If you are an author or publisher interested in submitting a book for the 2012 California Book Awards, please check back in July to make the submission or receive a submission form. 

Since 1931, the California Book Awards have honored the exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers.

Each year a select jury considers hundreds of books in search of the very best in literary achievement.

Eligible books must be written while the author is a resident of California, and they must be published during the year under consideration.

Awards are presented in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, First Work of Fiction, Poetry, Californiana, Notable Contribution to Publishing, Juvenile Literature and Young Adult Literature.

The ceremony for books published in 2011 took place place on Thursday, June 7, 2012, in San Francisco. 

Congratulations to the 81^st annual California Book Award Winners!

The winners were recognized at the awards ceremony at The Commonwealth Club's main auditorium on June 7, 2012.

This year's California Book Awards program was sponsored by Bank of the West.

Gold Medals

Poetry:

Giovanni Singleton, Ascension Published by Counterpath Press

Nonfiction:

Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino, Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

First Fiction:

Alice LaPlante, Turn of Mind Published by Atlantic Monthly Press

Fiction:

Héctor Tobar, The Barbarian Nurseries Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Juvenile:

Joanne Rocklin, One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street Published by Amulet Books

Young Adult:

Maile Meloy, The Apothecary Published by Penguin Young Readers

Contribution to Publishing:

City Lights Publishers, Ten Years that Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978; Edited by Chris Carlsson

Californiana:

David Rains Wallace, Chuckwalla Land: The Riddle of California’s Desert Published by University of CA Press Berkeley and Los Angeles

Silver Medals

Nonfiction:

Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence: nonfictions, etc. Published by Doubleday

Fiction:

Peter Orner, Love and Shame and Love Published by Little, Brown and Co.