Join us for a celebration of the winners of the 91st annual California Book Awards!

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 from around the state in search of the very best in literary achievement.  Over its 90 years, the California Book Awards have honored the writers who have come to define California to the world. Among them are John Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner, MFK Fisher, Thom Gunn, Richard Rodriquez, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joan Didion, Ishmael Reed, and Amy Tan. Recent award winners include Hector Tobar, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Susan Orlean, Rachel Kushner, Rachel Khong, Tommy Orange, Morgan Parker and Steph Cha.

This year’s winners include:

GOLD MEDALS

FICTION
The Archer, Shruti Swamy, Algonquin Books, an imprint of Workman Publishing, Hachette Book Group

FIRST FICTION
Skinship, Yoon Choi, Alfred A. Knopf

NONFICTION_­
Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire, Lizzie Johnson, Crown

JUVENILE
Wishes, Mượn Thị Văn and Victo Ngai, Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc

YOUNG ADULT
Home Is Not a Country, Safia Elhillo, Make Me a World

POETRY
Refractive Africa, Will Alexander, New Directions

CALIFORNIANA
Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles, Rosecrans Baldwin, MCD, an imprint of Farrer, Straus & Giroux

CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHING
A Rebel’s Outcry, Naomi Hirahara, Little Tokyo Historical Society

SILVER MEDALS

FICTION
The Committed, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Grove Atlantic

FIRST FICTION
City of a Thousand Gates, Rebecca Sacks, Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

NONFICTION
Light on Fire: The Art and Life of Sam Francis, Gabrielle Selz, University of California Press