39th Northern California Book Awards Virtual Celebration

Submitted by the Event Organizer

The 39th annual Northern California Book Awards recognize the best published works of 2019 by Northern California authors. Jack Hirschman, poet and social activist, will be awarded The Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service (The Award carries a $1,000 honorarium.), and Kim Shuck, San Francisco Poet Laureate, 2017-2020, will receive the Northern California Book Reviewers Groundbreaker Award. Authors will read briefly from their winning books.

Categories include: Fiction, General Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Children’s Literature (Younger Readers, Middle Grade, Older Readers/YA), and Translation (Poetry and Fiction). Northern California reviewers and editors, members of the Northern California Book Reviewers, select the awards by reading and discussing the titles merits. All of the nominated books, the NCBR Recommended Reading List of Books Published in 2019, will be acknowledged and celebrated at the ceremony.

History of the Northern California Book Awards

Since 1981, the Northern California Book Reviewers, a volunteer group of book reviewers and book review editors, have honored the work of Northern California authors. One of the group’s founders was Fred Cody, proprietor of the famed independent bookstore in Berkeley. The NCBR created an award in his name to honor a lifetime of achievements and distinguished service to the literary community. The Fred Cody Award for lifetime achievement is presented every year to a member of the literary community. Previous recipients include Sandra M. Gilbert, Daniel Ellsberg, Judy Grahn, Susan Griffin, Willis Barnstone, Adam Hochschild, Kay Ryan, Michael Pollan, Al Young, Andrew Hoyem, Diane di Prima, Orville Schell, Philip Levine, Ronald Takaki, Francisco X. Alarcón, Carolyn Kizer, Ishmael Reed, Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Hass, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Malcolm Margolin, Adrienne Rich, Wallace Stegner, Kay Boyle, William Everson, Alice Walker, Gary Snyder, Jessica Mitford, Tillie Olsen, M.F.K. Fisher, Robert Duncan, Nancy J. Peters, and Tamim Ansary.

The Awards’ Sponsors

Poetry Flash, Women’s National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter, PEN West, Mechanics’ Institute Library, San Francisco Public Library, and the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library sponsor and/or present the Northern California Book Awards.

Registration: https://bit.ly/39NoCal9-13-20

SFPL YouTube Live: https://youtu.be/xm88t7x1ZLA

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.