The Washington Center for the Book (an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book administered by Washington State Library) has selected winners in seven categories for the 2025 Washington State Book Awards (WSBA) for outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2024.
This is the 59th year of the program, formerly called the Governor’s Writers Awards.
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir Winner:
- Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls of Seattle/Port Townsend (MCD)
Fiction Winner:
- Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco of Seattle (MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
General Nonfiction/Biography Winner:
Be A Revolution by Ijeoma Oluo of Seattle (HarperOne)
Poetry Winner:
- Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha of Redmond (The University of Akron Press)
Picture Books Winner:
- Daughter of the Light-Footed People by Belen Medina of Vancouver and Natalia Rojas Castro (Atheneum – Simon & Schuster)
Books for Young Readers Winner:
- Table Titans Club by Scott Kurtz of Bothell (Holiday House Publishing)
Young Adult Literature Winner:
- Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell of Olympia (Heartdrum, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
FINALISTS:
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir Finalists:
- A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery by Lawrence Ingrassia of Gig Harbor (Henry Holt & Co., an imprint of Macmillan Publishers)
- The Manicurist’s Daughter: A Memoir by Susan Lieu of Seattle (Celadon Books)
- River Songs: Moments of Wild Wonder in Fly Fishing by Steve Duda of Seattle (Mountaineers Books)
- Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe of Tacoma (Counterpoint Press)
- The Wives by Simone Gorrindo of Tacoma (Gallery/Scout Press)
Fiction Finalists:
- Ocean’s Godori by Elaine U. Cho of Seattle (Zando)
- Polite Calamities by Jennifer Gold of Port Townsend (Lake Union Publishing)
- Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet by Samantha Allen of Seattle (Zando)
- West Passage by Jared Pechaček of Seattle (Tor Publishing Group)
- The Women by Kristin Hannah of Seattle (St. Martin’s Press)
General Nonfiction/Biography Finalists:
- Big River: Resilience and Renewal in the Columbia Basin by David Moskowitz of Winthop
- (Braided River, the conservation imprint of Mountaineers Books)
- Field Notes from a Fungi Forager by Ashley Rodriguez of Seattle (Sasquatch Books)
- A Forest of Your Own: The Pacific Northwest Handbook of Ecological Forestry by Seth Zuckerman of Vashon and Kirk Hanson of Olympia (Skipstone, an imprint of Mountaineers Books)
- The Inner Clock: Living in Sync with Our Circadian Rhythms by Lynne Peeples of Seattle (Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House)
- When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency by Anna Letitia Zivarts of Seattle (Island Press)
Poetry Finalists:
- Blue Atlas by Susan Rich of West Seattle (Red Hen Press)
- My Heart Is Not Asleep by Thomas Thomas of Olympia (MoonPath Press)
- The Scarecrow of My Former Self by Sarah Stockton of Port Townsend (MoonPath Press)
- Tell This to the Universe by Katie Prince of Seattle (YesYes Books)
- This One We Call Ours by Martha Silano of Seattle (Lynx House Press)
Picture Books Finalists:
- Haiku, Ew!: Celebrating the Disgusting Side of Nature by Lynn Brunelle of Bainbridge Island and Julia Patton (Lerner Publishing Group)
- Fox, Fox, and More Fox: Three Stories by Corey Tabor of Tacoma (Greenwillow Books, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers)
- Log Life by Amy Hevron of Seattle (Simon & Schuster)
- Love Is My Favorite Color by Nina Laden of Lummi Island and Melissa Castrillon (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster)
- What Did My Ancestors Eat? by Quinn Miller Murphy of King County and Jillian Thalman (Wheat Penny Press, an imprint of Row House Publishing)
Books for Young Readers Finalists:
- Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock by Vikram Madan of Bellevue(Wordsong, an imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers)
- Hike It: An Introduction to Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking by Iron Tazz of Union and Martin Stanev (Magic Cat Publishing)
- The Loneliest Place by Lora Senf of Spokane and Alfredo Cáceres (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
- Unhappy Camper by Lily LaMotte of Port Townsend and Ann Xu (Harper Collins/HarperAlley)
- The World-Famous Nine by Ben Guterson of Seattle and Kristina Kister (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Young Adult Literature Finalists:
- Coyote Lost and Found by Dan Gemeinhart of Cashmere (Henry Holt and Co./BYR)
- Just Another Epic Love Poem by Parisa Akhbari of Seattle (Dial Books For Young Readers/Penguin)
- A Magic Fierce and Bright by Hemant Nayak of Bellevue (Simon & Schuster)
- Sweetest Darkness by Leslie Lutz of Poulsbo (Holiday House)
- Take All of Us by Natalie Leif of Seattle (Holiday House)
ABOUT THE AWARDS
The Washington State Book Awards are presented by the Washington Center for the Book (an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book administered by Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State). The 2024 awards are administered by Sara Peté, Director of the Washington Center for the Book.
These awards honor outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2024. An award is given based on the strength of the publication’s literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality to an author who is a current resident of Washington state. For the 2025 book awards, judges read and evaluated ___ books.
Submissions for the 2026 awards cycle are being accepted at this time. For more information, see the Washington Center for the Book’s website.
JUDGES
2025 WSBA Judges are librarians, authors, and independent booksellers.
Judges for adult titles:
- Robin Bradford, Collection Development Librarian, Pierce County Library System
- Marcus Harrison Green, 2022 WSBA Finalist, Publisher, Author, Columnist, Speaker, & Podcaster
- Sarah Jaffa, Kitsap Regional Library
- Sarah Morrison, Librarian, North Olympic Library System
Emma Radosevich, Collection Development Librarian, Whatcom County Library System
Judges for youth titles:
- Louise Chambers, Elementary Librarian, Highline Public Schools
- Jen Haas, Librarian, Echo Glen Children’s Center
- Lauren Kessel, Teacher-Librarian, Kent Elementary School
Author: Lynnwood Times Staff
