For the second year, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) unveiled its Book Awards Shortlist live on the show floor at the association’s Fall Tradeshow, Sept. 29, 2025. These honorees are now being promoted throughout PNBA’s 170-store membership.

Selected by an Awards Committee of independent booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska, the following 12 finalists, crafted by Northwest authors, were selected from a list of nearly 300 nominated titles published in 2024-2025.

PNBA will announce the six winners of the 2026 Pacific Northwest Book Awards in early January.

Congratulations to the creative teams behind this year’s shortlisted works.

2026 Pacific Northwest Book Awards Shortlist:

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

Omar El Akkad (West Linn, OR)

Alfred A. Knopf

 

The Edge of Water

Olufunke Grace Bankole (Portland, OR)

Tin House Books

 

Seattle Samurai

Kelly Goto (Seattle, WA)

Chin Music Press

 

Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids

Leyna Krow (Spokane, WA)

Penguin Books

Six Seasons of Pasta

Joshua McFadden (Portland, OR)

Artisan

 

I Am Wind

written by Rachel Poliquin, illustrated by Rachel Wada (both of Vancouver, BC)

Tundra Books

 

Endling

Maria Reva (Vancouver, BC)

Doubleday

 

The Antidote

Karen Russel (Portland, OR)

Alfred A. Knopf

 

Speechless

Aron Nels Steinke (Portland, OR)

Graphix

Wrecked: Unsettling Histories from the Graveyard of the Pacific

Coll Thrush (Vancouver, BC)

University of Washington Press

A Monstrous Bedtime

Kerilynn Wilson (Oregon City, OR)

Greenwillow Books

 

Reading the Waves

Lidia Yuknavitch (Portland, OR)

Riverhead Books

Congratulations! And thank you to the Awards Committee!