The Washington Center for the Book has unveiled the 42 finalists for its 59th annual Washington State Book Awards, celebrating regional authors from a range of genres, spanning from adult fiction to children’s picture books. The finalists are chosen by a panel of librarians, authors, and indie booksellers who read over 250 books and whittle them down based on the “strength of the publication, literary merit, lasting importance, and overall quality.”
If you are thinking, “Cool, but what’s in it for me?” take a peek at the complete list of finalists for some really amazing book recommendations. While I was already familiar with finalists like Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe, Ijeoma Oluo, and Tessa Hulls, the highly curated list has alerted me to more contemporary works from our neck of the woods, like Susan Lieu’s emotional memoir The Manicurist’s Daughter, Katrina Carrasco’s queer historical fiction novel Rough Trade, Lynne Peeples’s scientific sleep guide The Inner Clock: Living in Sync with Our Circadian Rhythms, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s powerful poetry collection Something About Living, and Lora Senf’s all-ages supernatural novel The Loneliest Place.
Needless to say, I will be putting my library card to good use this fall.
Winners will be announced September 16.
2025 WSBA Finalists:
BOOKS FOR ADULT CATEGORIES
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir
A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery (Henry Holt & Co., an imprint of Macmillan Publishers) by Lawrence Ingrassia of Gig Harbor
Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir (MCD) by Tessa Hulls of Seattle/Port Townsend
The Manicurist’s Daughter: A Memoir (Celadon Books) by Susan Lieu of Seattle
River Songs: Moments of Wild Wonder in Fly Fishing (Mountaineers Books) by Steve Duda of Seattle
Thunder Song: Essays (Counterpoint Press) by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe of Tacoma
The Wives (Gallery/Scout Press) by Simone Gorrindo of Tacoma
Fiction
Ocean’s Godori (Zando) by Elaine U. Cho of Seattle
Polite Calamities (Lake Union Publishing) by Jennifer Gold of Port Townsend
Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet (Zando) by Samantha Allen of Seattle
Rough Trade (MCD/Farrar, Straus & Giroux) by Katrina Carrasco of Seattle
West Passage (Tor Publishing Group) by Jared Pechaček of Seattle
The Women (St. Martin’s Press) by Kristin Hannah of Seattle
General Nonfiction/Biography
Be a Revolution (HarperOne) by Ijeoma Oluo of Seattle
Big River: Resilience and Renewal in the Columbia Basin (Braided River, the conservation imprint of Mountaineers Books) by David Moskowitz of Winthrop
Field Notes from a Fungi Forager (Sasquatch Books) by Ashley Rodriguez of Seattle
A Forest of Your Own: The Pacific Northwest Handbook of Ecological Forestry (Skipstone, an imprint of Mountaineers Books) by Seth Zuckerman of Vashon and Kirk Hanson of Olympia
The Inner Clock: Living in Sync with Our Circadian Rhythms (Riverhead Books/Penguin Random House) by Lynne Peeples of Seattle
When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency (Island Press) by Anna Letitia Zivarts of Seattle
Poetry
Blue Atlas (Red Hen Press) by Susan Rich of West Seattle
My Heart Is Not Asleep (MoonPath Press) by Thomas Thomas of Olympia
The Scarecrow of My Former Self (MoonPath Press) by Sarah Stockton of Port Townsend
Something About Living (The University of Akron Press) by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha of Redmond
Tell This to the Universe (YesYes Books) by Katie Prince of Seattle
This One We Call Ours (Lynx House Press) by Martha Silano of Seattle
BOOKS FOR YOUTH CATEGORIES
Picture Books
Daughter of the Light-Footed People (Atheneum – Simon & Schuster) by Belen Medina of Vancouver and Natalia Rojas Castro
Haiku, Ew!: Celebrating the Disgusting Side of Nature (Lerner Publishing Group) by Lynn Brunelle of Bainbridge Island and Julia Patton
Fox, Fox, and More Fox: Three Stories (Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) by Corey Tabor of Tacoma
Log Life (Simon & Schuster) by Amy Hevron of Seattle
Love Is My Favorite Color (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster) by Nina Laden of Lummi Island and Melissa Castrillon
What Did My Ancestors Eat? (Wheat Penny Press, an imprint of Row House Publishing) by Quinn Miller Murphy of King County and Jillian Thalman
Books for Young Readers
Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock (Wordsong, an imprint of Astra Books for Young Readers) by Vikram Madan of Seattle
Hike It: An Introduction to Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking (Magic Cat Publishing) by Iron Tazz of Union and Martin Stanev
The Loneliest Place (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster) by Lora Senf of Spokane and Alfredo Cáceres
Table Titans Club (Holiday House Publishing) by Scott Kurtz of Bothell
Unhappy Camper (HarperCollins/HarperAlley) by Lily LaMotte of Port Townsend and Ann Xu
The World-Famous Nine (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) by Ben Guterson of Seattle and Kristina Kister
Books for Young Adult Readers
Coyote Lost and Found (Henry Holt and Co./BYR) by Dan Gemeinhart of Cashmere
Just Another Epic Love Poem (Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin) by Parisa Akhbair of Seattle
Looking for Smoke (Heartdrum, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers) by K.A. Cobell of Olympia
A Magic Fierce and Bright (Simon & Schuster) by Hemant Nayak of Bellevue
Sweetest Darkness (Holiday House) by Leslie Lutz of Poulsbo
Take All of Us (Holiday House) by Natalie Leif of Seattle
