2022 Book Award Winners
Unfollow Me
Essays On Complicity Jill Louise Busby Olympia, WA Busby's essays show, not just tell, why it may ultimately be better to be unfollowed than embraced. Her transparency as a Southern-raised Black LGBTQ woman now living in the Pacific Northwest provides a perspective most readers won’t realize they needed until they encounter her illuminating voice. Bloomsbury Publishing Shelftalker |
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr Boise, ID A masterpiece spanning multiple characters, time periods, and places. Readers will be drawn into this clever literary puzzle and repeatedly satisfied every time one piece is revealed to relate to another. Cloud Cuckoo Land celebrates the power of stories and how they connect us as well as comfort us during difficult times. Scribner / Simon & Schuster Shelftalker |
What Strange Paradise
Omar El Akkad Portland, OR The difficult topic of immigration is navigated thoughtfully through the story of a young boy's accidental ocean voyage with a group of refugees, where, as a lone survivor of the journey, he becomes one himself. With great heart, El Akkad demonstrates the curiosity and com-passion the young bring to bear upon the cruel and absurd world adults have created. Knopf / Penguin Random House Shelftalker |
Time Is A Flower
Julie Morstad Vancouver, BC A brilliant and beautiful invitation to think about our relationship to time and how we spend it. Pages of bright, saturated color flow with a rhythm that allows space to breathe, inviting the reader to turn the pages over and over again. Tundra Books / Penguin Random House Shelftalker |
Funeral For Flaca
Essays Emilly Prado Portland, OR A deeply personal and often hilarious collection about coming of age, family, and identity. Prado pours her heart and soul into these essays and readers are likely to recognize a piece of themselves within these pages. Emerging voices like Prado's keep the literary landscape of the PNW fresh and exciting! Future Tense Books Shelftalker |
Iron Widow
Xiran Jay Zhao Vancouver, BC Giant transforming robots fueled by the life force of their pilots; a system which exploits gender norms and sacrifices girls in the name of empire; a protagonist who will do anything to put an end to it. A fierce retelling of the life of the Chinese Empress Wu Zetian and an iron strong debut. Penguin Teen / Penguin Random House Shelftalker |
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