Nebraska’s 2025 Book Award Winners Announced

Celebrate Nebraska’s 2025 Book Award winners with author readings and an awards presentation ceremony at the Nebraska Celebration of Book’s (NCOB) literary festival. Held at the UNL City Campus Union on November 15th, winners of the 2025 Nebraska Book Awards will be honored at the celebration which will include author roundtables during the festival and an awards ceremony. The ceremony will feature readings by some of the winning authors, designers, and illustrators of books with a Nebraska connection published in 2024. And the winners are:
-Teen Novel: Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better by Mylisa Larsen. Publisher: Clarion Books.
-Cover/Illustration: Animal Climate Heroes by Alison Pearce Stevens, illustrated by Jason Ford. Publisher: Godwin Books.
-Cover/Illustration Honor: Do You Know the Value of You? by Isabelle Hall, illustrated by Megan Earley. Publisher: Joyful Page Press.
-Design: Creative Genius: The Art of the Nebraska Capitol by Susanne Shore, Kevin Moser, and Drew Davies. Publisher: Bison Books.
-Design Honor: Rodeo Clown by Quentin Fortney. Publisher: 777 Press.
-Fiction: Isamu’s American Dream by D. D. Davenport. Publisher: Donald D Davenport.
-Fiction Honor: Sacrificial Animals: A Novel by Kailee Pedersen. Publisher: ‎St. Martin's Press.
-Nonfiction Biography: Most Honorable Son: A Forgotten Hero's Fight Against Fascism and Hate During World War II by Gregg Jones. Publisher: Citadel Press.
-Nonfiction Conservation: Into Whooperland: A Photographer's Journey with Whooping Cranes by Michael Forsberg. Publisher: Michael Forsberg Photography.
-Nonfiction History: Journey to Freedom: Uncovering the Grayson Sisters' Escape from Nebraska Territory by Gail Shaffer. Publisher: University of Nebraska Press.
-Nonfiction Memoir: Running Naked: Surviving the Legacy of Family in Rural Nebraska by Colby Coash. Publisher: Cahoy & Crook.
-Nonfiction Nebraska as Place: The Nebraska Sandhills edited by Monica M. Norby, Judy Diamond, Aaron Sutherlen, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Kim Hachiya, Douglas A. Norby, and Michael Forsberg. Publisher: Bison Books.
-Poetry: The Watching Sky by Judy Brackett Crowe. Publisher: Cornerstone Press.
-Poetry Honor: Those We Can No Longer See: New and Selected Poems by Bob Ross. Publisher: Stephen F. Austin University Press.

This year's Book Awards winners will be honored at the Nebraska Celebration of Books, which aims to celebrate Nebraska’s literary heritage and contemporary authors. Held, Saturday, November 15th, from 10:00am-4:30pm, on the second floor of the UNL City Campus Union and Jackie Gaughn Multicultural Center. The event will feature 2025 One Book One Nebraska author Tosca Lee, past and present State Poets Matt Mason and Jewel Rodgers, book vendors, publishers, and presentation of the Nebraska Book Awards, Mildred Bennett Award and Jane Geske Award, and the 2026 One Book One Nebraska announcement.

The 2025 One Book One Nebraska selection, The Long March Home: A World War II Novel of the Pacific by Marcus Brotherton and Tosca Lee (Revell, 2023) will be featured with an author talk by Nebraska Author Tosca Lee.

The Nebraska Book Awards are sponsored and facilitated by the Nebraska Center for the Book and the Nebraska Library Commission.

The Nebraska Celebration of Books (NCOB) host sponsors include Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln City Libraries, and Francie and Finch Bookshop. Humanities Nebraska provides support for One Book One Nebraska program.

The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the national Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and the Nebraska Library Commission.

As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, “bringing together people and information.”

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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.