The State of Kansas Notable Book Awards are presented annually for fifteen notable books created by writers, illustrators or
book artists
A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical a ...
who are Kansans or have written about
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...
. The award, originally established in 2006, is organized by the Kansas Center for the Book (KCFB).
Winning authors include
Clare Vanderpool
Clare Vanderpool (born 1965) is an American children's book author living in Wichita, Kansas. Her first book, '' Moon Over Manifest'', won the 2011 Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary awa ...
,
Rolf Potts
Rolf Potts (born October 13, 1970) is an American travel writer, essayist, podcaster, and author. He has written five books, including ''Vagabonding'' (Random House, 2003), ''Marco Polo Didn't Go There'' (Travelers Tales, 2008), ''Souvenir'' (Bloo ...
,
Ben Lerner
Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the National Bo ...
,
Candice Millard, and
Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and film director, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s—particula ...
.
Process
The KCFB is a state affiliate of the
Center for the Book
The Center for the Book was founded in 1977 by Daniel J. Boorstin, the Librarian of Congress, to promote literacy, library, libraries, and reading and an understanding of the history and heritage of American literature. The Center for the Book is m ...
in the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
. It is a program of the
State Library of Kansas
The State Library of Kansas is a department within the state government of Kansas, with locations in Topeka and Emporia. Ray Walling was appointed acting State Librarian in June of 2022.
Locations
The research collections and most of the staff ...
.
[
A committee of KCFB affiliates and fellows, together with authors of previous Notable Books, identifies notable titles from among those published the previous year, and the State Librarian makes the selection for the final list of fifteen. A reception and medal awards ceremony are held to honor the books and their authors and illustrators.][
]
List of winners
Following are the Kansas Notable Book Award winners, listed in alphabetical order by title:
![Gordon Parks](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Gordon_Parks.jpg)
2006
* ''Airball: My Life in Briefs'' – L.D. Harkrader
* ''Capote in Kansas: A Drawn Novel'' – Ande Parks
Ande Parks (born October 1, 1964) is an American professional comic book artist, known for his work as an inker and writer in the industry. His best known work has come from his stint with fellow artist Phil Hester on DC Comics' Green Arrow serie ...
* ''The Darkest Dawn: Lincoln, Booth, and the Great American Tragedy'' – Thomas Goodrich
* ''Deputy Harvey and the Ant Cow Caper'' – Brad Sneed
* ''The Great Blues'' – Steve Semken
* ''A Hungry Heart: A Memoir'' – Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks (November 30, 1912 – March 7, 2006) was an American photographer, composer, author, poet, and film director, who became prominent in U.S. documentary photojournalism in the 1940s through 1970s—particula ...
* ''In the Small, Small Night'' – Jane Kurtz
* ''John Brown, Abolitionist'' – David S. Reynolds
* ''The Kansas Guidebook for Explorers'' – Marci Penner
* ''Maggie Rose and Sass'' – Eunice Boeve
* ''The Moon Butter Route'' – Max Yoho
Max Yoho (1934 - April 22, 2017) began writing humorous books and poetry in 1988 after becoming a widower. Max has written several books including ''The Revival'' and ''Tales from Comanche County''.
Biography
Max Yoho was born in Colony, Kansa ...
* ''Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea'' – Michael J. Everhart
* ''Ordinary Genius'' – Thomas Fox Averill
Thomas Fox Averill (born April 30, 1949) is a writer, novelist, and academic from Topeka, Kansas. His works, including ''Secrets of the Tsil Cafe'', ''The Slow Air of Ewan Macpherson'', ''Ordinary Genius'', and, more recently ''Rode'', have won w ...
* ''Wildflowers and Grasses of Kansas: A Field Guide – Michael John Haddock
* ''The Youngest Brother: On a Kansas Wheat Farm During the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression'' – C. Hugh Snyder
2007
:Eighteen notable books were selected in 2007, the only year in which it was not a list of fifteen.
* ''Afoot: A Tale of the Great Dakota Turkey Drive'' – George Brandsberg
* '' Angle of Yaw'' – Ben Lerner
Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the National Bo ...
* ''Ballots and Bullets: The Bloody County Seat Wars of Kansas'' – Robert K. DeArment
* ''Flint Hills Cowboys: Tales From the Tallgrass Prairie'' – James Hoy
* '' I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You'' – Ally Carter
* ''John Brown to Bob Dole: Movers and Shakers in Kansas'' – Virgil Dean, Ed.
* ''John Steuart Curry: The Road Home'' – Alice Bertels
* ''Kansas Murals: A Traveler's Guide'' – Lora Jost & Dave Loewenstein
* ''Light on Main Street: Storytelling by a Country Newspaper Editor'' – Rudy Taylor
* ''The Loose Change of Wonder'' – Steven Hind
* ''My Little Yellow Taxi'' – Stephen Johnson
* ''Next Year Country: Dust to Dust in Western Kansas, 1890–1940'' – Craig Miner
* ''Not Afraid of Dogs'' – Susanna Pitzer
* ''Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the High Plains'' – William Ashworth
* ''Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women's Rights'' – Diane Eickhoff
* ''Shanghai Shadows'' – Lois Ruby
* ''The Virgin of Small Plains'' – Nancy Pickard
Nancy Pickard (born September 19, 1945 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American crime novelist. She has won five Macavity Awards, four Agatha Awards, an Anthony Award, and a Shamus Award. She is the only author to win all four awards. She also ...
* ''Words of a Prairie Alchemist'' – Denise Low
Denise Low (born 1949) is an American poet, honored as the second Kansas poet laureate (2007–2009). A professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, Low taught literature, creative writing and American Indian studies courses at the university. ...
![SaraParetsky](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/SaraParetsky.jpg)
2008
* ''American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China'' – Matthew Polly
* ''The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians'' – illustrated by Brad Sneed
* ''Can I Keep My Jersey? 11 Teams, 5 Countries, and 4 Years in My Life as a Basketball Vagabond'' – Paul Shirley
Paul Murphy Shirley (born December 23, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player who last played for Unicaja Málaga in the Spanish ACB.
Shirley is noted for briefly maintaining an online journal (blog) while playing for the ...
* ''The Curse of Catunkhamun'' – Tim Raglin
* ''The Farther Shore'' – Matthew Eck
* ''From Emporia: The Story of William Allen White'' – Beverley O. Buller
* ''Hellfire Canyon'' – Max McCoy
* ''Hunger for the Wild: America's Obsession with the Untamed West'' – Michael L. Johnson
* ''The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems, 1972–2007'' – Albert Goldbarth
Albert Goldbarth (born January 31, 1948) is an American poet. He has won the National Book Critics Circle award for "Saving Lives" (2001) and "Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology" (1991), the only poet to receive the honor two times. He also won the Mar ...
* ''A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution'' – David A. Nichols
* ''The Middle of Somewhere'' – J.B. Cheaney
* ''The Rest of Her Life'' – Laura Moriarty
* ''Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep'' – Michael J. Everhart
::: (companion book to '' Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure'')
* ''Storm Chaser: A Photographer's Journey'' – Jim Reed
* ''Writing in an Age of Silence'' – Sara Paretsky
Sara Paretsky (born June 8, 1947) is an American author of detective fiction, best known for her novels focused on the protagonist V. I. Warshawski.
Life and career
Paretsky was born in Ames, Iowa. Her father was a microbiologist and moved the ...
2009
* ''Amelia Earhart: the Legend of the Lost Aviator'' – Shelley Tanaka, and illustrated by David Craig
* ''Artfully Done: Food, Flowers & Joy Across Generations'' – RoxAnn Banks Dicker, Ed.
* ''Burn'' – Kathleen Johnson
* ''Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam'' – Pope Brock
* ''A Curse Dark as Gold'' – Elizabeth C. Bunce
* ''The Guide to Kansas Birds and Birding Hot Spots'' – Bob Gress & Pete Janzen
* ''Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate'' – Kelly Alexander & Cynthia Harris
* ''Kansas Opera Houses: Actors and Community Events 1855–1925'' – Jane Glotfelty Rhoads
* ''Making History: Quilts & Fabric From 1890–1970'' – Barbara Brackman
* ''Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations From One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer'' – Rolf Potts
Rolf Potts (born October 13, 1970) is an American travel writer, essayist, podcaster, and author. He has written five books, including ''Vagabonding'' (Random House, 2003), ''Marco Polo Didn't Go There'' (Travelers Tales, 2008), ''Souvenir'' (Bloo ...
* ''The Nature of Kansas Lands'' – Beverley Worster, Ed.
* ''A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir'' – Donald Worster
Donald Worster (born 1941) is an American environmental historian who was, until his retirement, the Hall Distinguished Professor of American History at the University of Kansas. He is one of the founders of, and leading figures in, the field of ...
* ''The Pizza Hut Story'' – Robert Spector
* ''Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854–1858'' – Craig Miner
* ''Survival of Rural America: Small Victories and Bitter Harvests'' – Richard E. Wood
2010
* ''Addie of the Flint Hills: A Prairie Child During the Depression'' – Adaline Sorace, as told to Deborah Sorace Prutzman
* ''The Blue Shoe: A Tale of Thievery, Villainy, Sorcery, and Shoes'' – Roderick Townley, and illustrated by Mary GrandPre
* ''Carter Finally Gets It
''Carter Finally Gets It'' is a 2009 young adult novel by Brent Crawford. The novel follows the misadventures of William Carter, who has ADD
Addition (usually signified by the plus symbol ) is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic ...
'' – Brent Crawford
* ''The Evolution of Shadows'' – Jason Quinn Malott
* ''Ghost Town'' – Richard W. Jennings
* ''A Kansas Year'' – Mike Blair
* ''Lisa's Flying Electric Piano'' – Kevin Rabas
* ''Nothing Right: Short Stories'' – Antonya Nelson
* ''One Kansas Farmer: A Kansas Number Book'' – Devin Scillian & Corey Scillian
* ''Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains with the Smith Center Redmen'' – Joe Drape
* ''Silver Shoes'' – Paul Miles Schneider
* ''The Storm in the Barn'' – written and illustrated by Matt Phelan
* ''To the Stars: Kansas Poets of the Ad Astra Poetry Project'' – Denise Low
Denise Low (born 1949) is an American poet, honored as the second Kansas poet laureate (2007–2009). A professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, Low taught literature, creative writing and American Indian studies courses at the university. ...
, Ed.
* ''Under Siege!: Three Children at the Civil War Battle for Vicksburg'' – Andrea Warren
* ''Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl'' – Albert Marrin
2011
* ''Amy Barickman's Vintage Notions'' – Amy Barickman
* ''And Hell Followed With It'' – Bonar Menninger
* ''Appetite for America'' – Stephen Fried
* ''Baking With Friends'' – Sharon Davis & Charlene Patton
* ''Bound'' – Antonya Nelson
* ''Crossing the Tracks'' – Barbara Stuber
* ''A Distant Home'' – George Paris
* ''Flyover People'' – Cheryl Unruh
* ''Ghost Stories of the New West'' – Denise Low
Denise Low (born 1949) is an American poet, honored as the second Kansas poet laureate (2007–2009). A professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, Low taught literature, creative writing and American Indian studies courses at the university. ...
* ''Life in a Jar'' – Jack Mayer
* ''Moon Over Manifest
''Moon Over Manifest'' is a 2010 children's novel written by American Clare Vanderpool. The book was awarded the 2011 Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature, the Spur Award for best Western juvenile fiction, and was named a Kans ...
'' – Clare Vanderpool
Clare Vanderpool (born 1965) is an American children's book author living in Wichita, Kansas. Her first book, '' Moon Over Manifest'', won the 2011 Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary awa ...
* ''A Prairie Peter Pan'' – Beverley O. Buller
* ''Prairie Rhythms'' – Lana Wirt Myers
* ''The Scent of Rain and Lightning'' – Nancy Pickard
Nancy Pickard (born September 19, 1945 in Kansas City, Missouri) is an American crime novelist. She has won five Macavity Awards, four Agatha Awards, an Anthony Award, and a Shamus Award. She is the only author to win all four awards. She also ...
* ''Star Crossed'' – Elizabeth C. Bunce
2012
* ''8 Wonders of Kansas!'' – Marci Penner
* ''The Afterlives of Trees'' – Wyatt Townley
* ''Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart'' – Candace Fleming
* ''Bent Road'' – Lori Roy
* '' Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President'' – Candice Millard
* ''Doc'' – Mary Doria Russell
Mary Doria Russell (born August 19, 1950) is an American novelist.
Early life and education
Russell was born in Elmhurst, Illinois
She graduated from Glenbard East High School in Lombard, Illinois, which has registered its chapter of the Nati ...
* ''The Door in the Forest'' – Roderick Townley
* ''Liar's Moon'' – Elizabeth C. Bunce
* ''My Ruby Slippers: The Road Back to Kansas'' – Tracy Seeley
* ''The Northern Cheyenne Exodus in History and Memory'' – Ramon Powers & James N. Leiker
* ''Osa and Martin: For the Love of Adventure'' – Kelly Enright
* ''Prairie Fire: A Great Plains History'' – Julie Courtwright
* ''Rode'' – Thomas Fox Averill
Thomas Fox Averill (born April 30, 1949) is a writer, novelist, and academic from Topeka, Kansas. His works, including ''Secrets of the Tsil Cafe'', ''The Slow Air of Ewan Macpherson'', ''Ordinary Genius'', and, more recently ''Rode'', have won w ...
* ''Send Me Work: Stories'' – Katherine Karlin
* ''Tapped Out: Rear Naked Chokes, the Octagon, and the Last Emperor: an Odyssey in Mixed Martial Arts'' – Matthew Polly
2013
* ''The Adventures of Beanboy'' – Lisa Harkrader
* ''Beyond Cold Blood: The KBI from Ma Barker to BTK'' – Larry Welch
* ''Blackbear Bosin: Keeper of the Indian Spirit'' – David Simmonds
* ''The Chaperone'' – Laura Moriarty
* ''The Dust Bowl: An Illustrated History'' – Dayton Duncan
Dayton Duncan (born September 3, 1949) is an American screenwriter, producer and former political aide.
He is best known for his collaborations with documentary maker Ken Burns.
Early life and education
Born and raised in Indianola, Iowa, Du ...
& Ken Burns
::: (companion book to '' The Dust Bowl'')
* ''Eisenhower in War and Peace'' – Jean Edward Smith
Jean Edward Smith (October 13, 1932 – September 1, 2019) was a biographer and the John Marshall Professor of Political Science at Marshall University. He was also professor emeritus at the University of Toronto after having served as professor ...
* ''Frontier Manhattan: Yankee Settlement to Kansas Town, 1854–1894'' – Kevin G. W. Olson
* ''A Kansas Bestiary'' – Jake Vail & Doug Hitt, and illustrated by Lisa Grossman
* ''May B.'' – Caroline Starr Rose
* ''This Ecstasy They Call Damnation'' – Israel Wasserstein
* ''Time's Shadow: Remembering a Family Farm in Kansas'' – Arnold J. Bauer
* ''To the Stars Through Difficulties: A Kansas Renga in 150 Voices'' – Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ed.
* ''A Voice for Kanzas'' – Debra McArthur
* ''Wide Open'' – Larry Bjornson
* ''The Yard'' – Alex Grecian
![James mcbride 2013](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/James_mcbride_2013.jpg)
2014
* ''Biting Through the Skin: An Indian Kitchen in America's Heartland'' – Nina Mukerjee Furstenau
* ''The Black Country'' – Alex Grecian
Alex Grecian (; born Alexander Douglas Grecian on August 6, 1969) is an American author of short fiction, novels, comic books, and graphic novels. His notable works include the comic book series Proof and the novels in the Scotland Yard's Murd ...
* ''Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border'' – Jonathan Earle & Diane Mutti Burke, Eds.
* ''A Death at Crooked Creek: The Case of the Cowboy, the Cigarmaker, and the Love Letter'' – Marianne Wesson
* ''Dragging Wyatt Earp: A Personal History of Dodge City'' – Robert Rebein
* ''Echoes from the Prairie: A Collection of Short Memoirs'' – Nicole Muchmore, Ed.
* ''Edmund G. Ross: Soldier, Senator, Abolitionist'' – Richard A. Ruddy
* '' The Good Lord Bird'' – James McBride
* ''Navigating Early'' – Clare Vanderpool
Clare Vanderpool (born 1965) is an American children's book author living in Wichita, Kansas. Her first book, '' Moon Over Manifest'', won the 2011 Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary awa ...
* ''Needle in the Bone'' – Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
* ''Of Grave Concern: An Ophelia Wylde Paranormal Mystery'' – Max McCoy
* ''Teatime to Tailgates: 150 Years at the K-State Table'' – Jane P. Marshall
* ''The Thing About Luck'' – Cynthia Kadohata
Cynthia Kadohata (born July 2, 1956) is a Japanese American children's writer best known for her young adult novel ''Kira-Kira'' which won the Newbery Medal in 2005. She won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2013 for ''Th ...
* ''The Tie That Bound Us: The Women of John Brown’s Family'' – Bonnie Laughlin-Schultz
* ''Worth the Pain: How Meningitis Nearly Killed Me - Then Changed My Life for the Better'' – Andy Marso
2015
* ''999 Kansas Characters: Ad Astra, a Biographical Series'' – Dave Webb, Terry Rombeck, and Beccy Tanner
* ''Bluebird'' – Lindsey Yankey
* ''A Carol Dickens Christmas: A Novel'' – Thomas Fox Averill
Thomas Fox Averill (born April 30, 1949) is a writer, novelist, and academic from Topeka, Kansas. His works, including ''Secrets of the Tsil Cafe'', ''The Slow Air of Ewan Macpherson'', ''Ordinary Genius'', and, more recently ''Rode'', have won w ...
* ''Chasing Weather: Tornadoes, Tempests, and Thunderous Skies in Word and Image'' – Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg and Stephen Locke
* ''The Darkest Period: The Kanza Indians and Their Last Homeland, 1846-1873'' – Ronald D. Parks
* ''The Devil's Workshop: A Novel of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad'' – Alex Grecian
Alex Grecian (; born Alexander Douglas Grecian on August 6, 1969) is an American author of short fiction, novels, comic books, and graphic novels. His notable works include the comic book series Proof and the novels in the Scotland Yard's Murd ...
* ''Field Guide to the Common Grasses of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska'' – Iralee Barnard
* ''Girl in Reverse'' – Barbara Stuber
* ''The Kansas Relays: Track and Field Tradition in the Heartland'' – Joe D. Schrag
* ''Michael Pearce's Taste of the Kansas Outdoors Cookbook'' – Michael Pearce
* ''Music I Once Could Dance To'' – Roy J. Beckemeyer
* ''The Ogallala Road: A Memoir of Love and Reckoning'' – Julene Bair
* ''Railroad Empire across the Heartland: Rephotographing Alexander Gardner's Westward Journey'' – by James E. Sherow, photographs by John R. Charlton
* ''Soldiers in the Army of Freedom: The 1st Kansas Colored, the Civil War's First African American Combat Unit'' – Ian Michael Spurgeo
* ''Waiting on the Sky: More Flyover People Essays'' – Cheryl Unruh
2016
* ''Alphabet School'' – Stephen T. Johnson
* ''A Bitter Magic'' – Roderick Townley
* ''Bottled: A Mom's Guide to Early Recovery'' – Dana Bowman
* ''The Boy Who Became Buffalo Bill: Growing Up Billy Cody in Bleeding Kansas'' – Andrea Warren
* ''Diary of a Waitress: The Not-So-Glamorous Life of a Harvey Girl'' – Carolyn Meyer
* ''For the Sake of Art: The Story of a Kansas Renaissance'' – Cynthia Mines
* ''Harvey Houses of Kansas: Historic Hospitality from Topeka to Syracuse'' – Rosa Walston Latimer
* ''Kansas Trail Guide: The Best Hiking, Biking, and Riding in the Sunflower State'' – Jonathan Conard and Kristin Conard
* ''Kansas Wildflowers and Weeds'' – Michael John Haddock, Craig C. Freeman, and Janet E. Bare
* ''The Madman and the Assassin: The Strange Life of Boston Corbett, the Man Who Killed John Wilkes Booth'' – Scott Martelle
* ''Notorious Kansas Bank Heists: Gunslingers to Gangsters'' – Rod Beemer
* ''Sun and Moon'' – Lindsey Yankey
* ''To Leave a Shadow'' – Michael D. Graves
* ''Twenty-Five Years Among the Indians and Buffalo: A Frontier Memoir'' – by William D. Street, edited by Warren R. Street
* ''While the Kettle's On'' – Melissa Fite Johnson
2017
* ''Fast-Food Sonnets: Poems'' – Dennis Etzel Jr.
* ''Ghost Sign: Poems from White Buffalo'' – Al Ortolani, Melissa Fite Johnson, Adam Jameson, and J.T. Knoll
* ''Green City: How One Community Survived a Tornado and Rebuilt for a Sustainable Future'' – Allan Drummond
* '' Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill'' – Candice Millard
* ''Hurt People: A Novel'' – Cote Smith
* ''Ioway Life: Reservation and Reform, 1837-1860'' – Greg Olson
* ''The Last Wild Places of Kansas: Journeys into Hidden Landscapes'' – George Frazier
* ''Lost and Gone Forever: A Novel of Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad'' – Alex Grecian
Alex Grecian (; born Alexander Douglas Grecian on August 6, 1969) is an American author of short fiction, novels, comic books, and graphic novels. His notable works include the comic book series Proof and the novels in the Scotland Yard's Murd ...
* ''The Memory of Lemon: A Novel'' – Judith Fertig
* ''Mike Torrez: A Baseball Biography'' – Jorge Iber
* ''A Nest of Hornets'' – Robert Krenzel
* ''Never Enough Flamingos'' – Janelle Diller
* ''Phog: The Most Influential Man in Basketball'' – Scott Morrow Johnson
* ''Presenting Buffalo Bill: The Man Who Invented the Wild West'' – Candace Fleming
* ''The Small-Town Midwest: Resilience and Hope in the Twenty-First Century'' – Julianne Couch
2018
* ''Bad Kansas: Stories'' – Becky Mandelbaum
* ''Cricket in the Thicket: Poems about Bugs'' – Carol Murray and Melissa Sweet
* ''Dodge City: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West'' – Tom Clavin
* ''Feet of the Messenger: Poems'' – H.C. Palmer
* ''Fireflies in the Gathering Dark: Poems'' – Maril Crabtree
* ''Headlights on the Prairie: Essays on Home'' – Robert Rebeinsas
* ''Ike and McCarthy: Dwight Eisenhower's Secret Campaign Against Joseph McCarthy'' – David A. Nichols
* ''Kansas Baseball, 1858-1941'' – Mark E. Eberle
* ''Kansas Guidebook 2 for Explorers'' – Marci Penner and WenDee Rowe
* '' The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery'' – Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James
* ''Midnight at the Electric'' – Jodi Lynn Anderson
Jodi Lynn Anderson is an American children's writer. Anderson grew up in northern New Jersey. Anderson attended college in the University of Maryland where she graduated with a BA in British Literature. She went on to get an MFA in Writing and Lit ...
* ''The Shape of Ideas: An Illustrated Exploration of Creativity'' – Grant Snider
Grant Snider is an American cartoonist, comic strip artist, writer and orthodontist.
Life and career
Snider grew up in Derby, Kansas, with his twin brother, Gavin, also an illustrator. He studied engineering at the University of Kansas, and the ...
* ''Stark Mad Abolitionists: Lawrence, Kansas, and the Battle over Slavery in the Civil War Era'' – Robert K. Sutton
* ''That is My Dream!'' – Langston Hughes and Daniel Miyares
* ''To The Stars Through Difficulties'' – Romalyn Tilghman
![Sarah Smarsh 2018](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Sarah_Smarsh_2018.jpg)
2019
* ''American Heart'' – Laura Moriarty
* ''Brown Enough: A Tale of a Mixed-Race Baseball Team Summer of ’56'' – Ken Ohm
* ''Buried in the Suburbs'' – Jamie Lynn Heller
* ''The Deepest Roots'' – Miranda Asebedo
* ''The Diaries of Reuben Smith, Kansas Settler and Civil War Soldier'' – Lana Wirt Myers
* ''Eisenhower: Becoming the Leader of the Free World'' – Louis Galambos
* ''Elevations: A Personal Exploration of the Arkansas River'' – Max McCoy
Max Allan McCoy (born October 30, 1958) is an American journalist and novelist.
He is the author of ten westerns, two thrillers, four original Indiana Jones adventures, the novelization of the mini-series '' Into the West'' and the first three vo ...
* ''A Girl Stands at the Door: The Generation of Young Women Who Desegregated America’s Schools'' – Rachel Devlin
* '' Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth'' – Sarah Smarsh
Sarah Smarsh (born 1980) is an American journalist and nonfiction writer.
Background
Smarsh was born in rural Kansas and grew up on farms and in small towns. Her family moved frequently, and she attended eight schools before she reached ninth ...
* ''Night Out'' – Daniel Miyares
* ''No Place Like Home: Lessons in Activism from LGBT Kansas'' – C.J. Janovy
* ''No Small Potatoes: Junius G. Groves and His Kingdom in Kansas'' – Tonya Bolden and Don Tate
* ''The Pastor Wears a Skirt: Stories of Gender and Ministry'' – Dorothy Nickel Friesen
* ''The Saint of Wolves and Butchers'' – Alex Grecian
* ''Seafire'' – Natalie C. Parker
2020
* ''Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker'' – Charles H. Warner
* ''A Constellation of Roses'' – Miranda Asebedo
* ''Crumbled!: The Misadventures of Nobbin Swill'' – Lisa Harkrader
* ''Follow Me Down to Nicodemus Town'' – A. LaFaye and Nicole Tadgell
* ''Headwinds: A Memoir'' – Edna Bell-Pearson
* ''The Healer's Daughter: A Novel'' – Charlotte Hinger
* ''How to Be a Family: The Year I Dragged My Kids Around the World to Find a New Way to Be Together'' – Dan Kois
* ''Journey to a Promised Land: A Story of the Exodusters'' (I Am America) – Allison Lassieur
* ''Kansas City Chiefs Legends: The Greatest Coaches, Players and Front Office Execs in Chiefs History'' – Jeff Deters
* ''A Perfect Silhouette'' – Judith Miller
* ''Petroglyphs of the Kansas Smoky Hills'' – Rex C. Buchanan, Burke W. Griggs, Joshua L. Svaty
* ''The Reckless Oath We Made: A Novel'' – Bryn Greenwood
* ''Steel Tide: A Seafire Novel'' – Natalie C. Parker
* '' The Topeka School: A Novel'' – Ben Lerner
Benjamin S. Lerner (born February 4, 1979) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the National Bo ...
* ''What Color Is Night?'' – Grant Snider
Grant Snider is an American cartoonist, comic strip artist, writer and orthodontist.
Life and career
Snider grew up in Derby, Kansas, with his twin brother, Gavin, also an illustrator. He studied engineering at the University of Kansas, and the ...
2021
* ''All Hallows' Shadow'' – Michael D. Graves
* ''The Amelia Six'' – Kristin L. Gray
* ''The Chicken Sisters'' – KJ Dell’Antonia
* ''Croaked!: The Misadventures of Nobbin Swill –'' Lisa Harkrader
* ''Farmers Unite!: Planting a Protest for Fair Prices'' – Lindsay H. Metcalf
* ''Ladybird, Collected'' – Meg Heriford
* ''Un Mango Grows in Kansas'' – Huascar Medina
* ''Mawson's Mission: Launching Women's Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Kansas'' – L. Marlene Mawson
* ''Northern Cheyenne Ledger Art by Fort Robinson Breakout Survivors'' – Denise Low
Denise Low (born 1949) is an American poet, honored as the second Kansas poet laureate (2007–2009). A professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, Low taught literature, creative writing and American Indian studies courses at the university. ...
and Ramon Powers
* ''People, Pride, and Promise: The Story of the Dockum Sit-in'' – Prisca Barnes and Priscella Brown
* ''Prairie Bachelor: The Story of a Kansas Homesteader and the Populist Movement'' – Lynda Beck Fenwick
* ''Premeditated Myrtle: A Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery'' – Elizabeth C. Bunce
* ''Swimming Shelter: Poems'' – Al Ortolani
* ''What Sound is Morning?'' – Grant Snider
Grant Snider is an American cartoonist, comic strip artist, writer and orthodontist.
Life and career
Snider grew up in Derby, Kansas, with his twin brother, Gavin, also an illustrator. He studied engineering at the University of Kansas, and the ...
* ''World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments'' – Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee Nezhukumatathil (; Malayalam Abugida: നേഴുകുമറ്റത്തിൽ; ; born in 1974 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American poet and essayist. Nezhukumatathil draws upon her Filipina and Malayali Indian background to give her ...
![Melissa Benoist (48477063086) (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Melissa_Benoist_%2848477063086%29_%28cropped%29.jpg)
2022
* ''Ava: A Year of Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet'' – Mandy Kern and Onalee Nicklin
* ''Blue Collar Saint: Poems'' – Brenda Leigh White
* ''Field Journal: Volume XIII, 2021, The Santa Fe Trail'' – Symphony in the Flint Hills
* ''From This Moment: A Novel'' – Kim Vogel Sawyer
* ''The Greatest Thing: A Story About Buck O'Neil'' – Kristy Nerstheimer and Christian Paniagua
* ''Haven’s Secret (The Powers Book 1)'' – Melissa Benoist
Melissa Marie Benoist ( ; born October 4, 1988) is an American actress, singer and producer. Her first major role was Marley Rose on the Fox musical comedy drama '' Glee'' (2012–2014), where she was a series regular during the fifth season. ...
, Jessica Benoist, and Mariko Tamaki
Mariko Tamaki (born 1975) is a Canadian artist and writer. She is known for her graphic novels '' Skim'', ''Emiko Superstar,'' and ''This One Summer'', and for several prose works of fiction and non-fiction."Mariko Tamaki". CBC Radio, '' The Next ...
* ''How to Resist Amazon and Why'' – Danny Caine
* ''Killing Dragons: Order of the Dolphin'' – Kristie Clark
* ''Mad Prairie: Stories and a Novella'' – Kate McIntyre
* ''Policing Sex in the Sunflower State: The Story of the Kansas State Industrial Farm for Women'' – Nicole Perry
* ''Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains'' – Lucas Bessire
* ''Stormbreak: A Seafire Novel'' – Natalie C. Parker
* ''A Vote for Susanna: The First Woman Mayor'' – Karen M. Greenwald and Sian James
* ''White Hot Hate: A True Story of Domestic Terrorism in America's Heartland'' – Dick Lehr
* ''Words Is a Powerful Thing: Twenty Years of Teaching Creative Writing at Douglas County Jail'' – Brian Daldorph
References
External links
{{Official site, http://kslib.info/notablebooks
American literary awards
Kansas culture
Awards established in 2006