Every year the Washington Center for the Book honors local writers with a hat-tip and a check for $500. Women dominate this year's fiction section, with strong contenders from Ann Pancake and S.M. Hulse, whose debut novel Black River has been scooping up awards and honorable mentions all year. In the nonfiction category, David Neiwert's Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us helped us deal with the many horrors of summer 2015 by richly describing the brain powers of that big, toothy dolphin. Solid entries from Hummingbird Press (poet and climate activist Emily Johnston's Her Animals) and Lost Horse Press (Rob Carney's 88 Maps.) Gonna be hard to top Carl Phillips's Reconnaissance, or Laura Da's Tributaries, which won the 2016 American Book Award.
Here's the full list, straight from the Washington Center for the Book:
Fiction
"Black River" by S.M. Hulse, of Spokane (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
"Language Arts" by Stephanie Kallos, of North Seattle (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
"Me and My Daddy Listen to Bob Marley" by Ann Pancake, of Seattle (Counterpoint)
"American Copper" by Shann Ray, of Spokane (Unbridled Books)
"The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac" by Sharma Shields, of Spokane (Henry Holt)
Poetry"88 Maps" by Rob Carney, who was born in Washington state and now lives in Salt Lake City, Utah (Lost Horse Press)
"Tributaries" by Laura Da’, of Newcastle (University of Arizona Press)
"Her Animals" by Emily Johnston, of Seattle (Hummingbird Press)
"Reconnaissance" by Carl Phillips, who was born in Washington state and now lives in St. Louis, Missouri (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
"Hive" by Christina Stoddard, who was born in Washington state and now lives in Nashville, Tennessee (University of Wisconsin Press)
Biography/Memoir"Wondering Who You Are" by Sonya Lea, of Seattle (Tin House Books)
"Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax" by Michael N. McGregor, who was born in Washington state and now lives in Portland, Oregon (Fordham University Press)
"Road Trip" by Mark Rozema, of Shoreline (Red Hen Press)
"Reclaimers" by Ana Maria Spagna, of Stehekin (University of Washington Press)
"Orchard House: How a Neglected Garden Taught One Family to Grow" by Tara Austen Weaver, of Phinney Ridge in Seattle (Ballantine Books)
History/General Nonfiction"The Triumph of Seeds" by Thor Hanson, of Friday Harbor (Basic Books)
"Ozette: Excavating a Makah Whaling Village" by Ruth Kirk, of Lacey (University of Washington Press)
"Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" by Erik Larson, of Seattle (Crown Publishers)
"Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us" by David Neiwert, of Ballard in Seattle (Overlook Press)
"Ancient Places: People and Landscape in the Emerging Northwest" by Jack Nisbet, of Spokane (Sasquatch Books)
Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award FinalistsPicture Book
"Boats for Papa" written and illustrated by Jessixa Bagley, of Queen Anne in Seattle (Roaring Brook Press)
"Strictly No Elephants" written by Lisa Mantchev, who lives on the Olympic Peninsula, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster)
"Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah" written by Laurie Ann Thompson, of Bellevue, illustrated by Sean Qualls (Schwartz & Wade/Random House Children’s Books)
Books for Early Readers (ages 6 to 8)"Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones, of Shoreline (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers)
"Here Comes the Tooth Fairy Cat" by Deborah Underwood, who was born in Washington state and now lives in San Francisco, California (Dial Books)
Books for Middle Readers (ages 9 to 12)"Waiting for Unicorns" by Beth Hautala, who was born in Washington state and now lives in Deerwood, Minnesota (Philomel Books)
"Red Butterfly" by A.L. Sonnichsen, of Kennewick (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Books for Young Adults (ages 13 to 18)"The Game of Love and Death" by Martha Brockenbrough, of Madrona in Seattle (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books)
"Ruthless" by Carolyn Lee Adams, who was born in Washington state and now lives in South Carolina (Simon Pulse)
