44th Annual Northern California Book Award, 100 Larkin Street, SF

Name: 44th Annual Northern California Book Award, 100 Larkin Street, SF
Start: 2025-09-06T14:00:00-07:00
End: 2025-09-06T17:00:00-07:00
Location: San Francisco Public Library Main

Schedule

Sat Sep 06 2025 at 02:00 pm to 05:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

San Francisco Public Library Main | San Francisco, CA

N C B A
44th ANNUAL
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDS
https://poetryflash.org • https://sfpl.org
Northern California's vibrant literary scene will celebrate Saturday, September 6, 2025, 2:00pm, Koret Auditorium, San Francisco Main Library, Civic Center, San Francisco, when the 44th annual Northern California Book Awards will recognize books published in 2024 by Northern California authors and California translators. The NCBAs are presented by the Northern California Book Reviewers, Poetry Flash, and the San Francisco Public Library, with our community partners Mechanics' Institute Library and Women’s National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter.
Winning authors will accept their awards and briefly present remarks on their books. Nominated and honored books will be available for sale and signing. A reception will follow in the San Francisco Main Library’s Latino/Hispanic Community Room.
The Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service will be presented for lifetime achievement and distinguished service to the literary community. This year’s Fred Cody Award goes to Rebecca Solnit, writer, historian, and activist, author of more than twenty books on feminism, western and urban history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, hope and catastrophe. Her books include No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain; Orwell’s Roses; Recollections of My Nonexistence; Hope in the Dark; Men Explain Things to Me; A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster; and A Field Guide to Getting Lost. [from rebeccasolnit.net/biography]
The NCBA Groundbreaker Award will be presented to Paul Yamazaki, who has been called San Francisco’s bookselling superhero. The principal book buyer for City Lights Books for over 50 years, he is author of Reading the Room: A Bookseller’s Tale. The NCBA Groundbreaker award is presented each year to a literary figure, work, or project representing pioneering and innovative work in the literary community.
The California Translation Awards in Poetry and Prose will honor works of translation by translators based anywhere in California.
Northern California reviewers and editors, members of Northern California Book Reviewers, select the awards. Membership is open to eligible Northern California reviewers and editors. All of the nominated books, the NCBR Recommended Reading List, will be acknowledged and celebrated at the ceremony. Judges’ statements by Northern California Book Reviewers will be available in the event program and on the NCBA page at Poetryflash.org. The event is free and open to the public; free tickets are available at Eventbrite.com.

NOMINEES:
POETRY
The Palace of Forty Pillars, Armen Davoudian, Tin House Books
Coachella Elegy, Christian Gullette, Trio House Press
Septet for the Luminous Ones, fahima ife, Wesleyan University Press
woke up no light, Leila Mottley, Knopf
Percussing the Thinking Jar, Maw Shein Win, Omnidawn
I Love Hearing Your Dreams, Matthew Zapruder, Scribner
FICTION
Headshot, Rita Bullwinkel, Viking
How We Know Our Time Travelers, Anita Felicelli, WTAW Press
Exhibit, R.O. Kwon, Riverhead Books
The Forgetters: Stories, Greg Sarris, Heyday
In This Ravishing World, Nina Schuyler, Regal House Publishing
CREATIVE NONFICTION
The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History, Manjula Martin, Pantheon
What Kind of Bird Can't Fly: A Memoir of Resilience and Resurrection, Dorsey Nunn with Lee Romney, Heyday
The Translator's Daughter: A Memoir, Grace Loh Prasad, Mad Creek Books
Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse, Brontez Purnell, MCD
Hour of the Heart: Connecting in the Here and Now, Irvin D. Yalom and Benjamin Yalom, Harper
GENERAL NONFICTION
Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, University of California Press
The Way That Leads Among the Lost: Life, Death, and Hope in Mexico City's Anexos, Angela Garcia, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right, Arlie Russell Hochschild, The New Press
The Island: War and Belonging in Auden’s England, Nicholas Jenkins, Belknap Press
A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging, Lauren Markham, Riverhead Books
CALIFORNIA TRANSLATION
California Translation in Poetry
Guerrilla Blooms, Daniela Catrileo, translated from Spanish by Edith Adams, Eulalia Books
No Gods Live Here, Conceição Lima, translated from Portuguese by Shook, Phoneme Media/Deep Vellum To the Letter: Poems, Tomasz Różycki, translated from Polish by Mira Rosenthal, Archipelago Books California Translation in Prose
Chronicles of A Village, Nguyễn Thanh Hiên, translated from Vietnamese by Quyên Nguyễn-Hoàng, Yale University Press
Jénifer, or a French Princess: The (Truly) Unknown Islands, Joel Neto, translated from Portuguese by Diniz Borges and Katharine F. Baker, Letras Lavadas Edições/Bruma Publications
The Tears and Smiles of Things: Stories, Sketches, Meditations, Andriy Sodomora, translated from Ukrainian by Roman Ivashkiv and Sabrina Jaszi, Academic Studies Press
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Younger Readers
Eloísa’s Musical Window, Margarita Engle, illustrated by John Parra, Atheneum Books for Young Readers The Man Who Didn't Like Animals, Deborah Underwood, illustrated by LeUyen Pham, Clarion Books The Night Market, Seina Wedlick, illustrated by Briana Mukodiri Uchendu, Random House Studio

Middle Grade
The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman, Gennifer Choldenko, Knopf Books for Young Readers
The Long Way Around, Anne Nesbet, Candlewick Press
The Wrong Way Home, Kate O'Shaughnessy, Knopf Books for Young Readers
Young Adult
When the World Tips Over, Jandy Nelson, Dial Books
Everything We Never Had, Randy Ribay, Kokila
Lunar New Year Love Story, Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham, First Second
History of the Northern California Book Awards
Since 1981, the Northern California Book Reviewers, a volunteer group of book reviewers and book review editors, have honored the work of Northern California authors. One of the group's founders was Fred Cody, proprietor of the late great independent bookstore in Berkeley. The Fred Cody Award for lifetime achievement is presented every year to a member of the literary community. Previous recipients include Jane Hirshfield, Brenda Hillman, Isabel Allende, Juan Felipe Herrera, Daniel Ellsberg, Sandra M. Gilbert, Jack Hirschman, Judy Grahn, Susan Griffin, Willis Barnstone, Adam Hochschild, Kay Ryan, Michael Pollan, Al Young, Tamim Ansary, Andrew Hoyem, Diane di Prima, Orville Schell, Philip Levine, Ronald Takaki, Francisco X. Alarcón, Carolyn Kizer, Ishmael Reed, Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Hass, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Malcolm Margolin, Adrienne Rich, Wallace Stegner, Kay Boyle, William Everson, Alice Walker, Gary Snyder, Jessica Mitford, Tillie Olsen, M.F.K. Fisher, Robert Duncan, and Nancy J. Peters.