45th Annual Northern California Book Awards

45th ANNUAL NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDS Northern California's vibrant literary scene will celebrate on Saturday, September 19, 2026, 2:00pm, at Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, Civic Center, San Francisco, when the 45th annual Northern California Book Awards will recognize books published in 2025 by Northern California authors and California translators. The NCBAs are presented by the Northern California Book Reviewers, Poetry Flash, and the San Francisco Public Library, with our community partners Women’s National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter and Mechanics' Institute Library. The event is free and open to the public. Winning authors will accept their awards and present remarks on their books. Finalists and honored books will be available for purchase and signing. A reception follows in the San Francisco Main Library’s Latino/Hispanic Community Room. The Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service will be presented for lifetime achievement and distinguished service to the literary community. This year’s Fred Cody Award goes to Amy Tan. She is the author of novels, short stories, essays, memoir, children’s books, libretto, film/television adaptations, and illustrated nature journals. The NCBA Recognition Award will be presented to a book or literary project that falls outside of NCBA categories. The NCBA Groundbreaker Award will be presented to a literary figure, work, or project representing pioneering and innovative work in the literary community. The California Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose will honor works of translation by translators based anywhere in California. The complete list of honorees and finalists will be posted on Poetryflash.org. The event is free and open to the public; RSVP at Eventbrite.com. RSVPs are appreciated to help us plan for refreshments, but are not required. For more information: [email protected], (510) 612.3958. THE NOMINEES SO FAR, more to come: POETRY Mud in Our Mouths, Luiza Flynn-Goodlett, Curbstone Books/Northwestern University Press Lullaby for the Sixth Extinction, Julia B. Levine, Wolfson Press Birds at Night, Ibe Liebenberg, Texas Tech University Press Mothersalt, Mia Ayumi Malhotra, Alice James Books All the Words I Can Remember Are Poems, Michelle Peñaloza, Persea Books Smother, Rachel Richardson, W.W. Norton & Company FICTION Moderation, Elaine Castillo, Viking The Wayfinder, Adam Johnson, MCD Awake in the Floating City, Susanna Kwan, Pantheon The Girls Who Grew Big, Leila Mottley, Knopf The Antidote, Karen Russell, Knopf CREATIVE NONFICTION Entwined: Dispatches from the Intersection of Species, Bridget A. Lyons, Texas A&M University Press Immemorial, Lauren Markham, Transit Books Connecting Dots: A Blind Life, Joshua A. Miele, with Wendell Jamieson, Grand Central Publishing Sing Me a Circle: Love, Loss, and a Home in Time, Samina Najmi, Trio House Press Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, Robert B. Reich, Knopf GENERAL NONFICTION A Greek Tragedy: One Day, a Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis, Jeanne Carstensen, Atria/One Signal Publishers Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America, Jeff Chang, Mariner Books Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult, Ellen Huet, MCD Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, Michael McFaul, Mariner Books The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties, Dennis McNally, Da Capo CALIFORNIA TRANSLATION Translation in Poetry Smoke Drifts, Nadia Anjuman, translated from Dari (Afghan Persian) by Diana Arterian and Marina Omar, World Poetry Books Pirowa Padowa, Lee Jenny, translated from Korean by Archana Madhavan, Saturnalia Books The Word Turned Butterfly/La Palabra Convertió en Mariposa/Le T’aano’ Suunaj Péepenile’: Mayan Poems from Mexico, a trilingual anthology translated from Mayan and Spanish, Alejandro Murguía and Pedro Uc Be (editors and translators), Last Edition Elegies of the Earth: Selected Poems, Ahmad Shamlou, translated from Persian by Niloufar Talebi, World Poetry Books CHILDREN'S LITERATURE Younger Readers The Everything Trail, Meg Fleming, illustrated by Chuck Groenink, Beach Lane Books Let's Be Bees, Shawn Harris, Neal Porter Books The Day the Books Disappeared, Joanna Ho, Caroline Kusin Pritchard, illustrated by Dan Santat, Disney Hyperion Middle Grade Bunns Rabbit, Alan Barillaro, Candlewick Press Bird of a Thousand Stories, Kiyash Monsef, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers The Peach Thief, Linda Joan Smith, Candlewick Press Young Adult Trans History: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett, Candlewick Press Island Creatures, Margarita Engle, Atheneum The Lost Queen, Aimee Phan, G.P. Putnam's Sons

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Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3779372-0

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