2023 Winners & Finalists
POSTHUMOUS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Valerie Boyd
MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY
Winner: Odyssey: Young Charles Darwin, The Beagle, and the Voyage that Changed the World by Tom Chaffin
Finalist: Bodies Out of Place: Theorizing Anti-Blackness in U.S. Society by Barbara Harris Combs
CHILDREN’S BOOK
Winner: Penny, The Engineering Tail of the Fourth Little Pig, Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes Illustrated by Hannah Marks
Finalist: Nigel and the Moon by Antwan Eady, Illustrated by Gracey Zhang
COOKBOOK
Winner: Eat Plants, B*tch by Pinky Cole
Finalist: Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods Have Shaped Cultures & Communities by Julia Skinner
DETECTIVE/MYSTERY
Winner: Anywhere You Run: A Novel by Wanda M. Morris
Finalist: Such a Pretty Smile: A Novel by Kristi DeMeester
ESSAY
Winner: Sifting Artifacts: Essays by Kathy A. Bradley
Finalist: A Month of Sundays: The New Mexico Columns by Harry Musselwhite
FIRST NOVEL
Winner: The Cicada Tree by Robert Gwaltney
Finalist: Mama Tried by Kathy Des Jardins
HISTORY
Winner: Against All Odds: A True Story of Ultimate Courage and Survival in World War II by Alex Kershaw
Finalist: A Road Running Southward: Following John Muir’s Journey through an Endangered Land by Dan Chapman
INSPIRATIONAL
Winner: The Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent—and Reinvent—Our Identities by Gregory Berns
Finalist: You're Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God's Design and Why That's Good News by Kelly M. Kapic
LITERARY FICTION
Winner: Sister Mother Warrior by Vanessa Riley
Finalist: The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson
POETRY CHAPBOOK
Winner: It Felt Like Mississippi by Monica Lee Weatherly
Finalist: Poem at the Edge of the World by Julia Caroline Knowlton
POETRY FULL-LENGTH BOOK
Winner: Call it in the Air by Ed Pavlić
Finalist: Palabras que respiran / Words that Breathe by Cecilia Lee
ROMANCE
Winner: Stealing Ares by Kim Conrey
Finalist: Racing to You by Susan May Carlisle
YOUNG ADULT
Winner: Does My Body Offend You? by Mayra Cuevas and Marie Marquardt
Finalist: Omar Rising by Aisha Saeed
SHORT STORY COLLECTION
Winner: Tower: Stories by Andy Plattner
Finalist: Haints on Black Mountain: A Haunted Short Story Collection by Ann Hite
SPECIALTY BOOK
Winner: Bigger Than Bravery: Black Resilience and Reclamation in a Time of Pandemic by Valerie Boyd (editor)
Finalist: Frankie Welch's Americana: Fashion, Scarves, and Politics by Ashley Callahan