SAN FRANCISCO – Sept. 15, 2022 – PRLog — Media contacts: Joyce Jenkins, editor@poetryflash.org, or Kim McMillon, kimmac@
41st ANNUAL NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED
Northern California’s vibrant literary scene was celebrated on Sunday, September 11, 2022, 2:00 pm, at Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, Civic Center, San Francisco, when the 41st annual Northern California Book Awards recognized published works of 2021 by Northern California authors and California translators, presented by the Northern California Book Reviewers, Poetry Flash, and San Francisco Public Library, with our community partners Mechanics’ Institute Library, Women’s National Book Association-
The California Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose honored works of translation by translators who live anywhere in California.
The Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service was presented to Isabel Allende, a distinguished member of the Northern Californian literary community; she accepted via video. Winning authors accepted their awards and briefly presented their books. Winning and nominated books are available for purchase at the Northern California Book Awards 2022 online bookstore created by City Lights at Home – City Lights | City Lights Booksellers & Publishers (https://citylights.com/
Northern California reviewers and editors, members of Northern California Book Reviewers, select the awards. Membership is open to all eligible Northern California reviewers and editors. All of the nominated books, the NCBR Recommended Reading List, were acknowledged and celebrated at the ceremony. Judges’ statements by the Northern California Book Reviewers are posted on the NCBA page at Poetryflash.org.
FRED CODY AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT & SERVICE
Isabel Allende
Bay Area-based Chilean writer and novelist; “the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author.” Violeta, a novel, Ballantine Books, 2022, The Soul of a Woman, memoir, Ballantine Books, 2021
NCBR GROUNDBREAKER AWARD
Mule Kick Blues: And Last Poems, Michael McClure, edited with an introduction by Garrett Caples, City Lights, 2021
NCBR RECOGNITION AWARD
ZYZZYVA, A San Francisco Journal of Arts & Letters
FICTION
My Year Abroad, Chang-rae Lee, Riverhead Books
The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, Tom Lin, Little, Brown and Company
The Confession of Copeland Cane, Keenan Norris, The Unnamed Press (winner) Chouette, Claire Oshetsky, Ecco
The Archer, Shruti Swamy, Algonquin Books
POETRY
Tenderness, Derrick Austin, BOA Editions, Ltd.
A Symmetry, Ari Banias, W.W. Norton
Yellow Rain, Mai Der Vang, Graywolf Press (winner)
West Portal, Benjamin Gucciardi, The University of Utah Press
Requeening, Amanda Moore, Ecco
And If the Woods Carry You, Erin Rodoni, Southern Indiana Review Press
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Her Honor: My Life on the Bench… What Works, What’s Broken, and How to Change It, LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, Celadon Books
Loving before Loving: A Marriage in Black and White, Joan Steinau Lester, University of Wisconsin Press
Model Citizen, Joshua Mohr, MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (winner)
The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert, Shugri Said Salh, Algonquin Books The Night Lake: A Young Priest Maps the Topography of Grief, Liz Tichenor, Counterpoint
GENERAL NONFICTION
Czeslaw Milosz: A California Life, Cynthia L. Haven, Heyday
The Premonition:
This Is Your Mind on Plants, Michael Pollan, Penguin Press
Orwell’s Roses, Rebecca Solnit, Viking
By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution, David Talbot and Margaret Talbot, Harper (winner)
CALIFORNIA TRANSLATION
California Translation in Poetry
The New World Written: Selected Poems, Maria Baranda, edited and partially translated by Paul Hoover, from the Spanish, Yale University Press
The All-Seeing Eye: Collected Poems by Shang Qin, translated by John Balcom, from the Chinese, Cambria Press
The Blinding Star, Blanca Varela, translated by Lisa Allen Ortiz and Sara Daniele Rivera, from the Spanish, Tolsun Books (winner)
California Translation in Prose
Antonio, Beatriz Bracher, translated by Adam Morris, from the Portuguese, New Directions (winner)
I Was Never the First Lady, Wendy Guerra, translated by Alicia “Achy” Obejas, from the Spanish, HarperVia Battles in the Desert, José Emilio Pacheco, translated by Katherine Silver, from the Spanish, New Directions
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
Younger Readers
What Is Love?, Mac Barnett, illustrated by Carson Ellis, Chronicle Books
Home Is in Between, Mitali Perkins, illustrated by Lavanya Naidu, Farrar, Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers/Macmillan
Out of the Blue: How Animals Evolved from Prehistoric Seas, Elizabeth Shreeve, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon, Candlewick (winner)
Middle Grade
The Lion of Mars, Jennifer L. Holm, Random House Books for Young Readers Recipe for Disaster, Aimee Lucido, Versify
The Samosa Rebellion, Shanthi Sekaran, Katherine Tegen Books (winner)
Young Adult
Luck of the Titanic, Stacey Lee, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
The Mirror Season, Anna-Marie McLemore, Feiwel & Friends (winner)
The Girls I’ve Been, Tess Sharpe, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers