MINNESOTA, USA — Looking for a new book to add to your "to be read" pile? Start your search by checking out the list of 36 authors named Minnesota Book Award finalists for 2022.
From children's literature to nonfiction and poetry, these books represent some of the best work to come from Minnesota writers in the past year.
Twenty-seven literary-minded judges from around the state narrowed down the finalists in nine categories, and among those finalists is KARE 11 reporter Danny Spewak, who's book "From the Gridiron to the Battlefield: Minnesota's March to a College Football Title and Into World War II" was published in September.
See the full list of finalists in all nine categories below.
Children's Literature
- Hello, Earth! Poems to Our Planet by Joyce Sidman; illustrated by Miren Asiain Lora
- Henry at Home by Megan Maynor; illustrated by Alea Marley
- How to Apologize by David LaRochelle; illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka
- Ten Beautiful Things by Molly Beth Griffin; illustrated by Maribel Lechuga
General Nonfiction
- Booth Girls: Pregnancy, Adoption, and the Secrets We Kept by Kim Heikkila
- Find a Trail or Blaze One: A Biography of Dr. Reatha Clark King by Kate Leibfried
- Sensational: The Hidden History of America's "Girl Stunt Reporters" by Kim Todd
- The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic by Jillian Peterson and James Densley
General Fiction
- Insurrection by Tom Combs
- Life's Too Short by Abby Jimenez
- Lightning Strike: A Novel by William Kent Krueger
- The Stolen Hours by Allen Eskens
Memoir and Creative Nonfiction
- Are You Borg Now? by Said Shaiye
- Self, Divided by John Medeiros
- Sound Like Trapped Thunder by Jessica Lind Peterson
- Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress by Ranae Lenor Hanson
Middle-Grade Literature
- Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year by Nina Hamza
- Jo Jo Makoons: The Used-to-Be Best Friend by Dawn Quigley; illustrated by Tara Audibert
- Long Lost by Jacqueline West
- The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu
Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction
- Confluence: A History of Fort Snelling by Hampton Smith
- From the Gridiron to the Battlefield: Minnesota's March to a College Football Title and into World War II by Danny Spewak
- Kura: Prophetic Messenger by Richard Bresnahan
- Opioid Reckoning: Love, Loss, and Redemption in the Rehab State by Amy C. Sullivan
Novel and Short Story
- After Francesco by Brian Malloy
- Brood by Jackie Polzin
- Carnival Lights by Chris Stark
- The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
Poetry
- Dead Reckoning by Jude Nutter
- Homes by Moheb Soliman
- Sho by Douglas Kearney
- Worldly Things by Michael Kleber-Diggs
Young Adult Literature
- The Amalgam by Michel Prince
- In My Heart: The Adoption Story Project by Alan Berks & Leah Cooper; illustrated by Becca Hart
- The Night When No One Had Sex by Kalena Miller
- The Spy Who Raised Me by Ted Anderson; illustrated by Gianna Meola
You can find more information about publishers and the 2022 Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony here.
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