Colorado Book Awards Announce 2019 Winners | Westword
Navigation

Colorado Book Awards Announce 2019 Winners

The 28th annual Colorado Book Awards honored the best in Colorado literature on Saturday, May 18.
The 2019 Colorado Book Awards were presented on May 18 at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities.
The 2019 Colorado Book Awards were presented on May 18 at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. Teague Bohlen
Share this:

Authors, judges, and lovers of all things literary gathered on Saturday, May 18, to celebrate the 28th annual Colorado Book Awards, presented by Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book. The awards, which honor the best in literature from calendar year 2018, was sponsored this year by First Western Trust, Outskirts Press, Shaw Construction and the Colorado Sun. Held at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, the festivities drew a crowd of nearly 200 to celebrate the winners and the finalists in fourteen categories of written wonderfulness.

click to enlarge
Attending finalists for the 28th Annual Colorado Book Awards.
Teague Bohlen
Award-winning local bookseller BookBar, which hosted all of the finalists' readings over the last couple of months, was on hand to sell books and help celebrate. See our announcement of the full list of finalists; below are the winners, alphabetically by category.

Anthology/Collection: Mile High Stories: 25 Years of Our Best Writing, Geoff Van Dyke and the editors of 5280 magazine

Children’s Literature: The Little i Who Lost His Dot, Kimberlee Gard (Illustrations by Sandie Sonkie Familius)

Creative Non-Fiction: Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir, Adam Cayton-Holland (We interviewed Cayton-Holland, a former Westword writer, back in 2018.)

General Fiction: Go Ask Fannie, Elisabeth Hyde

General Non-Fiction: The Doggie in the Window: How One Dog Led Me From the Pet Store to the Factory Farm to Uncover the Truth of Where Puppies Really Come From, Rory Kress

History: The Wooly West: Colorado’s Hidden History of Sheepscapes, Andrew Gulliford

Juvenile Literature: Del Toro Moon, Darby Karchut

click to enlarge
Nick Arvin won the Literary Fiction CBA for his novel Mad Boy.
Teague Bohlen
Literary Fiction: Mad Boy: A Novel, Nick Arvin

Mystery: Death by G-String: A Coyote Canyon Ladies Ukelele Club Mystery, C.C. Harrison

Poetry: Ghost Of, Diana Khoi Nguyen

Science Fiction/Fantasy: While Gods Sleep, L.D. Colter

Thriller: Mister Tender’s Girl, Carter Wilson

Young Adult Literature: 500 Words or Less, Juleah del Rosario
KEEP WESTWORD FREE... Since we started Westword, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Denver, and we'd like to keep it that way. Your membership allows us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls. You can support us by joining as a member for as little as $1.