OLYMPIA — The Washington Center for the Book has selected winners in seven categories for the 2026 Washington State Book Awards (WSBA) for outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2025. This is the 60th year of the program, formerly called the Governor’s Writers Awards.
The Washington Center for the Book is an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book, and is administered by Washington State Library, a program of the Washington Secretary of State.
We are proud to shine a light on these excellent works, spanning many genres and forms, and coming from communities spread across our state. Readers seeking belonging, beauty, magic, mystery, humor, solace, wonder, and much, much more will find what they are looking for in these expertly crafted books.
WINNERS:
Creative Nonfiction/Memoir Winner: Alterations (Transit Books) by Cori Winrock of Bellingham
Fiction Winner: Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids (Penguin Random House) by Leyna Krow of Spokane
General Nonfiction/Biography Winner: Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution (Alfred A. Knopf) by Cat Bohannon of Seattle
Poetry Winner: Cold Thief Place (Alice James Books) by Esther Lin of Seattle
Picture Books Winner: A Gift of Dust: How Saharan Plumes Feed the Planet (Knopf) by Martha Brockenbrough of Seattle, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal
Books for Young Readers Winner: Unlikely Aventuras of Ramón and El Cucuy (Abrams) by Donna Barba Higuera of Poulsbo, illustrated by Juliana Perdomo
Young Adult Literature Winner: On the Wings of la Noche (Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Random House) by Vanessa L. Torres of Olympia
ABOUT THE AWARDS
The Washington State Book Awards are presented by the Washington Center for the Book (an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book administered by Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State). The 2026 awards are administered by Sara Peté, Director of the Washington Center for the Book.
These awards honor outstanding books published by Washington authors in 2025. An award is given based on the strength of the publication’s literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality to an author who is a current resident of Washington state. For the 2026 book awards, judges read and evaluated 308 books.
Submissions for the 2027 awards cycle are being accepted at this time. For more information, see the Washington Center for the Book’s website.
Washington’s Office of the Secretary of State oversees areas within state government including managing state elections, registering corporations and charities, and governing the use of the state flag and state seal. The office operates the State Archives and the State Library, documents extraordinary stories in Washington’s history through Legacy Washington, and administers the Combined Fund Drive for charitable giving by state employees and the Productivity Board state employee suggestion program. The Secretary of State oversees the state’s Address Confidentiality Program to help protect survivors of crime and the Civic Engagement Program to increase governmental trust and participation for all Washingtonians.