Finalists for the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards were announced Saturday by Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, sponsored by Education Minnesota. (* represents a Minnesota-based publisher)

Here are the finalists:

Children’s literature

“Beneath” by Cori Doerrfeld (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group)

“Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?” by Junauda Petrus; illustrations by Kristen Uroda (Dutton Children’s Books/ Penguin Random House)

“Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons” by Laura Purdie Salas; illustrations by Alexandria Neonakis (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing Group)*

“Looking For Happy” by Ty Chapman; illustrations by Keenon Ferrell (Beaming Books/1517 Media)*

General nonfiction

“The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the ‘73 Season Changed Us Forever” by John Rosengren (Sourcebooks)

“Lessons on the Road to Peace” by John Noltner (self-published)

“The Needle and the Lens: Pop Goes to the Movies from Rock ‘n’ Roll to Synthwave” by Nate Patrin (University of Minnesota Press)*

“Smoke on the Waterfront: The Northern Waters Smokehaus Cookbook” by Ned Netzel, Nic Peloquin, Mary K. Tennis, Greg Conley & Eric Goerdt; photographs by Jacob Swanson, Flo, Stephen Pestalozzi, & Zac Bentz (University of Minnesota Press)*

Genre fiction

“Citadel” by C.M. Alongi (Blackstone Publishing)

“Ink Blood Sister Scribe” by Emma Törzs (William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers)

“Liberty’s Daughter” by Naomi Kritzer (Fairwood Press)

“Native Love Jams” by Tashia Hart (self-published)

Memoir & creative nonfiction

“The Crystal Gavel: How I Put My Heart into the Body of Law” by Sue Cochrane (Wise Ink Media)*

“Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History” by Emily Strasser (University Press of Kentucky)

“In the Company of Grace: A Veterinarian’s Memoir of Trauma and Healing” by Jody Lulich (University Minnesota Press)*

“Trauma Sponges: Dispatches from the Scarred Heart of Emergency Response” by Jeremy Norton (University of Minnesota Press)*

Middle-grade literature

“Dear Brother” by Alison McGhee; illustrations by Tuan Nini (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Simon & Schuster)

“The Kitchen Pantry Scientist: Ecology for Kids” by Liz Lee Heinecke (Quarry Books/The Quarto Group)

“The Puppets of Spelhorst” by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)

“Shannon in the Spotlight” by Kalena Miller (Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House)

Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction

“Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence” by Keith Ellison (Twelve Books/Hachette Book Group)

“Making the Carry: The Lives of John and Tchi-Ki-Wis Linklater” by Timothy Cochrane (University of Minnesota Press)*

“Minescapes: Reclaiming Minnesota’s Mined Lands” by Pete Kero (Minnesota Historical Society Press)*

“Winter’s Song: A Hymn to the North” by TD Mischke (Skywater Publishing Cooperative)*

Novel & short story

“Brotherless Night” by V.V. Ganeshananthan (Random House/Penguin Random House)

“A Council of Dolls” by Mona Susan Power (Mariner Books/HarperCollins Publishers)

“Power and Light” by Will Weaver (Calumet Editions)*

“The Sky Vault” by Benjamin Percy (William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers)

Poetry

“The Fight” by Jennifer Manthey (Trio House Press)*

“Meltwater” by Claire Wahmanholm (Milkweed Editions)*

“Songs, Blood Deep” by Gwen Nell Westerman (Holy Cow! Press)*

“Wail Song: or wading in the water at the end of the world” by Chaun Webster (Black Ocean)

Young Adult Literature

“The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be” by Shannon Gibney (Dutton Books/Penguin Random House)

“Just Do This One Thing for Me” by Laura Zimmermann (Dutton Books/Penguin Random House)

“Reimagining Police: The Future of Public Safety” by Artika Tyner (Twenty-First Century Books/Lerner Publishing Group)*

“The Roof Over Our Heads” by Nicole Kronzer (Amulet Books/Abrams Books)

Award winners will be announced at the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony on May 7 at Ordway Center for Performing Arts in downtown St. Paul. The Book Artist Award, Hognander Minnesota History Award and Kay Sexton Award will also be presented that evening. Tickets are $22 and will be available at thefriends.org/mnba beginning Monday, Jan. 29. The preface begins at 6 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 7:30 p.m. There will be an option to access the livestream of the ceremony free.

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