The finalists for this year’s Minnesota Book Awards — 36 books in nine categories — were announced Saturday afternoon. Minneapolis author Sun Yung Shin is a finalist in two categories – poetry and children’s books. Winners will be announced at the annual awards gala May 2 at the Ordway Theater in St. Louis.
Here are the finalists:
The young chief, sponsored by Expedition Credit Union:
“Mendel,” by Damone Bester (The Story Plant); “Maxwell and the Legend of Inini-Makwa,” by Simon Hargreaves (AHR Publishing); “Born in a Red Canoe,” by Katharine Johnson (Silver Fox Books); “The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen” by Gary Eldon Peter (Fitzroy Books).
Children’s books:
“You Are Life” by Bao Phi, illustrated by Hannah Li (Capstone Editions); “So Much Snow,” written by Kristen Schroeder, illustrated by Sarah Jacoby (Random House Studio); “Darkness Made” by Lauren Stringer (Beach Lane Books); “Where We Come From” by Diane Wilson, Sun Yung Shin, Shannon Gibney and John Coy, illustrated by Dion MBD (Carolrhoda Books).
Middle Grade, sponsored by Education Minnesota:
“Monsters in the Mist” by Juliana Brandt (Books); “Meet Me Halfway,” by Anika Fajardo (Simon & Schuster); “The Counterclockwise Heart,” by Brian Farrey (Algonquin Young Readers); “Windswept,” by Margi Preus (Amulet Books).
Memoir & Creative Nonfiction:
“The Seven Aunts,” by Staci Lola Drouillard (University of Minnesota Press); “Farewell Transmission,” by Will McGrath (Dzanc Books); “The Way She Wants to Get There,” by Mary Moore Easter (Nodin Press); “Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide,” by Juliet Patterson (Milkweed Editions).
Minnesota Nonfictionsponsored by Emilie Buchwald:
“When the Minnehaha Flowed with Whiskey,” by Karen E. Cooper (Minnesota Historical Society Press); “A Natural Curiosity: The Story of the Bell Museum,” by Lansing Shepard, Don Luce, Barbara Coffin and Gwen Schagrin (University of Minnesota Press); “The Steger Homestead Kitchen,” by Will Steger and Rita Mae Steger (University of Minnesota Press); “Rochester: An Urban Biography,” by Virginia M. Wright-Peterson (Minnesota Historical Society Press).
General Nonfictionsponsored by The Duchess Harris Collection:
“The Girls of Arraweelo: Stories of Somali Women,” by Ayaan Adan (Minnesota Historical Society Press); “They Don’t Want You There: Anti-Sexism and Racial Harassment in the American University,” by Carolyn Chalmers (University of Iowa Press); “Through the Banks of Red Cedar,” by Maya Washington (Little A); “Wilhelm’s Way: The Inspiring Story of the Iowa Chemist Who Saved the Manhattan Project,” by Teresa Wilhelm Waldof (Third Generation Publishing).
Novel & Short Storysponsored by Jeff & Bernadette Janisch
“Sirens & Muses,” by Antonia Angress (Ballantine Books); “The Barrens,” by Kurt Johnson and Ellie Johnson (Arcade Publishing); “Hero of the evening,” by Marie Myung-Ok Lee (Simon & Schuster); “Until the Wheels Fall Off,” by Brad Zellar (Coffee House Press).
Genre Fiction, sponsored by Macalester College:
“The Temps,” by Andrew DeYoung (Keylight Books); “The Ursulina” by Brian Freeman (Blackstone Publishing); “The Quarry Girls” by Jess Lourey (Thomas and Mercer); “Sinister Graves” by Marcie R. Rendon (Soho Press).
A poemsponsored by Wellington Management:
“How to Act” by John Lee Clark (WW Norton); “Real Work” by Janna Knittel (Nodin Press); “Surface Displacements” by Sheila Packa (Wildwood River Press); “The Wet Hex” by Sun Yung Shin (Coffee House Press).
Tickets for the Minnesota Book Awards go on sale Monday at www.thefriends.org/mnba.
