Finalists Announced for the 80th Annual California Book Awards

The following books are finalists for the 80th Annual California Book Awards, presented by The Commonwealth Club of California. The winners will be announced the week of April 11th and will be celebrated in an Awards Ceremony on Thursday, June 2, 2011.

Poetry:
Camille T. Dungy, Suck on the Marrow. Published by Red Hen Press
Judy Halebsky, SKY=EMPTY. Published by New Issues Poetry & Prose
Barbara Jane Reyes, Diwata. Published by BOA Editions, Ltd
Alexandra Teague, Mortal Geography. Published by Persea
Brian Turner, Phantom Noise. Alice James Books

Non-Fiction:
Yunte Huang, Charlie Chan. Published by W. W. Norton & Co
Don Lattin, The Harvard Psychedelic Club. Published by HarperOne
Julia Whitty, Deep Blue Home: An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

First Fiction:
Angie Chau, Quiet As They Come. Published by Ig Publishing
Tim Z. Hernandez, Breathing, In Dust. Published by Texas Tech University Press
Zachary Mason, The Lost Books of the Odyssey: A Novel. Published by Picador
Suzanne Rivecca, Death Is Not An Option: Stories. Published by W. W. Norton & Co.

Fiction:
Zoe Ferraris, City of Veils. Published by Little, Brown and Company
Joan Frank, In Envy Country: Stories. Published by University of Notre Dame Press
Eric Puchner, Model Home. Published by Scribner
Adrienne Sharp, The True Memoirs of Little K. Published by Farrar, Straus &; Giroux
Karen Tei Yamashita, I Hotel. Published by Coffee House Press

Children’s Books:
Cecil Castucci, Grandma’s Gloves. With illustrations by Julia Denos. Published by Candlewick Beverly Gherman, Sparky: The Life and Art of Charles Schulz. Published by Chronicle Books.
Rene Colato Lainez, From North to South/Del Norte Al Sur. With illustrations by Joe Cepeda.
Barbara Kerley, The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy). With illustrations by Edwin Fotheringham. Published by Scholastic Press
Icy Smith, Half Spoon of Rice: A Survival Story of the Cambodian Genocide. With illustrations by Sopaul Nhem. Published by East West Discovery Press.

Young Adult:
Margarita Engle, The Firefly Letters: A Suffragette’s Journey to Cuba. Published by Henry Holt and Co.
Ron Koertge, Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs. Published by Candlewick
Dana Reinhardt, The Things a Brother Knows. Published by Wendy Lamb Books
Neal Shusterman, Bruiser. Published by HarperTeen

Mary Ellen Hannibal Heads up California Book Awards at The Commonwealth Club

The Commonwealth Club of California welcomes a new chair of its California Book Awards selection committee. Mary Ellen Hannibal is a longtime professional journalist and editor, having served as book reviews editor at Esquire and Signature magazines, authored three books, and more. She currently chairs the advocacy and communications efforts of the board for the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Her reviews can be found online at The Readers Review.

Hannibal succeeds Roy Eisenhardt, who headed the jury for a number of years. Eisenhardt has, in addition to serving as moderator for many Commonwealth Club events over the years, served as the president of the Oakland Athletics and executive director of the California Academy of Sciences.

Hannibal has served on the California Book Awards jury for the past five years, where she says she

Finalists for the 19th California Book Awards

The following books are finalists for the 79th Annual California Book Awards. The winners will be announced April 19th and will be celebrated in an Awards Ceremony on Thursday, June 3, 2010.

Watch the California Book Awards

The finest California authors of 2008 came out Thursday night, June 4, for The Commonwealth Club’s 78th Annual California Book Awards. Award recipients and finalists mingled, swapped writing tales, and enjoyed an evening of literature and elegance. The ceremony was marked by speeches from honorees August Kleinzahler (poetry), John Adams (nonfiction), and Adam Mansbach (fiction), as well as Ellen Klages (young adult), Rachel Kushner and David Vann (first fiction), Dan Bellm (poetry), and Deanne Stillman (nonfiction). Paul Karlstrom, whose book received the Contribution to Publishing award, also came out to accept. Following the ceremony, guests were treated to a book signing involving all award winners in attendance, while enjoying wine and hors d’oeuvres.

A list of the winners is online here. The video below is of the awards ceremony recognizing the newest winners of this prestigious prize.