Washington State Book Award Winners

The Washington State Book Award (formerly the Governor's Writers Award) is given annually for outstanding books published by Washington authors the previous year.

Below is the list of winners, including links to the library's catalog, dating back to 1987. Note: links to the catalog open in a new window.

---

2009

Fiction:

• "All About Lulu" by Jonathan Evison
• End of list

Poetry:

• "A Map of the Night" by David Wagoner
• End of list

History/Biography:

• "Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces" by Robert Clark
• End of list

General Nonfiction:

• "S'abadeb: The Gifts: Pacific Coast Salish Arts and Artists" by Barbara Brotherton
• End of list

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award winners:

• "What to Do About Alice? How Alice Roosevelt Broke the Rules, Charmed the World, and Drove Her Father Teddy Crazy!" by Barbara Kerley and Edwin Fotheringham (illustrator)
• "Emperors of the Ice: A True Story of Disaster in the Antarctic, 1910-13" by Richard Farr
• End of list

---

2008

Fiction:

• "Bad Monkeys" by Matt Ruff
• End of list

Poetry:

• "The Grace of Necessity" by Samuel Green
• End of list

History/Biography:

• "Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place" by Coll Thrush
• End of list

General Nonfiction:

• "Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations" by David R. Montgomery
• End of list

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award winners:

• "Rabbit's Gift" by George Shannon and Laura Dronzek (illustrator)
• "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie
• End of list

---

2007

Fiction:

• "The Dead Fish Museum" by Charles D'Ambrosio
• End of list

Poetry:

• "Spectral Waves" by Madeline DeFrees
• End of list

History/Biography:

• "James Tiptree Jr: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon" by Julie Phillips
• End of list

General Nonfiction:

• "River of Memory: The Everlasting Columbia" by William D. Layman
• End of list

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award winners:

• "Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant" by Jack Prelutsky and Carin Berger (illustrator)
• "Grand & Humble" by Brent Hartinger
• End of list

---

2006

Fiction:

• "A Sudden Country" by Karen Fisher
• End of list

Poetry:

• "Luck Is Luck" by Lucia Perillo
• End of list

History/Biography:

• "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl " by Timothy Egan
• End of list

General Nonfiction:

• "In the Company of Crows and Ravens" by John Marzluff and Tony Angell
• End of list

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award winners:

• "So, What's It Like to Be a Cat?" by Karla Kuskin and Betsy Lewin (illustrator)
• "The Witch's Boy" by Michael Gruber
• End of list

---

2005

• "Orphans" by Charles D'Ambrosio
• "Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother"" by Lesley Hazleton
• "Light's Ladder: Poems" by Christopher Howell
• "Breaking Ground" by Paul Hunter
• "Broken for You," by Stephanie Kallos
• "The Children's Blizzard" by David Laskin
• "Black Is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy" by Nikhil Pal Singh
• "Gorgon: The Monsters That Ruled the Planet Before Dinosaurs and How They Died in the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's History" by Peter Ward
• End of list

Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award winners:

• "Honey, Baby, Sweetheart" by Deb Caletti
• "Ella the Elegant Elephant" by Carmela D'Amico (author) and Steven D'Amico (illustrator)
• End of list

---

2004

• "Gay Seattle: Stories of Exile and Belonging" by Gary Atkins
• "Range of Glaciers: The Exploration and Survey of the Northern Cascade Range" by Fred Beckey
• "Rodzina" by Karen Cushman
• "The Actual Moon, the Actual Stars" by Chris Forhan
• "The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717" by Alan Gallay
• "Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America" by Linda Lawrence Hunt
• "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair" by Erik Larson
• "King of Fish: The Thousand-Year Run of Salmon" by David Montgomery
• "Visible Bones: Journey Across Time in the Columbia River Country" by Jack Nisbet
• "Set This House in Order: A Romance of Souls" by Matt Ruff
   
• End of list

---

2003

• "Iridescent Light: The Emergence of Northwest Art" by Deloris Tarzan Ament
• "Red Delta: Fighting for Life at the End of the Colorado River" by Charles Bergman
• "Excerpts from a Family Medical Dictionary" by Rebecca Brown
• "Perma Red" by Debra Magpie Earling
• "Under the Quilt of Night" by Deborah Hopkinson
• "The Gospel of Galore" by Tina Kelley
• "Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back" by Pamela McClusky
• "Wonderful Tricks: Stories" by Gregory Spatz
• "The Twentieth Wife" by Indu Sundaresan
• "The Restless Northwest" by Hill Williams
   
• End of list

---

2002

• "The Keepers of Truth" by Michael Collins
• "Whale Talk" by Chris Crutcher
• "Blue Dusk: New and Selected Poems: 1951-2001" by Madeline DeFrees
• "Swimming Toward the Ocean" by Carole Glickfeld
• "Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds: Notes from a Northwest Year" by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• "Motiba's Tattoos: A Granddaughter's Journey from America Into Her Indian Family's Past" by Mira Kamdar
• "Cool, Calm and Collected: Poems, 1960-2000" by Carolyn Kizer
• "Prometheans in the Lab: Chemistry and the Making of the Modern World" by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
• "Fateful Harvest: The True Story of a Small Town, a Global Industry, and a Toxic Secret" by Duff Wilson
• "Northern Haida Master Carvers" by Robin K. Wright
   
• End of list

---

2001

• "Treasures in Heaven" by Kathleen Alcala
• "John Singer Sargent: The Sensualist" by Trevor Fairbrother
• "The Funhouse Mirror: Reflections on Prison" by Robert Ellis Gordon
• "Black Workers Remember: An Oral History of Segregation, Unionism, and the Freedom Struggle" by Michael Keith Honey
• "Partisans: Marriage, Politics, and Betrayal Among the New York Intellectuals" by David Laskin
• "Mountain City" by Gregory Martin
• "Glottal Stop: 101 Poems by Paul Celan" by Heather McHugh and Nikolai Popov (translators)
• "What the Ice Gets: Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition 1914-1916" by Melinda Mueller
• "Down in the Woods at Sleepytime" by Carole Lexa Schaefer
• "Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Jubilee Singers" by Andrew Ward
   
• End of list

---

2000

• "What She Left Me" by Judy Doenges
• "Origins of Architectural Pleasure" by Grant Hildebrand
• "Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine" by Thom Jones
• "Sunrise to Paradise: The Story of Mount Rainier National Park" by Ruth Kirk
• "Salmon Without Rivers: A History of the Pacific Salmon Crisis" by Jim Lichatowich
• "The Father of the Predicaments" by Heather McHugh
• "Ties That Bind, Ties That Break" by Lensey Namioka
• "Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage" by Robert Michael Pyle
• "The Tiger Iris" by Joan Swift
• "Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems" by David Wagoner
   
• End of list

---

1999

• "The Flower in the Skull" by Kathleen Alcala
• "Escape of the Bird Women" by Linda Andrews
• "Building Washington: A History of Washington State Public Works" by Paul Dorpat and Genevieve McCoy
• "Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West" by Timothy Egan
• "Indians in the Making: Ethnic Relations and the Indian Identities Around Puget Sound" by Alexandra Harmon
• "Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness" by Robin Hemley
• "Kirtland Cutter: Architect in the Land of Promise" by Henry C. Matthews
• "Divided Destiny: A History of Japanese Americans in Seattle" by David A. Takami
• "After a Spell: Poems" by Nance Van Winckel
• "Remembering Ahanagran: Storytelling in a Family's Past" by Richard White
   
• End of list

---

1998

• "Dark Blue Suit and Other Stories" by Peter Bacho
• "The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier" by Bruce Barcott
• "The Ring of Truth: An Original Irish Tale" by Teresa Bateman
• "The Profile Makers: Poems" by Linda Bierds
• "Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence" by George B. Dyson
• "Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion" by Edward J. Larson
• "Echoes of the Elders: The Stories and Paintings of Chief Lelooska" by Chief Lelooska
• "Love Like Gumbo" by Nancy Rawles
• "Warren G. Magnuson and the Making of the Twentieth Century" by Shelby Scates
• "The Fair and the Falls: Spokane's Expo '74: Transforming an American Environment" by J. William T. Youngs
   
• End of list

---

1997

• "No One Walks on My Father's Moon" by Chara M. Curtis and Rebecca Hyland
• "Buddha" by Demi
• "Bucking the Sun: A Novel" by Ivan Doig
• "This Place on Earth: Home and the Practice of Permanence" by Alan Thein Durning
• "Harping On: Poems 1985-1995" by Carolyn Kizer
• "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
• "Olympic National Park: A Natural History Guide" by Tim McNulty
• "An Evening at the Garden of Allah" by Don Paulson and Roger Simpson
• "Bad Land: An American Romance" by Jonathan Raban
• "Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and the Indian Mutiny of 1857" by Andrew Ward
   
• End of list

---

1996

• "Tusk and Stone" by Malcolm Bosse
• "Ironman" by Chris Crutcher
• "Tesserae: Memories & Suppositions by Denise Levertov
• "Storm Boy" by Paul Owen Lewis
• "Maija" by Tiina Nunnally
• "Noah's Choice: The Future of Endangered Species" by Mark L. Plummer
• "The Greatest Sound on Earth, or Eine Kleine Alte Fahrt Mit Orchester" by Myron Richards
• "The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River" by Richard White
• "The Land That Slept Late: The Olympic Mountains in Legend & History by Robert L. Wood
   
• End of list

---

1995

• "Carl F. Gould: A Life in Architecture and the Arts" by William T. Booth
• "The Gifts of the Body" by Rebecca Brown
• "Stones from the River" by Ursula Hegi
• "An Ocean Between Us: The Changing Relationship of Japan and the United States, Told in Four Stories From the Life of an American Town" by Evelyn Iritani
• "Squish: A Wetland Walk" by Nancy Luenn
• "Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries" by Sharon McGrayne
• "Tankers Full of Trouble: The Perilous Journey of Alaska Crude" by Eric Nalder
• "April and the Dragon Lady" by Lensey Namioka
• "Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America" by Jack Nisbet
• "George S. Long: Timber Statesman" by Charles Twining
   
• End of list

---

1994

• "First Indian on the Moon"; "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"; "Old Shirts and New Skins" by Sherman Alexie
• "Pacific Northwest: The Beautiful Cookbook" by Kathy Casey and Lane Morgan and E. Jane Armstrong
• "Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle" by Paul De Barros and Eduardo Calderon
• "The Triumph of Tradition: The Emergence of Whitman College 1859-1924" by G. Thomas Edwards
• "Oh How Can I Keep on Singing? Voices of Pioneer Women: Poems" by Jana Harris
• "The Pugilist at Rest: Stories" by Thom Jones
• "Reconciliation Road: A Family Odyssey of War and Honor" by John Douglas Marshall
• "Palestinians: The Making of a People" by Joel S. Migdal
• "Baseball Saved Us" by Ken Mochizuki
• "Lifting the Veil: The Feminine Face of Science" by Linda Jean Shepherd
   
• End of list

---

1993

• "Spiritual Space: The Religious Architecture of Pietro Belluschi" by Meredith L. Clausen
• "Come Back Salmon: How a Group of Dedicated Kids Adopted Pigeon Creek and Brought It Back to Life" by Molly Cone and Sidnee Wheelwright
• "The Final Forest: The Battle for the Last Great Trees of the Pacific Northwest" by William A Dietrich
• "At the Helm of Twilight" by Anita Endrezze
• "Moon Crossing Bridge: Poetry" by Tess Gallagher
• "Seya's Song" by Ron Hirschi
• "Talking to High Monks in the Snow: An Asian American Odyssey" by Lydia Y. Minatoya
• "Killing Color" by Charlotte Watson Sherman
• "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson
• "Two Trains Running" by August Wilson
   
• End of list

---

1992

• "A Separate Battle: Women and the Civil War" by Ina Chang
• "Hood Canal: Splendor at Risk" by Christopher Dunagan and Jeff Brody
• "Augury" by Phillip Garrison
• "Solider of the Great War" by Mark Helprin
• "Nch'l-Wana, "The Big River": Mid-Columbia Indians and Their Land" by Eugene S. Hunn and James Selam
• "Out of the Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound" by John Keeble
• "Hidden Coast: Kayak Explorations from Alaska to Mexico" by Joel Rogers
• "The Wives' Tale" by Alix Wilber
• "A Time of Gathering: Native Heritage in Washington State" by Robin K. Wright
• "Stalking the Ice Dragon: An Alaskan Journey" by Susan Zwinger
   
• End of list

---

1991

• "Gwinna" by Barbara Berger
• "The End of the Holocaust: The Liberation of the Camps" by Jon Bridgman
• "The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest" by Timothy Egan
• "Floating in My Mother's Palm: A Novel" by Ursula Hegi
• "Picture Postcard" by Fredrick D. Huebner
• "George Tsutakawa" by Martha Kingsbury
• "Washington: A Centennial Atlas" by James W. Scott
• "The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers" Moritz Thomsen
• "Peoples of Washington: Perspectives on Cultural Diversity" by Sid White and S.E. Solberg
• "Late Frontier: A History of Okanogan County, Washington" by Bruce A. Wilson
   
• End of list

---

1990

• "The Magic Fan" by Keith Baker
• "Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West" by Morris Berman
• "When I Kept Silence" by Naomi Clark
• "The Broken Cord" by Michael Dorris
• "Remembered Drums: A History of the Puget Sound Indian War" by Jerry Eckrom
• "The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind: Stories" by David Guterson
• "Passport" by Sam Hamill and Galen Garwood
• "Washington's Centennial Farms: Yesterday and Today" by Mary Beth Lang
• "The American Eagle" by Tom and Pat Leeson
• "Fireweed: An American Saga" by Nellie Buxton Picken
• "Dead Languages: A Novel" by David Shields
   
• End of list

---

1989

• "Honey from the Lion: An African Journey" by Wendy Laura Belcher
• "The Good Times Are Killing Me: A Novel" by Lynda Barry
• "The Social Origins of Private Life: A History of American Families" by Stephanie Coontz
• "The World of Patience Gromes: Making and Unmaking a Black Community" by Scott C. Davis
• "Bears of the World" by Terry Domico
• "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things" by Robert Fulghum
• "Micromysteries: Stories of Scientific Detection" by Gail Kay Haines
• "Washington's Audacious State Capitol and Its Builders" by Norman J. Johnston
• "Stehekin: A Valley in Time" by Grant McConnell
• "Women and Their Quilts: A Washington State Centennial Tribute" by Nancyann Johanson Twelker
   
• End of list

---

1988

• "Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women" by Caroline W. Bynum
• "The River That Flows Uphill: A Journey From the Big Bang to the Big Brain" by Dr. William H. Calvin
• "Dancing at the Rascal Fair" by Ivan Doig
• "King Midas and the Golden Touch" by Kathryn Hewitt
• "Spirit and Ancestor: A Century of Northwest Coast Indian Art at the Burke Museum" by Bill Holm
• "Being & Race: Black Writing Since 1970" by Charles Johnson
• "The Year in Bloom: Gardening for All Seasons in the Pacific Northwest" by Ann Lovejoy
• "Bone Flames; Jesus and Fat Tuesday and Other Short Stories" by Colleen J. McElroy
• "The Goddess Letters: The Myth of Demeter and Persephone Retold" by Carol Orlock
• "A History of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest 1743-1983" by Wilfred P. Schoenberg
   
• End of list

---

1987

• "Ultramarine: Poems" by Raymond Carver
• "Chihuly: Color, Glass and Form" by Dale Chihuly
• "The Origins of War: From the Stone Age to Alexander the Great" by Arther L. Ferrill
• "The Tomorrow Makers: A Brave New World of Living-brain Machines" by Grant Fjermedal
• "The Lover of Horses and Other Stories" by Tess Gallagher
• "At the Forest's Edge: Memoir of a Physician-Naturalist" by David Tirrell Hellyer
• "Tramp: Sagas of High Adventure in the Vanishing World of the Old Tramp Freighters" by Michael J. Krieger
• "Bay and Ocean: Ark Restaurant Cusine" by Nanci Main and Jimella Lucas
• "Blind Trust" by John Nance
• "Wintergreen: Rambles in a Ravaged Land" by Robert Michael Pyle
• "Renegade Tribe: The Palouse Indians and the Invasion of the Inland Pacific Northwest" by Richard D. Scheuerman and Clifford E. Trafzer
• "Jacob Lawrence, American Painter" by Ellen Wheat
• "Soldiers in Hiding: A Novel" by Richard Wiley
• End of list