42nd Annual Northern California Book Awards

Celebrating books published by Northern California authors and California literary translators in 2022

Saturday, September 30, 2023 • 2:00 pm PDT

Reception follows

press release

Check back for more information, including judges' statements on each nominated book.

Celebrate Northern California's vibrant literary scene on Saturday, September 30, 2023, 2:00 pm Pacific Time, when the 42nd annual Northern California Book Awards will recognize the best published works of 2022 by Northern California authors and California literary translators. Reviewers and editors—members of Northern California Book Reviewers—select the awards. A reception at the library will follow the ceremony. The event is free and open to the public.

The NCBAs are presented by Northern California Book Reviewers, Poetry Flash, and the San Francisco Public Library, with our community partners The Booksmith, Mechanics' Institute Library and Women's National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter.

California Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose will honor works of translation by literary translators in California.

Nominated books will be available for purchase at the event. The winning book in each category will be announced in-person at the awards ceremony. The NCBR Annual Recommended Reading List, all of the nominated books, will be celebrated at the ceremony.

For more information: NCBR@poetryflash.org, 510.525-5476, or cell-text 510.612.3958.

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2023 Awards Program

FRED CODY AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT & SERVICE

Brenda Hillman. Photo credit: Robert Hass.

Brenda Hillman
Poet, Activist, Educator

NCBR GROUNDBREAKER AWARD

Litquake, San Francisco's Literary Festival (Litquake.org)

NCBR RECOGNITION AWARD

Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen, George McCalman, HarperOne

POETRY

Martian: The Saint of Loneliness, James Cagney, Nomadic Press
Of Mineral, Tiff Dressen, Nightboat Books

Customs: Poems, Solmaz Sharif, Graywolf Press WINNER

Open Pit, Jose Antonio Villarán, Counterpath Press
As She Appears, Shelley Wong, YesYes Books

FICTION

If I Survive You, Jonathan Escoffery, MCD
Forbidden City, Vanessa Hua, Ballantine Books
Divine Madness, Lynne Kaufman, Tailwinds Press
What We Fed to the Manticore, Talia Lakshmi Kolluri, Tin House

Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley, Knopf WINNER

CREATIVE NONFICTION

Spy Daughter, Queer Girl: In Search of Truth and Acceptance in a Family of Secrets, Leslie Absher, Latah Press
How to Read Now: Essays, Elaine Castillo, Viking
The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Doubleday
Creativity: Where Poems Begin, Mary Mackey, Marsh Hawk Press

Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life, Alice Wong, Vintage WINNER

GENERAL NONFICTION

Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies, Lara Gabrielle, University of California Press
American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis, Adam Hochschild, Mariner Books
Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage, Nathalia Holt, G.P. Putnam's Sons

Listen, World! How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America's Most-Read Woman, Julia Scheeres and Allison Gilbert, Seal Press WINNER

Who Killed Jane Stanford? A Gilded Age Tale of Murder, Deceit, Spirits and the Birth of a University, Richard White, W.W. Norton & Company

CALIFORNIA TRANSLATION

California Translation in Poetry
Fiat Lux, Paula Abramo, translated from the Spanish by Dick Cluster, Flowersong Press
It Must Be a Misunderstanding, Coral Bracho, translated from the Spanish by Forrest Gander, New Directions

A Summer Day in the Company of Ghosts, Wang Yin, translated from the Chinese by Andrea Lingenfelter, NYRB Poets WINNER

California Translation in Prose
The Old Woman with the Knife, Gu Byeong-mo, translated from the Korean by Chi-Young Kim, Hanover Square Press/HarperCollins

The Performance, Claudia Petrucci, translated from the Italian by Anne Milano Appel, World Editions WINNER

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Younger Readers

Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas, Jeanne Walker Harvey, illustrated by Loveis Wise, Harper WINNER

Eighteen Vats of Water, Ji-Li Jiang, illustrated by Nadia Hsieh, Creston Books
Listen to the Language of the Trees: A story of how forests communicate underground, Tera Kelley, illustrated by Marie Hermansson, Dawn Publications

Middle Grade

Undercover Latina, Aya de León, Candlewick Press WINNER

Wave, Diana Farid, illustrated by Kris Goto, Cameron Kids
Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams's Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration, Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki, Chronicle Books

Young Adult
No Stopping Us Now, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Three Rooms Press
Self-Made Boys, Anna-Marie McLemore, Feiwel & Friends
Mattie and the Machine, Lynn Ng Quezon, Santa Monica Press

All My Rage, Sabaa Tahir, Razorbill WINNER

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History of the Northern California Book Awards
Since 1981, the Northern California Book Reviewers, a volunteer group of book reviewers and book review editors, have honored the work of Northern California authors. One of the group's founders was Fred Cody, proprietor of the famed independent bookstore in Berkeley. The NCBR created an award in his name to honor a lifetime of achievements and distinguished service to the literary community. The Fred Cody Award for lifetime achievement is presented every year to a member of the literary community. Previous recipients include Isabel Allende, Juan Felipe Herrera, Daniel Ellsberg, Sandra M. Gilbert, Jack Hirschman, Judy Grahn, Susan Griffin, Willis Barnstone, Adam Hochschild, Kay Ryan, Michael Pollan, Al Young, Andrew Hoyem, Diane di Prima, Orville Schell, Philip Levine, Ronald Takaki, Francisco X. Alarcón, Carolyn Kizer, Ishmael Reed, Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Hass, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Malcolm Margolin, Adrienne Rich, Wallace Stegner, Kay Boyle, William Everson, Alice Walker, Gary Snyder, Jessica Mitford, Tillie Olsen, M.F.K. Fisher, Robert Duncan, Nancy J. Peters, and Tamim Ansary.

NCBA Guidelines and Information: poetryflash.org/programs/?p=ncba

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2023 Northern California Book Awards - Poetry

NCBR review of Tenderness by Derrick Austin

BOA Editions

If ever something was needed in our contemporary world, it is tenderness. In this aptly named book, the poet treats the facts of his life with the compassion we all deserve. Through personal journey, myth, and the refreshed perspective that travel brings, Derrick Austin captures the briefest and most characteristic of tender moments in love and friendship. "Taking My Father and Brother to the Frick," a poem of lyrical beauty and meticulous honesty, paints how we long to be loved entire: "Entering the narrow hall/ I ignore my favorite portraits, their ruffles/and bodices, carnations and powder puffs/ afraid to share my joy with you/ yet your bearing in the space—the procession/ of your shoulders, the crowns of your heads—/ makes them sing anew." But tenderness also contains dark moments in the psyche, best told by myth. In "The Lost Woods as Elegy for Black Childhood," "We never came home/ before the streetlights buzzed./ All we do is dance in leaves/ Cackle and Dreaming, we call it/ Our mothers call it grief." Tracing the path of depression, the author expresses doubts "That I'm getting this all down wrong, that I'm getting it down at all." Austin's art manifests an ache it also heals: in "Ballet Folklorico" dancers/ wearing large, startling papier mache heads/ danced near me/ like family I had forgotten/ because I had forgotten how/ profoundly loved/ I have been." Beautifully wrought, minutely observed and profoundly honest, these are poems to which a reader will return.

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