Each year the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library award the Minnesota Book Awards (MNBA) to Minnesota authors, illustrators, and book artists in eight singular categories which include Children’s Literature, General Nonfiction, Genre Fiction, Memoir & Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Young People’s Literature, Minnesota, and Novel & Short Story.
Since 2009 SELCO has created MNBA Book Club in a Bag kits for our region based on the selected titles from the MNBA winners list. Each kit includes 10 copies of the book, reader guides, and bookmarks in a handy canvas bag.
Contact Grand Meadow Public Library if you would like to order a kit for your club!
Available Book Club in a Bag Kit Titles are as follows:
Winners by Year
2015 – Winners announced on April 18, 2015 – Book clubs will be available soon.
- Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold by Joyce Sidman & Rick Allen (Children’s Literature)
- Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Spiritual Life by Nancy Koester (General Nonfiction)
- The Secret of Pembrooke Park by Julie Klassen (Genre Fiction)
- Tailings: A Memoir by Kaethe Schwehn (Memoir & Creative Nonfiction)
- Dangerous Goods by Sean Hill (Poetry)
- West of the Moon by Margi Preus (Young People’s Literature)
- Her Honor: Rosalie Wahl and the Minnesota Women’s Movement by Lori Sturdevant (Minnesota)
- A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (Novel & Short Story)
2014
- Moo! by David LaRochelle (Children’s Literature)
- The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII by Jack El-Hai (General Nonfiction)
- Tamarack County by William Kent Krueger (Genre Fiction)
- Prairie Silence by Melanie Hoffert (Memoir & Creative Nonfiction)
- Black Aperture by Matt Rasmussen (Poetry)
- Sex & Violence by Carrie Mesrobian (Young People’s Literature)
- Modern Spirit: The Art of George Morrison by W. Jackson Rushing III and Kristin Makholm (Minnesota)
- The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories by Ethan Rutherford (Novel & Short Story)
2013
- It’s a Tiger! by David LaRochelle (Children’s Literature)
- Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life by David Treurer (General Nonfiction)
- Curse of the Jade Lily by David Housewright (Genre Fiction)
- Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Framing Works by Atina Diffley (Memoir & Creative Nonfiction)
- Odessa by Patricia Kirkpatrick (Poetry)
- Nothing Special by Geoff Herback (Young People’s Literature)
- Mini Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota by Gwen Westerman & Bruce White (Minnesota)
- The Round House by Louise Erdrich (Novel & Short Story)
2012
- Book Speak! Poems About Books by Laura Purdie Salas (Children’s Literature)
- Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America by Shawn Lawrence Otto (General Nonfiction)
- Big Wheat by Richard A. Thompson (Genre Fiction)
- A Song at Twilight: Of Alzheimer’s and Love by Nancy Paddock (Memoir & Creative Nonfiction)
- Whorled by Ed Bok Lee (Poetry)
- With or Without You by Brian Farrey (Young People’s Literature)
- Pioneer Modernists: Minnesota’s First Generation of Women Artists by Julie L’Enfant (Minnesota)
- The Law of Miracles and Other Stories by Gregory Blake Smith (Novel & Short Story)
- The Tanglewood Terror by Kurtis Scaletta (Readers’ Choice)*
2011
- My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall (Children’s Literature)
- The Opposite of Cold: The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition by Michael Nordskog (General Nonfiction)
- The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb (Genre Fiction)
- Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA by Bonnie J. Rough (Memoir & Creative Nonfiction)
- North Country: The Making of Minnesota by Mary Lethert Wingerd (Minnesota)
- Vestments by John Reimringer (Novel & Short Story)
- Find the Girl by Lightsey Darst (Poetry)
- Blank Confession by Pete Hautman (Young People’s Literature)
- News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist by Laurie Hertzel (Readers’ Choice)*
2010
- Red Sings from Treetops by Joyce Sidman (Children’s Literature)
- I Go to America: Swedish American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson by Joy K. Lintelman (General Nonfiction)
- Jelly’s Gold by David Housewright (Genre Fiction)
- The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder’s Journey through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows by Kent Nerburn (Memoir & Creative Nonfiction)
- I Wish I Had a Heart Like Yours, Walt Whitman by Jude Nutter (Poetry)
- The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo (Young People’s Literature)
- Opening Goliath: Danger and Discovery in Caving by Cary J. Griffith (Minnesota)
- The Book of Night Women by Marlon James (Novel & Short Story)
- Honor Bright: A Century of Scouting in Northern Star Council by Dave Kenney (Readers’ Choice)*
2009
- The Compassionate Carnivore by Catherine Friend (General Nonfiction)
- Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer (Genre Fiction)
- National Monuments by Heid E. Erdrich (Poetry)
- Twelve Long Months by Brian Malloy (Young People’s Literature)
- Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota by Barbara Sommer (Minnesota)
- The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (Novel & Short Story)
- The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang (Readers’ Choice) *
*The Readers’ Choice award was discontinued after 2012.
This project was funded in part or in whole with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage fund.
