SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA, January 25, 2025 – The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library announced today finalists in ten categories for the 2025 Minnesota Book Awards, presented this year by sponsor Education Minnesota. New this year is a special Anthology Category that will be included every other year. Chosen on Saturday, January 25, by 30 judges from around the state – writers, teachers, librarians, booksellers, and others from the literary community – the finalists for each category are:
Anthology, sponsored by Minnesota Humanities Center:
- Dreaming our Futures: Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiņ Artists and Knowledge Keepers edited by Brenda J. Child & Howard Oransky (University of Minnesota Press)*
- Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces edited by Margret Aldrich & Michelle Filkins (Spout Press)*
- Raised by Wolves: Fifty Poets on Fifty Poems edited by Carmen Gimenez & Jeff Shotts (Graywolf Press)*
- When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology edited by Shannon Gibney & Nicole Chung (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Publishers)
Children’s Literature:
- Mr. Fox’s Game of “No!” by David LaRochelle; illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka (Candlewick Press)
- The Rock in My Throat by Kao Kalia Yang; illustrated by Jiemei Lin (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing Group)*
- Snow Steps by Karen Latchana Kenney; illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich (WorthyKids/Hachette Book Group)
- What Lolo Wants by Cristina Oxtra; illustrated by Jamie Bauza (Kids Can Press)
General Nonfiction:
- The College Student’s Guide to Mental Health by Mia Nosanow (New World Library)
- The New Science of Social Change: A Modern Handbook for Activists by Lisa Mueller (Beacon Press)
- Red Stained: The Life of Hilda Simms by Jokeda “JoJo” Bell (Minnesota Historical Society Press)*
- We Are the Evidence: A Handbook for Finding Your Way After Sexual Assault by Cheyenne Wilson (Balance/Grand Central Publishing)
Genre Fiction, sponsored by Macalester College:
- Big in Sweden by Sally Franson (Mariner Books/HarperCollins Publishers)
- Monsters We Have Made by Lindsay Starck (Vintage Books/Penguin Random House)
- Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie Rendon (Bantam/Penguin Random House)
- The Witches of Santo Stefano by Wendy Webb (Lake Union Publishing/Amazon Publishing)
Memoir & Creative Nonfiction:
- Perennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden by Teresa Peterson (University of Minnesota Press)*
- Sticky Notes: Memorable Lessons from Ordinary Moments by Matt Eicheldinger (Andrews McMeel Publishing)
- When Skies Are Gray: A Grieving Mother’s Lullaby by Lindsey Henke (She Writes Press)
- Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother’s Life by Kao Kalia Yang (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster)
Middle Grade Literature, sponsored by Education Minnesota:
- The Diamond Explorer by Kao Kalia Yang (Dutton Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House)
- Telephone of the Tree by Alison McGhee (Rocky Pond Books/Penguin Random House)
- Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu (Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins Publishers)
- Samira’s Worst Best Summer by Nina Hamza (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins Publishers)
Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction, sponsored by Annette and John Whaley:
- Dodge County, Incorporated: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America by Sonja Trom Eayrs (Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press)
- It Took Courage: Eliza Winston’s Quest for Freedom by Christopher P. Lehman (Minnesota Historical Society Press)*
- The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America by Michelle S. Phelps (Princeton University Press)
- To Banish Forever: A Secret Society, the Ho-Chunk, and Ethnic Cleansing in Minnesota by Cathy Coats (Minnesota Historical Society Press)*
Novel & Short Story, sponsored by Minnesota Humanities Center:
- The French Winemaker’s Daughter by Loretta Ellsworth (Harper Paperbacks/HarperCollins Publishers)
- In Wells’ Time by David Nash (Unsolicited Press)
- The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich (Harper/HarperCollins Publishers)
- Obligations to the Wounded by Mubanga Kalimamukwento (University of Pittsburgh Press)
Poetry, sponsored by Wellington Management, Inc.:
- Bluff by Danez Smith (Graywolf Press)*
- Theophanies by Sarah Ghazal Ali (Alice James Books)
- Birthing Butterflies by Claudia May (Finishing Line Press)
- Run From Your Now by Ben Westlie (Kelsay Books)
Young Adult Literature:
- Dispatches from Parts Unknown by Bryan Bliss (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publishers)
- Rules for Camouflage by Kristin Cronn-Mills (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group)
- We Got the Beat by Jenna Miller (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins Publishers)
- Where Wolves Don’t Die by Anton Treuer (Arthur Levine/Levine Querido)
*Indicates a Minnesota-based publisher.
Award winners will be announced at the 2025 Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, April 22 at Ordway Center for Performing Arts. The Kay Sexton Award will also be presented that evening. Tickets are $27 and will be available at www.thefriends.org/mnba beginning Monday, January 27. The Preface begins at 6:00 p.m., followed by the Awards Ceremony at 7:30 p.m. There will be an option to access the livestream of the Ceremony for free online.
The Minnesota Book Awards is a year-long program of The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library that connects readers and writers throughout the state with the stories of our neighbors. The process begins in the fall with book submissions and continues through winter with two rounds of judging. Winners are announced at the Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony each spring. Woven throughout the season are events that promote the authors and connect the world of Minnesota books – writers, artists, illustrators, publishers, editors, and more – to readers throughout the state. In recognition of this and its other statewide programs and services, the Library of Congress has recognized The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library as the state’s designated Center for the Book. For more information visit thefriends.org/mnba.
About The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library:
The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library acts as a catalyst for libraries to strengthen and inspire their communities. An independent, nonprofit organization established in 1945, The Friends invests in the Saint Paul Public Library through fundraising, advocacy, and programming; as a result, our Library is a nationally-recognized leader in serving its community. The Friends also serves libraries across the country through its consulting services, Library Strategies, and promotes literacy, reading, and libraries statewide as the Library of Congress’s designated Minnesota Center for the Book. For more information, contact The Friends at 651-222-3242 or visit thefriends.org.