After selecting 30 finalists in early September, the Washington Center for the Book has selected the Washington State Book Award winners. These outstanding books, published by Washington authors in 2022, fall across seven categories. This year's nominees and winners include well-known names, like novelist Jess Walter and food writer J. Kenji López-Alt. But also less familiar ones, like Putsata Reang, whose memoir, Ma and Me, won a Pacific Northwest Book Award earlier this year.

We have updated this story to identify the winners (in bold, up top) in each category. So have a browse, hit up one of our fine local bookstores, and get acquainted with our newest batch of literary greats.

2023 Finalists: Books for Adults

Creative Nonfiction/Memoir

• Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe of Tacoma
• Fearlessly Different by Mickey Rowe of Seattle
• Ma and Me: A Memoir by Putsata Reang of Seattle
• Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed by Janet Yoder of Seattle

Fiction

• Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu of Seattle
• The Angel of Rome and Other Stories by Jess Walter of Spokane
• The Final Case by David Guterson of Bainbridge Island
• Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree of Spokane
• Never Meant to Meet You by Alli Frank and Asha Youmans of Seattle

General Nonfiction/Biography

• The Wok: Recipes and Techniques by J. Kenji López-Alt of Seattle
• I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times by Mónica Guzmán of Seattle
• Northwest Know-How: Beaches by Rena Priest of Bellingham
• Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives and the Making of White Power and Wealth by Clyde W. Ford of Bellingham
• Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World: A History by William Alexander of Bainbridge Island

Poetry

• We Had Our Reasons: Poems by Ricardo Ruiz and Other Hardworking Mexicans from Eastern Washington by Ricardo Ruiz of Seattle
• banana [ ] by Paul Hlava Ceballos of Seattle
• Cipota Under the Moon by Claudia Castro Luna of Seattle
• Contemplations by Scott Oki of Bellevue
• The Necessity of Wildfire by Caitlin Scarano of Bellingham
• When I Was the Wind by Hannah Lee Jones of Port Townsend

2023 Finalists: Books for Youth

Picture Books

• How to Hug a Pufferfish by Ellie Peterson of Kirkland
• The Birders: An Unexpected Encounter in the Northwest Woods by Rob Albanese of Seattle
• Old Wood Boat by Nikki McClure of Olympia and the Salish Sea
• Working Boats: An Inside Look at Ten Amazing Watercraft by Tom Crestodina of Bellingham

Books for Young Readers

• Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone by Tae Keller of Seattle
• Narwhalicorn and Jelly by Ben Clanton of Seattle
• Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence by Sonja Thomas of Vancouver

Books for Young Adult Readers

• The Language of Seabirds by Will Taylor of Seattle
• Howl by Shuan David Hutchinson of Seattle
• The Turning Pointe by Vanessa L. Torres of Olympia