32nd Annual Northern California Book Awards

celebrating books published in 2012 by Northern California authors


Winners announced Sunday, May 19, 2013


FRED CODY AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
in COMMUNITY & LITERATURE
Kay Ryan, poet, educator, U.S. Poet Laureate 2008-2010

NCBR RECOGNITION AWARD
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: Poets and Writers Respond to the
March 5, 2007, Bombing of Baghdad's "Street of the Booksellers,"
edited by Beau Beausoleil and Deema Shehabi,
PM Press and the Al-Mutanabbi Street Project

POETRY
City of Rivers, Zubair Ahmed, McSweeney's
A Penance, CJ Evans, New Issues Press/Western Michigan University
The Book of a Thousand Eyes, Lyn Hejinian, Omnidawn
Plunge, Alice Jones, Apogee
Useless Landscape: A Guide for Boys, D.A. Powell, Graywolf Press - WINNER
Citizen, Aaron Shurin, City Lights

FICTION
A River Closely Watched, Jon Boilard, MacAdam/Cage
Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon, Harper
A Partial History of Lost Causes, Jennifer DuBois, Dial Press - WINNER
A Hologram for the King, Dave Eggers, McSweeney's
The Orphan Master's Son, Adam Johnson, Random House

CREATIVE NONFICTION
Married at Fourteen: A True Story, Lucille Lang Day, Heyday
A Simple Revolution: The Making of an Activist Poet, Judy Grahn, Aunt Lute Books
What Light Can Do: Essays on Art, Imagination, and the Natural World, Robert Hass, Ecco
Soul Calling: A Photographic Journey through the Hmong Diaspora, Joel Pickford, Heyday
God's Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine, Victoria Sweet, Riverhead Books - WINNER

GENERAL NONFICTION
Games Without Rules: The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan, Tamim Ansary, PublicAffairs
1616: The World in Motion, Thomas Christensen, Counterpoint
Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals and Reagan's Rise to Power, Seth Rosenfeld, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies, David Thomson, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism, Ozzie Zehner, University of Nebraska Press - WINNER

TRANSLATION
Poetry
The Little Auto, Apollinaire, translated from the French by Beverley Bie Brahic, CB Editions
A Woman With Several Lives, Jean Daive, translated from the French by Norma Cole, La Presse
Opera Omnia, Luxorius, translated from the Latin by Art Beck, Otis Books/Seismicity Editions - WINNER
Fiction
The Neruda Case: A Novel, Robert Ampuero, translated from the Spanish by Carolina de Robertis, Riverhead
Blindly, Claudio Magris, translated from the Italian by Anne Milano Appel, Yale University Press - WINNER
Almost Never: A Novel, Daniel Sada, translated from the Spanish by Katherine Silver, Graywolf Press

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Younger Readers
Noah Webster & His Words, Jeri Chase Ferris, illustrations by Vincent X. Kirsch, Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
First Mothers, Beverly Gherman, illustrations by Julie Dowling, Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Baby Bear Sees Blue, Ashley Wolff, Beach Lane Books - WINNER
Middle Grade/Young Adult
Border Town: Crossing the Line, Malín Alegría, Scholastic (age 12 and up)
The Five Lives of Our Cat Zook, Joanne Rocklin, Amulet Books (Middle Grade)
"Who Could That Be at This Hour": All the Wrong Questions, Lemony Snicket, illustrations by Seth, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (age 8 and up, Grades 4-7) - WINNER

The Northern California Book Awards are presented and sponsored by Northern California Book Reviewers, Poetry Flash, Center for the Art of Translation, Red Room (redroom.com), PEN West, Mechanics' Institute, San Francisco Public Library, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, and Readers Bookstore at the Main.

Winners will be announced at the Awards. Free admission; open to the public. For more information: Poetryflash.org, 510.525.5476, NCBR@poetryflash.org.