Colorado Humanities Announces 2016 Colorado Book Award Finalists

Colorado Humanities just announced the finalists for the 2016 Colorado Book Awards; they include Fig, the book by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz that we profiled last April. The winners will be revealed on May 21 in a ceremony at the Governor's Residence at Boettcher Mansion.

And the finalists are:

Anthology
Going Down Grand: Poems from the Canyon, edited by Pete Anderson and Rick Kempa (Lithic Press)
Abbey in America: A Philosopher’s Legacy in a New Century, edited by John A. Murray (University of New Mexico Press)
Stories of Music, Volume 1, edited by Holly E. Tripp (Timbre Press)

Children’s Literature
Do Princesses Make Happy Campers? by Carmela LaVigna Coyle, illustrated by Mike Gordon (Taylor Trade Publishing)
A Chicken Followed Me Home by Robin Page (Beach Lane Books)
Ninja, Ninja, Never Stop! By Todd Tuell, illustrated by Tad Carpenter (Abrams Appleseed)

Creative Nonfiction
Grow: Stories from the Urban Food Movement by Stephen Grace (Bangtail Press)
Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave by Sean Prentiss (University of New Mexico Press)
The Spiral Notebook: The Aurora Theater Shooter and the Epidemic of Mass Violence Committed by American Youth by Stephen and Joyce Singular (Counterpoint)

General Nonfiction
Children of Katrina by Alice Fothergill and Lori Peek (University of Texas Press)
The Republic of Conscience by Gary Hart (Blue Rider Press)
Rust: The Longest War by Jonathan Waldman (Simon & Schuster)

Historical Fiction
The Last Midwife by Sandra Dallas (St. Martin’s Press)
And the Wind Whispered by Dan Jorgensen (Bygone Era Books)
The Shepherdess of Siena by Linda Lafferty (Lake Union Publishing)

History
Prophets and Moguls, Rangers and Rogues, Bison and Bears: 100 Years of the National Park Service by Heather Hansen (Mountaineers Books)
Colorado: A Historical Atlas by Thomas J. Noel (University of Oklahoma Press)
Old Blue’s Road by James Whiteside (University Press of Colorado)

Juvenile Literature
Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman (Henry Holt and Company)
The Lightning Queen by Laura Resau (Scholastic Press)
Look Both Ways in the Barrio Blanco by Judith Robbins Rose (Candlewick Press)

Literary Fiction
How to Walk Away by Lisa Birman (Spuyten Duyvil)
Pickup at Union Station by Gary Reilly (Running Meter Press)
Three Rivers: A Novel by Tiffany Quay Tyson (Thomas Dunne Books)

Mystery
The Reckoning Stones by Laura Di Silverio (Midnight Ink)
Murder on the Horizon by M.L. Rowland (Berkeley Prime Crime)
Lake of Fire by Mark Stevens (Midnight Ink)

Pictorial
Colorado’s Yampa River by John Fielder and Patrick Tierney (John Fielder Publishing)
Love Songs of Middle Time by C.H. Rockey (CH Rockey and David Hall)
Sage Spirit: The American West at a Crossroads by Dave Showalter (Braided River)

Poetry
(gentlessness) by Dan Beachy-Quick (Tupelo Press)
The Octopus Game by Nicky Beer (Carnegie Mellon University Press)
All Pilgrim by Stephanie Ford (Four Way Books)
Bad Fame by Martin McGovern (Able Muse Press)

Science Fiction/Fantasy
Clockwork Lives by Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart (ECW Press)
Lord Byron’s Prophecy by Sean Eads (Lethe Press)

Short Story Collection
Night in Erg Chebbi and Other Stories by Edward Hamlin (University of Iowa Press)
The Skull of Pancho Villa and Other Stories by Manuel Ramos (Arte Publico Press)

Thriller
The Virus by Janelle Diller (WorldTrek Publishing)
Dark Waters by Chris Goff (Crooked Lane Books)
The Comfort of Black by Carter Wilson (Oceanview Publishing)

Young Adult Literature
Audacity by Melanie Crowder (Philomel Books)
Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick (Simon & Schuster)
Fig by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz (Margaret K. McElderry Books)

Next month BookBar will hold a series of readings featuring the finalists; the winners will read from their award-winning books at the Governor's Mansion event, which runs from 5 to 7 on Saturday, May 21. 

Find out more at coloradohumanities.org.