Nebraska Book Award Winners
The Nebraska Book Awards program, sponsored by the Nebraska Center
for the Book (NCB), recognizes and honors books that are written by
Nebraska authors, published by Nebraska publishers, set in Nebraska, or
concerning Nebraska.
2012 (13th annual) for books published in 2011
- Anthology
- Aspects of Robinson: Homage to Weldon Kees, edited by
Christopher Buckley and Christopher Howell
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Anthology Honor
- Women on the North American Plains, edited by Renee
Laegreid and Sandra K. Mathews
- Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
- Cover/Design/Illustration
-
First Telegraph Line across the Continent: Charles
Brown’s 1861 Diary,
edited by Dennis Mihelich and James E. Potter
- Publisher:
Nebraska State Historical Society Books
- Designer: Reigert Graphics
- Cover/Design/Illustration Honor
-
Flushed During Play: 51 Pet Rodent Deaths,
compiled by Jeff Lacey
- Artwork: Calvin Banks
- Fiction
- To Be Sung Underwater, Tom McNeal
- Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
- Nonfiction: Biography
- Rattlesnake Daddy: A Son's Search for His Father, Brent
Spencer
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Nonfiction: History
- The Rhythm Boys of Omaha Central: High School Basketball at
the ‘68 Racial Divide, Steve Marantz
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Nonfiction: Nebraska as Place
- Portraits Of The Prairie: The Land That Inspired Willa
Cather, Richard Schilling
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Nonfiction: Reference
- Field Guide to Wildflowers of Nebraska and the Great Plains,
by Jon Farrar
- Publisher: University of Iowa Press
- Poetry
- Dirt Songs: A Plains Duet, Twyla M. Hansen and Linda M.
Hasselstrom
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
2011 (12th annual) for books published in 2010
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- The Flower Girl/The Ring Bear, N.L. Sharp
- Illustrator: Tim Hantula
- Publisher: Prairieland Press
- Designer: Lynn Gibney
- Cover/Design/Illustration Honor
- Belle Boy, Anne Fuller
- Publisher: Fuller Minds LLC
- Designer: Gary James Withrow
- Fiction
- Lamb Bright Saviors, Robert Vivian
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Fiction Honor
- Stolen Horses, Dan O'Brien
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Nonfiction
- Life is What You Make It,
Peter Buffet
- Publisher: Harmony Books
- Nonfiction Honor
- North American Journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied: Volume 2, April-September 1833, Stephen S. Witte and Marsha V. Gallagher, Editors
- Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
- Poetry
- Cradling Monsoons, Sarah McKinstry-Brown
- Publisher: Blue Light Press
- Young Adult Fiction
- The Red Umbrella, Christina Diaz Gonzalez
- Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
- Young Adult Nonfiction
- Sky Sailors: True Stories of the Balloon Era, David L. Bristow
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2010 (11th annual) for books published in 2009
- View the
book award submissions list
[pdf]
- Anthology
- African Americans on the Great Plains: An Anthology
- Publisher: University of Nebraska
Press
- Editors: Bruce A. Glasrud and Charles A. Braithwaite
- Anthology Honor
- The Loren Eiseley Reader, Loren C. Eiseley
- Publisher: Abbatia Press/Infusionmedia Publishing
- Forward: Ray Bradbury
- Cover art and illustrations: Aaron Franco
- Editor: The Loren Eiseley Society
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- “I Do Not Apologize for the Length of This Letter”: The Mari Sandoz Letters on Native American Rights, 1940-1965,
Mari Sandoz and Kimberli A. Lee
- Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
- Designer: Lindsay Starr
- Cover photos: Courtesy Caroline Sandoz Pifer Collection, Mari
Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center, Chadron State College
- Cover/Design/Illustration Honor
- Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild, Michael Forsberg
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Fiction
- A Sandhills Ballad, Ladette Randolph
- Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
- Nonfiction
- “I Am a Man”: Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice,
Joe Starita
- Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
- Nonfiction Honor
- Louise Pound: Scholar, Athlete, Feminist Pioneer, Robert
Cochran
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Poetry
- Garden of Stars, Dwaine Spieker
- Publisher: All Along Press
- Young Adult
- Some Girls Bite, Chloe Neill
- Publisher: New American Library
2009 (10th annual) for books published in 2008
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- BVH Architects: Forty Years, Suzanne Smith Arney
- Publisher: Omaha Books, a division of Eventive Marketing, LLC
- Designer: Elizabeth Murphy
- Cover photo: Fashid Assassi
- Cover/Design/Illustration Honor
- The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, Stew Magnuson
- Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
- Designer: Lindsay Starr
- Cover photo: John Vachon
- Fiction
- Exiles, Ron Hansen
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
- Nonfiction
- The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, Stew Magnuson
- Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
- Nonfiction Honor
- Nebraska’s Cowboy Trail, Keith Terry
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Poetry
- Geographia, James Magorian
- Publisher: Black Oak Press
> Back to top
2008 (9th annual) for books published in 2008
- Anthology
- The Big Empty: Contemporary Nebraska Nonfiction
Writers
- Publisher: University of Nebraska
Press
- Editors: Ladette Randolph and
Nina Shevchuk-Murray
- Anthology Honor
- Nebraska Presence: An Anthology
of Poetry
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Editors: Greg Kosmicki and Mary K. Stillwell
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- Husker Numbers: A Nebraska Number Book, Rajean Luebs Shepherd
- Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
- Illustrator: Sandy Appleoff
- Fiction
- Dead Ex, Harley Jane Kozak
- Publisher: Doubleday
- Nonfiction
- 150: A Commemoration of the
Sesquicentennial of Hall County,
Nebraska
- Publisher: Grand Island
Independent
- Editor: Pete Letheby
- Nonfiction Honor
- Africa on Six Wheels: A Semester on Safari, Betty Levitov
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Poetry
- Book of Grass, JV Brummels
- Publisher: Grizzly Media
> Back to top
2007 (8th annual) for books published in 2006
- Children/Young Adult
- Tomorrow, the River, Dianne E. Gray
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- Things We Don’t Know We Don’t Know, Matt Mason
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Fiction
- The Floor of the Sky, Pamela Carter Joern
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Flyover Fiction Series
- Fiction Honor
- The Cleanup, Sean Doolittle
- Publisher: Bantam Dell, a Division of Random House, Inc.
- Nonfiction
- The National Grasslands: A Guide to
America’s Undiscovered Treasures, Francis Moul
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Bison Books
- Photography: Georg Joutras
- Nonfiction Honor
- Toast to Omaha: A Cookbook, Junior League of Omaha
- Publisher: Omaha Books
- Poetry
- Things We Don’t Know We Don’t
Know, Matt Mason
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
> Back to top
2006 (7th annual) for books published in 2005
- Anthology
- Slamma Lamma Ding Dong: An Anthology of Nebraska’s Slam Poets
- Publisher: iUniverse, Inc.
- Editors: J.M. Huscher, Matt Mason,
Dan Leamen
- Children/Young Adult
- The Nebraska Adventure, Jean A. Lukesh
- Publisher: Gibbs Smith
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- These Trespasses, Jim Reese
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Fiction
- This is Not the Tropics, Ladette Randolph
- Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
- Nonfiction
- Impertinences: Selected Writings of
Elia Peattie, A Journalist In The Gilded Age, Elia
W. Peattie
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Editor: Susanne George-Bloomfield
- Nonfiction Honor
- Rainmakers: A
Photographic Story of Center Pivots
- Publisher: Groundwater Foundation
- Poetry
- No Accident, Aaron Anstett
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
> Back to top
2005 (6th annual) for books published in 2004
- Anthology
- A Different Plain: Contemporary Nebraska Fiction Writers
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Editor: Ladette Randolph
- Children
- Going North, Janice N. Harrington
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Illustrator: Jerome Lagarrigue
- Children Honor
- Effie’s Image, N. L. Sharp
- Publisher: Prairieland Press
- Illustrator: Dorothia Rohner
- Young Adult Honor
- Worth, A. LaFaye
- Publisher: Simon and Schuster
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- On Ancient Wings, Michael Forsberg
- Publisher: Michael Forsberg Photography
- Cover/Design/Illustration Honor
- Mirror of the Wood, Karen Kunc and Jukka Partanen
- Publisher: Blue Heron Press
- Fiction
- Dating Dead Men, Harley Jane Kozak
- Publisher: Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.
- Fiction Honor
- Little Men, Gerald Shapiro
- Publisher: Ohio State University Press
- Nonfiction
- A Life with Dogs, Roger Welsch
- Publisher: MBI Publishing Company
- Nonfiction Honor
- On Ancient Wings, Michael Forsberg
- Publisher: Michael Forsberg Photography
- Poetry
- How Much Our Dancing Has Improved, Barbara Schmitz
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
> Back to top
2004 (5th annual) for books published in 2003
- Anthology
- Road Trip: Conversations with Writers
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Editors: Shelly Clark and Marjorie Saiser
- Children
- The Ring Bear, N. L. Sharp
- Publisher: Dageforde Publishing, Inc.
- Illustrator: Michael T. Hassler Jr.
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- Road Trip: Conversations with Writers
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Cover photo: Randy Barger
- Cover design: Chris Bristol
- Fiction
- Acts of Love on Indigo Road, Jonis Agee
- Publisher: Coffee House Press
- Nonfiction
- Restoring the Burnt Child: A Primer, William Kloefkorn
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Poetry
- Potato Soup, Twyla Hansen
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Young Adult
- Free to Drink the Wind, Ruth Foreman
- Publisher: Beaver Books
> Back to top
2003 (4th annual) for books published in 2002
- Children/Young Adult
- Together Apart, Dianne E. Gray
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
- Children/Young Adult Honor
- Prairie Summer, Bonnie Geisert
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- Times of Sorrow, Times of Grace: Writing by Women of the Great Plains/High Plains
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Editors: Marjorie Saiser, Greg Kosmicki, and Lisa Sandlin
- Cover/Design/Illustration Book Arts
Production Honor
- A Year at the Sorbonne: A Proustian Life, Oliver B.
Pollak
- Publisher: The Yellow Barn Press
- Fiction
- The Phantom Limbs of the Rollow Sisters, Timothy
Schaffert
- Publisher: Blue Hen Books/Penguin Putnam
- Fiction Short Story Collection Honor
- Night Sounds and Other Stories, Karen Gettert Shoemaker
- Publisher: Dufour Editions Inc.
- Nonfiction
- Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps, Ted Kooser
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Poetry
- Muse, Susan Aizenberg
- Publisher: Crab Orchard Review & Southern Illinois University
Press
- Poetry Honor
- Times of Sorrow, Times of Grace: Writing by Women of the Great Plains/High Plains
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Editors: Marjorie Saiser, Greg Kosmicki, and Lisa Sandlin
> Back to top
2002 (3rd annual) for books published in 2001
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- All the Horses that He’d Rode, Charles E. Hunt and Daryl
Poulin
- Publisher: Dageforde Publishing
- Fiction
- A Cafecito Story: El Cuento Del Cafecito, Julia Alvarez,
Belkis Ramirez, Bill Eichner
- Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
- Nonfiction
- Cold Snap as Yearning, Robert Vivian
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Nonfiction Honor
- The Nature of Nebraska, Paul A. Johnsgard
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Poetry
- Bullroarer: A Sequence, Ted Genoways
- Publisher: Northeastern University Press
- Poetry Honor
- Lost in Seward County, Marjorie Saiser
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Poetry Honor
- Translation, Hilda Raz
- Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
> Back to top
2001 (2nd annual) for books published in 2000
- Children/Young Adult
- Places in Time: A New Atlas of American History, Susan
Buckley, Elspeth Leacock, Randy Jones
- Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- Homefield: Sonata in Rural Voice, Robert Richter
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
- Editors: Marjorie Saiser, Greg Kosmicki, and Lisa Sandlin
- Fiction
- Troublemakers, Robert Richter
- Publisher: University of Iowa Press
- Nonfiction
- Entering Howard County: A History of the People and the Land of Howard County, Nebraska,
Marion Bahensky, Ron Sack
- Publisher: Howard County Historical Society
- Nonfiction Honor
- Black Elk Lives: Conversations with the Black Elk Family,
Esther Black Elk DeSersa, Olivia Black Elk Pourier, Aaron DeSersa
Jr., Clifton DeSersa
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Editors: Hilda Neihardt, Lori Utecht
- Poetry
- Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison,
Ted Kooser
- Publisher: Carnegie Melon University Press
> Back to top
2000 (1st annual) for books published in 1999
- Cover/Design/Illustration
- Abilene Lawmen, Larry D. Underwood
- Publisher: Dageford Publishing
- Fiction
- The Weight of Dreams, Jonis Agee
- Publisher: Viking Penguin
- Nonfiction
- The Frontier Army and the Settlement of the West, Michael
L. Tate
- Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
- Nonfiction Honor
- Spans in Time: A History of Nebraska Bridges, James Potter and
Robert Puschendorf
- Publisher: Nebraska State Historical Society
- Poetry
- Bones of a Very Fine Hand, Marjorie Saiser
- Publisher: The Backwaters Press
> Back to top