Announcing the Golden Poppy 2024 Finalists!

The California Independent Booksellers Alliance (CALIBA) would like to congratulate the finalists for the 2024 Golden Poppy Book Awards. Golden Poppy committees, composed of booksellers throughout the state, read a record number of entries to determine the best of the best from California authors and illustrators.  

The 2024 categories include Fiction, Nonfiction, Mystery, Octavia E. Butler Award (Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror), Poetry, Romance, Glenn Goldman California Lifestyle and Cooking, and the Martin Cruz Smith Award for Emerging Diverse Voices (juried prize). 

In Children’s Literature, the committees read for the following categories: Picture Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Children’s Nonfiction, and the Mirrors & Windows Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature (juried prize).

This year's voting period will be January 5-15, 2025.

Winners will be announced in a virtual ceremony January, 30th, 2025.

Promote your Golden Poppy finalists with specially priced e-blasts and banner ads (available for a limited time).

Find the edelweiss list here.

Headshotby Rita Bullwinkel (Viking)

Jamesby Percival Everett (Doubleday)

Poor Deerby Claire Oshetsky (Ecco)

Real Americansby Rachel Khong (Knopf)

Under a Neon Sun by Kate Gale (Three Rooms Press)

Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders

by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal (Tiny Reparations Books)

Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk

by Kathleen Hanna (Ecco)

The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA

by Jesse Katz (Astra House)

Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling

by Jason De León (Viking)

Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future

by Daniel Lewis (Avid Reader Press)

Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (Mulholland Books)

The Hushed by K.R. Blair (Blackstone Publishing)

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (Celadon Books)

The Stars Turned Inside Out by Nova Jacobs (Atria Books)

The Whitewashed Tombs by Kwei Quartey (Soho Crime)

Bad Mexican, Bad American: Poems by Jose Hernandez Diaz (Acre Books)

Blade by Blade by Danusha Laméris (Copper Canyon Press)

A Face Out of Clay by Brent Ameneyro (University Press of Colorado)

The Palace of Forty Pillars by Armen Davoudian (Tin House Books)

woke up no light: poems by Leila Mottley (Knopf)

Octavia E. Butler Award - Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle (Tor Nightfire)

Dearest by Jacquie Walters (Mulholland Books)

Moonbound by Robin Sloan (MCD)

The Night Ends with Fire by K. X. Song (Ace)

The Palace of Erosby Caro De Robertis (Primero Sueño Press)

How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang (Avon)

The Lovers by Rebekah Faubion (Berkley)

My Season of Scandalby Julie Ann Long (Avon)

Savor Itby Tarah DeWitt (St. Martin's Griffin)

The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava (Berkley)

Martin Cruz Smith Award - Emerging Diverse Voices (juried prize)

All Friends Are Necessaryby Tomas Moniz (Algonquin Books)

The Night Ends with Fire by K. X. Song (Ace)

Real Americansby Rachel Khong (Knopf)

See Loss See Also Loveby Yukiko Tominaga (Scribner)

Theophanies by Sarah Ghazal Ali (Alice James Books)

What Kind of Bird Can’t Fly: A Memoir of Resilience and Resurrection

by Dorsey Nunn, with Lee Romney

Art Is Art: Collaborating with Neurodiverse Artists at Creativity Explored

by Ann Kappes (Chronicle Books)

Bowlarama: The Architecture of Mid-Century Bowling

by Chris Nichols and Adriene Biondo (Angel City Press)

Chipped: Writing from a Skateboarder's Lens

by José Vadi (Soft Skull Press)

Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian American Pop Culture

by Eric Nakamura (Drawn & Quarterly)

Portal: San Francisco's Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities

by John King (W. W. Norton & Company)

The California Farm Table Cookbook: 100 Recipes from the Golden State

by Lori Rice (Countryman Press)

Convivir: Modern Mexican Cuisine in California's Wine Country

by Rogelio Garcia and Andréa Lawson Gray (Abrams Books)

Desi Bakes: 85 Recipes Bringing the Best of Indian Flavors to Western-Style Desserts

by Hetal Vasavada (Hardie Grant North America)

Make It Fancy: Cooking at Home with Sad Papi (A Cookbook)

by Brandon Skier (Simon Element)

Nosh: Plant-Forward Recipes Celebrating Modern Jewish Cuisine

by Micah Siva (The Collective Book Studio)

CHILDREN'S FINALISTS

Joyful Song: A Naming Story

by Lesléa Newman, illustrated by Susan Gal (Levine Querido)

The Man Who Didn't Like Animals

by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by LeUyen Pham (Clarion Books)

A Mischief of Mice by Christie Matheson (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky)

Mochi Makers by Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson (Beach Lane Books)

Small Things Mended

by Casey W. Robinson, illustrated by Nancy Whitesides (Rocky Pond Books)

Anzu and the Realm of Darkness by Mai K. Nguyen (Viking Books for Young Readers)

The Color of Sound by Emily Barth Isler (Carolrhoda Books)

The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman

by Gennifer Choldenko (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

The Wrong Way Home by Kate O'Shaughnessy (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

Ultraviolet by Aida Salazar (Scholastic Press)

Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo (Make Me a World)

Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay (Kokila)

Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee (G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers)

Shut Up, This Is Serious by Carolina Ixta (Quill Tree Books)

The Wild Huntress by Emily Lloyd-Jones (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)

Growing Up Under a Red Flag: A Memoir of Surviving the Chinese Cultural Revolution

by Ying Chang Compestine and Xinmei Liu (Rocky Pond Books)

A Guide to Griefby Cole Imperi and Bianca Jagoe (Kids Can Press)

My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story

by George Takei and Michelle Lee (Crown Books for Young Readers)

Road Home by Rex Ogle (Norton Young Readers)

Ruth Asawa: An Artist Takes Shape by Sam Nakahira (Getty Publications)

Mirrors & Windows - Excellence in Children's Literature (juried prize)

Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay (Kokila)

Juneteenth Is by Natasha Tripplett and Daniel J. O'Brien (Chronicle Books)

The Ofrenda That We Built

by Jolene Gutiérrez, Shaian Gutiérrez and Gabby Zapata (Chronicle Books)

Road Home by Rex Ogle (Norton Young Readers)

The Spice Box by Meera Sriram and Sandhya Prabhat (Knopf Books for Young Readers)