Washington State Book Awards Party

Celebrate of the winners and finalists of the 2011 Washington State Book Awards! Light refreshments will be served, and the bar will be open.

The celebration is sponsored by The Seattle Public Library Foundation, Richard Hugo House, Factory Hollow and University of Washington Press.

The 2011 Washington State Book Award winners are:

Fiction:
•    “Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes, of Woodinville (Grove/Atlantic, Inc.)

Fiction Finalists:
o    “Healer” by Carol Cassella, of Bainbridge Island (Simon & Schuster)
o    “Old Border Road” by Susan Froderberg, who was born in Washington and now lives in New York (Little Brown & Co.)
o    “Marry or Burn: Stories” by Valerie Trueblood, of Seattle (Counterpoint Press)
o    “The Financial Lives of the Poets” by Jess Walter, of Spokane (Harper)

Poetry:
•    “The Bled” by Frances McCue, of Capitol Hill in Seattle (Factory Hollow Press)

Poetry Finalists:
o    “Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room” by Kelli Russell Agodon, of Kingston (White Pine Press)
o    “The Morning News Is Exciting” by Don Mee Choi, of Seattle (Action Books)
o    “Requiem for the Orchard” by Oliver de la Paz, of Bellingham (University of Akron Press)
o    “The Alchemist’s Kitchen” by Susan Rich, of Seattle (White Pine Press)

Biography/Memoir:
•    “The Hustle: One Team and Ten Lives in Black and White” by Doug Merlino, who was born in Washington and now lives in New York (Bloomsbury)

Biography/Memoir Finalists:
o    “Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses” by Claire Dederer, of Bainbridge Island (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
o    “The Circumference of Home: One Man’s Yearlong Quest for a Radically Local Life” by Kurt Hoelting, of Clinton (Da Capo Press)
o    “Mariposa Road: The First Butterfly Big Year” by Robert Michael Pyle, of Gray’s River (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
o    “Test Ride on the Sunnyland Bus: A Daughter’s Civil Rights Journey” by Ana Maria Spagna, of Stehekin (University of Nebraska Press)

History/General Nonfiction:
•    “The Long Way Home: An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War” by David Laskin, of Shoreline (Harper)

History/General Nonfiction Finalists:
o    “Breakthrough: Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of a Medical Miracle” by Thea Cooper, of Seattle (St. Martin’s Press)
o    “The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs: Revisiting the Northwest Towns of Richard Hugo” by Frances McCue, of Seattle (University of Washington Press)
o    “Reality Hunger: A Manifesto” by David Shields, of Seattle (Alfred A. Knopf)
o    “Shell Games: Rogues, Smugglers, and the Hunt for Nature’s Bounty” by Craig Welch, of Seattle (HarperCollins)

The winners of the Scandiuzzi Children’s Book Award are:

Picture Book:
•    “Polar Opposites” written and illustrated by Erik Brooks, of Winthrop (Marshall Cavendish)

Book for Early Readers (grades 1 to 3, 6- to 9-year-old readers):
•    “Guinea Dog” by Patrick Jennings, of Port Townsend (Egmont USA)

Middle Grades and Young Adults (10- to 18-year-old readers):
•    “Hold Me Closer, Necromancer” by Lish McBride, of Seattle (Henry Holt & Co.)