes & Techniques
J. Kenji López-Alt
Featuring more than 200 recipes, The Wok provides endless ideas for brightening up dinner.
W.W. Norton & Company
The Boy with a Bird in His Chest
A Novel
Emme Lund
A heartbreaking yet hopeful novel about the things that make us unique and lovable.
Atria Books / Simon & Schuster
Fat Girls Hiking
An Inclusive Guide to Getting Outdoors at Any Size or Ability
Summer Michaud-Skog
Summer Michaud-Skog creates space for marginalized bodies with an insistent conviction that outdoor recreation should welcome everyone.
Timber Press
A Home Under the Stars
Andy Chou Musser
Magical and heartfelt, A Home Under the Stars explores the difficulties and anxieties that accompany moving, as well as the journey to find a sense of belonging in a new place
and to call it home.
Little Bigfoot / Sasquatch Books
Ma And Me
A Memoir
Putsata Reang
In her startling memoir, Reang explores the long legacy of inherited trauma and the crushing weight of cultural and filial duty.
MCD / Farrar, Straus & Giroux
The Necessity of Wildfire
Poems
Caitlin Scarano
Caitlin Scarano’s collection wrestles with family violence, escaping home, unraveling relationships, and the complexity of sexuality.
Blair
How To Not Be Afraid Of Everything
Poems
Jane Wong
Explores the vulnerable ways we articulate and reckon with fear.
Full of elegy and resilient joy, these poems speak across generations of survival.
Alice James Books / Consortium
Thrust
A Novel
Lidia Yuknavitch
A dazzling novel of body, spirit, and survival, Thrust will leave no reader unchanged.
Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
