|
Art
Books
Art Book winner Caras Lindas de Colombia/Beautiful Faces of Colombia,
with text by Ruth Goring and images
by Michael Bracey, is a
bilingual book of photojournalism celebrating Colombia's
African-descendant communities. The team behind the book traveled
through Colombia in 2014 to document groups of local activists
fighting racial discrimination, gender-based violence, and domestic
abuse in Afro-Colombian society.
Honorable
Mention Russel Ray's Nature's Geometry: Succulents is an
enthusiastic and visually engaging introduction to the
mathematical patterns that recur across hundreds of varieties of
cacti, agave, euphorbia, cycads, sedum, and related plants.
Children's
Picture Books
Children's Picture Book winner Aunty Jane Knits Up a Storm by Steve Wolfson is a dynamic and effective
tale about how a community supports one of its beloved elders
through bereavement. Aunty Jane, a middle-aged Black woman with a
vibrant bohemian sense of style, channels her grief over widowhood
into knitting so furiously that she creates a literal
thunderstorm. Friends of all ages help bring her energy back into
balance in this handsomely illustrated story.
Honorable
Mention Phyllis Schwartz's When Mom Feels Great, Then We Do Too!,
illustrated with colorful, soft-edged drawings by Siski Kalla, teaches young children to be
household helpers while their mom recovers from cancer.
Middle
Grade
Middle Grade winner Karen Glinski's Badge of Honor is a lively and
well-researched adventure story in which a tween boy and his
plucky dachshund rescue Navajo cultural treasures from a gang of
thieves. While spending the summer at his grandfather's sheep camp
in New Mexico, 11-year-old Emerson thwarts a scheme to steal war
medals from the last surviving Navajo Code Talkers, the World War
II heroes who created an unbreakable code for the Allies based on
their indigenous languages.
Honorable
Mention Sally Hinkley's Elephant and Bird is a charming tale of
friendship across generations and species. An escaped circus
elephant provides emotional healing for an orphaned girl and the
lonely old man who lives in her grandmother's boardinghouse.
Graphic
Novel & Memoir
Graphic Novel winner Dmitri Jackson is our
first two-time category winner with the second installment of his
comic strip about the staff of an urban record store, Blackwax Boulevard Is Listening. The
protagonists contend with unrequited love, addiction, and fallen
idols, as their tensions are brought to a head in a compelling
storyline inspired by the #MeToo movement. Witty lines and sight
gags leaven the serious topic. We love the dynamic composition and
pervasive empathy in Jackson's work.
Honorable
Mention Ned Gannon's
visually stunning graphic novel Peregrination weaves together two stories
of spiritually sensitive young men who wonder where they fit in
the world. One is a wandering monk in a medieval fantasy realm,
and the other is the modern-day schoolboy who draws the monk's
adventures as a way to process his alienation from peers and
teachers.
Genre
Fiction
Genre Fiction winner Irene Cooper's
psychological thriller Found features a grieving mother with a
preternatural ability to find the bodies of missing children. With
beautiful writing and distinctive characters, Found is both a literary study of bereavement
and a twisty, atmospheric police procedural that touches on
contemporary issues like anti-abortion fanaticism and the
gentrification of cannabis.
Honorable
Mention J.H. Mann's Hidden Depths is a crime thriller set on
the Cornwall coast, in which our anti-heroine, an unappreciated
middle manager at a telecom company, comes up with a risky scheme
to cover her tracks in an embezzlement scandal. We awarded an
additional Honorable Mention to Lee Call's
The Angel Room, an insightful young adult
novel about how Christian purity culture stymies healing from
sexual trauma.
Mainstream/Literary
Fiction
Literary Fiction winner Lucy May Lennox's
immersive historical novel Flowers by Night explores cultural mores
around class and gender in early 19th-century Japan through the
same-sex love story of a low-ranking samurai and a blind masseur. Flowers by Night beautifully re-creates a
setting that differs from ours in surprising ways, yet is home to
universal longings for authentic intimacy.
Honorable
Mention Anne Calcagno's
gripping and well-researched novel Love Like a Dog takes us inside the world
of pit bull rescue, through the coming-of-age story of a boy
trying to save his dog from illegal fights. We awarded an extra
Honorable Mention to Lin Haire-Sargeant for
Who Is Jo March?, a Civil War espionage
melodrama that foregrounds the queer subtext of Jo and Laurie from
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.
Creative
Nonfiction & Memoir
Memoir winner Mark S. Robinson's Black on Madison Avenue recounts highlights
and anti-discrimination battles from the 40-year career of a
trailblazing Black advertising executive. More than just an
engaging personal story, Robinson has written the history of his
professional community, with appreciation for people who made a
path for him through a hostile environment.
Honorable
Mention Sarah Birnbach's
uplifting memoir, A Daughter's Kaddish: My Year of Grief, Devotion, and
Healing, chronicles how she kept her vow to say
prayers for her father's soul twice daily for eleven months, in
accordance with Jewish law. Birnbach had to wrestle with her faith
and her feminist commitments when the synagogues she visited
didn't count women as legitimate members of a minyan (quorum) to say the prayers for the
dead.
Poetry
Poetry winner Geof Hewitt's
meditative poetry collection Only What's Imagined is rooted in the
rugged landscape and working-class culture of Vermont. We admired
the book's modest yet self-assured voice and its respect for rural
blue-collar life.
Honorable
Mention Rick Lupert's The Low Country Shvitz is a whimsical
travelogue through Georgia, Savannah, and North Carolina. The
irreverent, diary-like poems have a breezy style and immediacy.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment