92nd Annual California Book Awards
Founded in 1931 during the depths of America’s Great Depression, the Commonwealth Club’s California Book Awards celebrates its 92nd anniversary this year and tonight is the award’s ceremony.
Please join us at 6 p.m. PT to honor some of the state’s most distinguished writers. It will be streaming at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2023-06-05/92nd-annual-california-book-awards
The purpose of the awards is to highlight the work of California authors – a praiseworthy goal at a time when the publishing industry (then and now) remains focused on East Coast writers.
Over the years, many of the most important voices in American literature, such as
Joan Didion, Ishmael Reed, Amy Tan, Hector Tobar, and Viet Thanh Nguyen, have been honored with California Book Awards.
Once again, I was honored to serve on the nonfiction jury this year. My colleagues and I and read many fine submissions from the Golden State. Here are the stellar books we chose as this year’s honorees in nonfiction:
American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis, by Adam Hochschild, Mariner Books (Gold Medal)
The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir, by Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Doubleday (Silver Medal)
Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands, by Kelly Lytle Hernández, W.W. Norton and Company (Silver Medal)
Julia presents at the 90th annual California Book Awards at the Commonwealth Club on August 16, 2021
Serving on the jury has been tough but rewarding work. The history of the West is a subject that fascinates me – especially as historians and public scholars unearth often deeply unsettling stories about California and the West.