Since 1965, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) have given annual Book Awards to recognize Northwest writers. Past awardees include such luminaries as Ivan Doig, Ursula K. Le Guin, David James Duncan, and Cheryl Strayed. For most, while writing in the Northwest, they were published by one of the large NY publishers.

While this year’s nominees include several titles published by NY corporations, the local presses were represented in the 2022 short list by:

Funeral for Flaca: Essays by Emilly Prado, published by Future Tense Books (Portland, OR)
Guard the Mysteries by Cedar Sigo, published by Wave Books (Seattle, WA)

The complete list of 2022 nominees can be seen at pnba.org.

Nine volunteer booksellers from throughout the Pacific Northwest select the finalists. This year’s committee considered more than 400 nominated titles published during 2021 for the 2022 award, according to an announcement from PNBA.