Golden Poppy Book Awards 2023
The California Independent Booksellers Alliance (CALIBA) presents the 2023 Golden Poppy Awards in recognition of the most distinguished books written and illustrated by creators who have made California their home.
Committees for each category are made up of booksellers throughout the state tasked with developing a final ballot that will be voted upon by CALIBA's bookstore membership and their employees.
Our goal is to elevate California voices and recognize the unique and diverse talents within our state as voted upon by the booksellers who know them best.
EDELWEISS COLLECTION 2023 Winners
EDELWEISS COLLECTION 2023 FINALISTS
Bookstores! Fill out this form to receive 50 free bookmarks featuring this years' Golden Poppy Award Winners.
Click here for Golden Poppy 2023 Printables.
Fiction
The Covenant of Water , by Abraham Verghese (Grove Press)
Big Gay Wedding , by Byron Lane (Henry Holt)
The Celebrants , by Steven Rowley (Putnam)
Death Valley , by Melissa Broder (Scribner)
What We Kept to Ourselves , by Nancy Jooyoun Kim (Atria Books)
Nonfiction
California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline , by Rosanna Xia (Heyday Books)
California, A Slave State: The Forgotten History of Slavery and Slave Revolts in California , by Jean Pfaelzer (Yale University Press)
Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult , by Michelle Dowd (Algonquin Books)
A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial , by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Grove Press)
Secret Harvests , by David Mas Masumoto, illustrated by Patricia Wakida (Red Hen Press)
Mystery
Mother-Daughter Murder Night , by Nina Simon (William Morrow)
Before She Finds Me , by Heather Chavez (Mulholland Books)
Everybody Knows , by Jordan Harper (Mulholland Books)
Killing Me , by Michelle Gagnon (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
Murder by Degrees , by Ritu Mukerji (Simon & Schuster)
Poetry
Nomenclatures of Invisibility , by Mahtem Shiferraw (BOA Editions Ltd.)
The Disordered Alphabet , by Cintia Santana (Four Way Books)
Eggtooth , by Jesse Nathan (Unbound Edition Press)
Notes From the Passenger , by Gillian Conoley (Nightboat Books)
Removal Acts , by Erin Marie Lynch (Graywolf Press)
Octavia E. Butler Award: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror
Maeve Fly, by CJ Leede (Tor Nightfire)
Camp Damascus , by Chuck Tingle (Tor Nightfire)
Ebony Gate , by Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle (Tor Books)
The Jasad Heir , by Sara Hashem (Orbit)
Uranians , by Theodore McCombs (Astra House)
Romance
Sorry, Bro , by Taleen Voskuni (Berkley)
Alone with You in the Ether: A Love Story , by Olivie Blake (Tor Books)
How to Tame a Wild Rogue , by Julie Anne Long (Avon)
The Rewind , by Allison Winn Scotch (Berkley)
Sinner's Isle , by Angela Montoya (Joy Revolution)
You, With a View , by Jessica Joyce (Berkley)
Martin Cruz Smith Award: Emerging Diverse Voices (juried prize)
First Gen: A Memoir , by Alejandra Campoverdi (Grand Central Publishing)
The Bandit Queens , by Parini Shroff (Ballantine)
I Will Greet the Sun Again , by Khashayar J. Khabushani (Hogarth)
The Jasad Heir , by Sara Hashem (Orbit)
Night Wherever We Go , by Tracey Rose Peyton (Ecco)
Pig , by Sam Sax (Scribner)
Glenn Goldman Award: California Lifestyle
The Deserts of California: A California Field Atlas , by Obi Kaufmann (Heyday Books)
The Art of Ruth E. Carter , by Ruth E. Carter (Chronicle Books)
Beyond the Canyon: Inside Epic California Homes , by Roger Davies (The Monacelli Press)
KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell , by Robeson Taj Frazier and Ben Caldwell (Angel City Press)
Sunnylands , by Janice Lyle (Vendome)
Glenn Goldman Award: Cooking
Veg-table , by Nik Sharma (Chronicle Books)
The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp , by Jing Gao (Ten Speed Press)
Chími Nu’am: Native California Foodways for the Contemporary Kitchen , by Sara Calvosa Olson (Heyday Books)
The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood , by John Ash (Cameron Books)
Pistachio , by Georgeanne Brennan, Barbara Bryant (Cameron Books)
Scandinavian From Scratch , by Nichole Accettola (Ten Speed Press)
Picture Books
The Skull , by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press)
Dear Mr. G , by Christine Evans, illustrated by Gracey Zhang (Union Square Kids)
Gustav is Missing! , by Andrea Zuill (Random House Studio)
I Live In A Tree Trunk , by Meg Fleming, illustrated by Brandon James Scott (HarperKids)
Spanish Is the Language of My Family , by Michael Genhart, illustrated by John Parra (Neal Porter Books)
Middle Grade
Big Tree , by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press)
The Fire, the Water, and Maudie McGinn , by Sally J. Pla (Quill Tree Books)
The Firefly Summer , by Morgan Matson (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Lasagna Means I Love You , by Kate O'Shaugnessy (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Nell of Gumbling: My Extremely Normal Fairy-Tale Life , by Emma Steinkellner (Labryinth Road)
Parachute Kids , by Betty C. Tang (Graphix)
Young Adult
A Study in Drowning , by Ava Reid (HarperTeen)
The Blackwoods , by Brandy Colbert (Balzer + Bray)
The Blood Years , by Elana K. Arnold (Balzer + Bray)
Everyone Wants to Know , by Kelly Loy Gilbert (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
An Impossible Thing to Say , by Arya Shahi (Allida)
Only This Beautiful Moment , by Abdi Nazemian (Balzer + Bray)
Children's Nonfiction
Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed , by Dashka Slater (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
AlphaBot , by Vicky Fang (MIT Kids Press)
Good Books for Bad Children , by Beth Kephart, illustrated by Chloe Bristol (Anne Schwartz Books)
Liberated , by Kaz Rowe (Getty Publications)
To Boldly Go , by Angela Dalton (HarperCollins)
What's Inside a Caterpillar Cocoon? , by Rachel Ignotofsky (Crown Books for Young Readers)
Mirrors and Windows: Excellence in Children's Literature (juried prize)
Parachute Kids , by Betty C. Tang (Graphix)
Camp Quiltbag , by Nicole Melleby & A.J. Sass (Algonquin Young Readers)
Last Flight , by Kristen Mai Giang, illustrated by Dow Phumiruk (Levine Querido)
Spanish Is the Language of My Family , by Michael Genhart, illustrated by John Parra(Neal Porter Books)
Yenebi's Drive to School , by Sendy Santamaria (Chronicle Books)