Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
  • About PNBA
    • PNBA Board
    • PNBA Staff
  • Membership
    • Member Stores >
      • Alaska
      • Idaho
      • Montana
      • Oregon
      • Washington
      • Member Bookstore Map
    • Member Publishers
  • Programs
    • for Booksellers
    • For Publishers
    • For Authors
    • For Librarians
    • Education
    • Advocacy
    • Holiday Catalog
    • Spring Pop 2023
    • Summer Reading Guide
    • Virtual Pub Events
    • Book Awards
  • Tradeshow
  • Advertising
  • Calendar

2023 Book Awards Shortlist

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) is a non-profit association of independent bookstores from five Northwest states, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and British Columbia. The Association produces educational and promotional events and materials for its members and offers literacy, free speech, and author promotional vehicles through its member stores.

Since 1965, our annual Book Awards have recognized such luminary figures in Northwest literature as Ivan Doig, Ursula K. Le Guin, David James Duncan, Cheryl Strayed, Jonathan Evison, Molly Gloss, Chuck Palahniuk, and Brian Doyle. Many of these authors were honored by PNBA before they received national attention. A history of past winners of the Pacific Northwest Book Award can be viewed on the Book Awards homepage.

PNBA's Awards Committee is comprised of nine volunteer booksellers from throughout our member region. This year's Committee considered more than 370 nominated titles published during 2022 for the 2023 award.

​These titles, announced in early November, comprise the list from which up to six 2023 winners will be selected.
Winners be announced in early January 2023 and promoted by our member stores during the winter and spring of 2023.

Picture
Gunfight
My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America

Ryan Busse


A former firearms executive pulls back the curtain on America's multibillion-dollar gun industry, exposing how it fostered extremism and racism, radicalizing the nation and bringing cultural division to a boiling point.

Public Affairs Books / Hachette
Picture

Picture
​The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
A Novel

​Jamie Ford


Jamie Ford explores the relationship of mind, spirit, and personal history
​in this gorgeous, multigenerational novel.


Atria Books / Simon & Schuster
Picture

Picture
Lesser Known Monsters
​of the 21st Century

Stories
​Kim Fu


Mesmerizing, electric, and wholly original, Kim Fu's stories blur the boundaries of the real and fantastic, offering intricate and surprising insights into human nature.
​
Tin House
Picture

Picture
Red Paint
The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk

Sasha
taqʷšəblu LaPointe

An Indigenous artist blends the aesthetics of punk rock with the
​traditional spiritual practices of the women in her lineage.

Counterpoint
Picture

Picture
The Wok
Recipes & Techniques

J. Kenji L
ópez-Alt

Featuring more than 200 recipes, The Wok provides endless ideas for brightening up dinner.
​

W.W. Norton & Company
Picture

Picture
The Boy with a Bird in His Chest
A Novel

Emme Lund

A heartbreaking yet hopeful novel about the things that make us unique and lovable.

Atria Books / Simon & Schuster
Picture

Picture
Fat Girls Hiking
An Inclusive Guide to Getting Outdoors at Any Size or Ability
​

Summer Michaud-Skog

Summer Michaud-Skog creates space for marginalized bodies with an insistent conviction that outdoor recreation should welcome everyone.

Timber Press


Picture

Picture
A Home Under the Stars

Andy Chou Musser


Magical and heartfelt, A Home Under the Stars explores the difficulties and anxieties that accompany moving, as well as the journey to find a sense of belonging in a new place
​and to call it home.

Little Bigfoot / Sasquatch Books
Picture

Picture
Ma And Me
A Memoir

Putsata Reang


In her startling memoir, Reang explores the long legacy of inherited trauma
​and the crushing weight of cultural and filial duty.


​MCD / Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Picture

Picture
The Necessity of Wildfire
Poems

Caitlin Scarano


Caitlin Scarano's collection wrestles with family violence, escaping home,
​unraveling relationships, and the complexity of sexuality.

Blair
Picture

Picture
How To Not Be Afraid Of Everything
Poems

Jane Wong


Explores the vulnerable ways we articulate and reckon with fear.
​Full of elegy and resilient joy, these poems speak across generations of survival.


Alice James Books / Consortium
Picture

Picture
Thrust
A Novel

Lidia Yuknavitch


A dazzling novel of body, spirit, and survival, Thrust will leave no reader unchanged.

Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House
Picture

Picture

Edelweiss Collection of 2023 Shortlist Titles

Holiday Catalog

Fall Trade Show

Book Awards

Rural Library Project

​PNBA Code of Conduct




​

Members Only:

Member Handbook

Board / Committees

PNBA Bylaws

PNBA Governance Policy
_____________________________


In Support of Black Lives Matter
June, 2020


Contact PNBA:

Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association
520 West 13th Ave.
Eugene, OR 97401

Phone: 541-683-4363

Fax:       541-683-3910

info@pnba.org