Finalists for the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards

Finalists for the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards were announced Saturday by Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, sponsored by Education Minnesota. (* represents a Minnesota-based publisher)

Here are the finalists:

Children’s literature

“Beneath” by Cori Doerrfeld (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group)

“Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?” by Junauda Petrus; illustrations by Kristen Uroda (Dutton Children’s Books/ Penguin Random House)

“Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons” by Laura Purdie Salas; illustrations by Alexandria Neonakis (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing Group)*

“Looking For Happy” by Ty Chapman; illustrations by Keenon Ferrell (Beaming Books/1517 Media)*

General nonfiction

“The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the ‘73 Season Changed Us Forever” by John Rosengren (Sourcebooks)

“Lessons on the Road to Peace” by John Noltner (self-published)

“The Needle and the Lens: Pop Goes to the Movies from Rock ‘n’ Roll to Synthwave” by Nate Patrin (University of Minnesota Press)*

“Smoke on the Waterfront: The Northern Waters Smokehaus Cookbook” by Ned Netzel, Nic Peloquin, Mary K. Tennis, Greg Conley & Eric Goerdt; photographs by Jacob Swanson, Flo, Stephen Pestalozzi, & Zac Bentz (University of Minnesota Press)*

Genre fiction

“Citadel” by C.M. Alongi (Blackstone Publishing)

“Ink Blood Sister Scribe” by Emma Törzs (William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers)

“Liberty’s Daughter” by Naomi Kritzer (Fairwood Press)

“Native Love Jams” by Tashia Hart (self-published)

Memoir & creative nonfiction

“The Crystal Gavel: How I Put My Heart into the Body of Law” by Sue Cochrane (Wise Ink Media)*

“Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History” by Emily Strasser (University Press of Kentucky)

“In the Company of Grace: A Veterinarian’s Memoir of Trauma and Healing” by Jody Lulich (University Minnesota Press)*

“Trauma Sponges: Dispatches from the Scarred Heart of Emergency Response” by Jeremy Norton (University of Minnesota Press)*

Middle-grade literature

“Dear Brother” by Alison McGhee; illustrations by Tuan Nini (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Simon & Schuster)

“The Kitchen Pantry Scientist: Ecology for Kids” by Liz Lee Heinecke (Quarry Books/The Quarto Group)

“The Puppets of Spelhorst” by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)

“Shannon in the Spotlight” by Kalena Miller (Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House)

Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction

“Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence” by Keith Ellison (Twelve Books/Hachette Book Group)

“Making the Carry: The Lives of John and Tchi-Ki-Wis Linklater” by Timothy Cochrane (University of Minnesota Press)*

“Minescapes: Reclaiming Minnesota’s Mined Lands” by Pete Kero (Minnesota Historical Society Press)*

“Winter’s Song: A Hymn to the North” by TD Mischke (Skywater Publishing Cooperative)*

Novel & short story

“Brotherless Night” by V.V. Ganeshananthan (Random House/Penguin Random House)

“A Council of Dolls” by Mona Susan Power (Mariner Books/HarperCollins Publishers)

“Power and Light” by Will Weaver (Calumet Editions)*

“The Sky Vault” by Benjamin Percy (William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers)

Poetry

“The Fight” by Jennifer Manthey (Trio House Press)*

“Meltwater” by Claire Wahmanholm (Milkweed Editions)*

“Songs, Blood Deep” by Gwen Nell Westerman (Holy Cow! Press)*

“Wail Song: or wading in the water at the end of the world” by Chaun Webster (Black Ocean)

Young Adult Literature

“The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be” by Shannon Gibney (Dutton Books/Penguin Random House)

“Just Do This One Thing for Me” by Laura Zimmermann (Dutton Books/Penguin Random House)

“Reimagining Police: The Future of Public Safety” by Artika Tyner (Twenty-First Century Books/Lerner Publishing Group)*

“The Roof Over Our Heads” by Nicole Kronzer (Amulet Books/Abrams Books)

Award winners will be announced at the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony on May 7 at Ordway Center for Performing Arts in downtown St. Paul. The Book Artist Award, Hognander Minnesota History Award and Kay Sexton Award will also be presented that evening. Tickets are $22 and will be available at thefriends.org/mnba beginning Monday, Jan. 29. The preface begins at 6 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 7:30 p.m. There will be an option to access the livestream of the ceremony free.

Related Articles

Production on a new murder mystery film begins in St. Paul

Minnesota author honored by ALA for children’s book

Readers and writers: Stay warm with these good fiction and nonfiction choices

Literary calendar for week of Jan. 21 including veterinarian Jody Lulich and his memoir, ‘In the Company of Grace’

‘Grandmothering While Black’ takes a deep dive into how parents’ parents are coping with raising the next generation