The Thread

Finalists announced for 2020 Minnesota Book Awards

The field of finalists is set for the 2020 Minnesota Book Awards.

Authors and artists living in Minnesota are eligible for the award. The finalists were picked Saturday by a group of 27 judges from around the state, including librarians, booksellers, teachers and writers.

The awards are organized by The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on April 28.

Children’s literature

  • "A to Zåäö: Playing with History at the American Swedish Institute" by Nate Christopherson and Tara Sweeney

  • "Home in the Woods" by Eliza Wheeler

  • "A Map Into the World" by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Seo Kim

  • "My Footprints" by Bao Phi, illustrated by Basia Tran

General nonfiction

“The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee"
"The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present" by David Treuer
Submitted image
  • "America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States" by Erika Lee

  • "Consider the Platypus: Evolution Through Biology's Most Baffling Beasts" by Maggie Ryan Sandford, illustrations by Rodica Prato

  • "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions" by Nancy Atkinson

  • "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present" by David Treuer

Genre fiction

"Black Leopard, Red Wolf” by Marlon James
"Black Leopard, Red Wolf” by Marlon James
Olivia Sun | NPR
  • "Black Leopard, Red Wolf” by Marlon James

  • "The Body Keeper" by Anne Frasier

  • "Ice Cold Heart" by P.J. Tracy

  • "Nothing More Dangerous" by Allen Eskens

Memoir and creative nonfiction

Duluth author Alex Messenger's new book
"The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra" by Alex Messenger
MPR News
  • "All the Wild Hungers" by Karen Babine

  • "Magical Realism for Non-Believers: A Memoir of Finding Family" by Anika Fajardo

  • "The Memory House" by Raki Kopernik

  • "The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra" by Alex Messenger

Middle grade literature

  • "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen

  • "The Lost Girl" by Anne Ursu

  • "The Missing Piece of Charlie O'Reilly" by Rebecca K. S. Ansari

  • "A Tear in the Ocean" by H.M. Bouwman, illustrations by Yuko Shimizu

Minnesota nonfiction

  • "Closing Time: Saloons, Taverns, Dives, and Watering Holes of the Twin Cities" by Bill Lindeke and Andy Sturdevant

  • "Slavery's Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State" by Christopher P. Lehman

  • "Tulips, Chocolate & Silk: Celebrating 65 Years of the James Ford Bell Library" by Marguerite Ragnow and Natasha D’Schommer

  • "Walking the Old Road: A People's History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe" by Staci Lola Drouillard

Novel and short story

  • "Evidence of V: A Novel in Fragments, Facts, and Fictions" by Sheila O’Conner

  • "Stray" by Nancy J. Hedin

  • "Suicide Woods" by Benjamin Percy

  • "This Tender Land" by William Kent Krueger

Poetry

  • "Bodega” by Su Hwang

  • "A Bony Framework for the Tangible Universe" by D. Allen

  • "Mitochondrial Night" by Ed Bok Lee

  • "Safe Houses I Have Known" by Steve Healey

Young adult literature

  • "Catfishing on CatNet" by Naomi Kritzer

  • "Cracking the Bell" by Geoff Herbach

  • "Last Things" by Jacqueline West

  • "The Stars and the Blackness Between Them" by Junauda Petrus