Finalists for 2016 Minnesota Book Awards are announced

Star Tribune journalists, several previous award winners and the state poet laureate are among the finalists for Minnesota Book Awards, chosen by 24 judges from around the state and announced Saturday afternoon. Also among the finalists are seven books ­published by the University of Minnesota Press.

The winners will be announced April 16 at the Minnesota Book Awards gala in St. Paul. Between then and now there will be many events around the metro to allow the public to meet the authors and hear them read from their works.

Here are the finalists:

"Behold! A Baby" by ­Stephanie Watson, illustrated by Joy Ang (Bloomsbury Children's Books); "Dad's First Day" by Mike Wohnoutka (Bloomsbury); "Red: A Crayon's Story" by Michael Hall (Greenwillow) and "Ten Pigs" by Derek Anderson (Orchard Books/Scholastic).

"Asking for It" by Kate Harding (DaCapo); "John H. Howe, Architect," by Jane King Hession and Tim Quigley (University of Minnesota Press); "No House to Call My Home" by Ryan Berg (Nation Books) and "Secrets from the Eating Lab" by Traci Mann (Harper).

"The Devereaux Decision" by Steve McEllistrem (Calumet Editions); "The Grave Soul" by Ellen Hart (Minotaur); "He's Either Dead or in St. Paul" by D.B. Moon (Three Waters) and "Season of Fear" by Brian Freeman (Quercus).

"In Winter's Kitchen" by Beth Dooley (Milkweed), "The War Came Home with Him" by Catherine Madison (University of Minnesota Press), "Water and What We Know" by Karen Babine (University of Minnesota Press) and "We Know How This Ends," by Bruce Kramer with Cathy Wurzer (University of Minnesota Press).

"Minnesota Modern" by Larry Millett (University of Minnesota Press); "Minnesota State of Wonders" by Brian Peterson and Kerri Westenberg (Mark Hirsch Publishing); "North Shore: A Natural History of Minnesota's Superior Coast" by Chel Anderson and Adelheid Fischer (University of Minnesota Press) and "Warrior Nation" by Anton Treuer (Minnesota Historical Society Press).

"The Dead Lands" by Benjamin Percy (Grand Central); "The Patron Saint of Lost Comfort Lake" by Rachel Coyne (New Rivers Press); "Prudence" by David Treuer (Riverhead Books) and "There's Something I Want You to Do" by Charles Baxter (Pantheon Books).

"Beautiful Wall" by Ray Gonzalez (BOA); "Borrowed Wave" by Rachel Moritz (Kore); "Home Studies" by Julie Gard (New Rivers) and "Modern Love and Other Myths" by Joyce Sutphen (Red Dragonfly).

"The Bamboo Sword" by Margi Preus (Abrams Books); "The Firebug of Balrog County" by David Oppegaard (Flux/Llewellyn); "Isabelle Day Refuses to Die of a Broken Heart" by Jane St. Anthony (University of Minnesota Press) and "See No Color" by Shannon Gibney (Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner).

The April 16 announcements will be made at St. Paul's Union Depot. The reception will begin at 7 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 8 p.m. Tickets are $50 and available atthefriends.org or by calling 651-222-3242.

Three other special awards will be given at that time. The third biennial Hognander Minnesota History Award will be announced that evening. The award honors the best scholarly research and writing related to Minnesota history published during the preceding two years.

It will join two other previously announced awards: Wendy Fernstrum will receive the ninth annual Book Artist Award, and Jim Sitter, founding executive director of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, has been named the winner of the Kay Sexton Award.