Sunday, April 10, 2011, 1:00 - 2:30 pm

Koret Auditorium at the San Francisco Main Library

100 Larkin Street in San Francisco

Followed by a reception and book signing in the Latino/Hispanic Community Room

Celebrate the Bay Area's vibrant literary scene when the 30th annual Northern California Book Awards recognize the best published works of 2010 on Sunday, April 10, 1:00-2:30 pm at the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Public Library's Main Branch,

100 Larkin Street in San Francisco. A book signing and reception with the authors follows the Awards Ceremony in the Latino/Hispanic Room from 2:30-4:00 pm. Nominated books will be for sale by Readers Bookstore at the Main/Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

Eligible books are divided into six categories: Fiction, General Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Children's Literature and Translation (Poetry and Fiction). Local critics read the books, discuss their merits and pick the winners. All of the nominated books are saluted at the ceremony, but seven authors walk away with the honors.

The 2011 Northern California Book Award Nominees are:

FICTION

• Ivan and Misha, stories, Michael Alenyikov, TriQuarterly Books
• Heidegger's Glasses, Thaisa Frank, Counterpoint
• Gold Boy, Emerald Girl, stories, Yiyun Li, Random House
• Death is Not an Option, stories, Suzanne Rivecca, W.W. Norton
• The More I Owe You, Michael Sledge, Counterpoint

GENERAL NONFICTION

• Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer-And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Simon & Schuster
• The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Michael Lewis, W. W. Norton
• Maid as Muse: How Servants Changed Emily Dickinson's Life and Language, Aífe Murray, University Press of New England
• Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, Robert B. Reich, Alfred A. Knopf
• The Twilight of the Bombs: Recent Challenges, New Dangers, and the Prospects for a World Without Nuclear Weapons, Richard Rhodes, Alfred A. Knopf

CREATIVE NONFICTION

• Not by Chance Alone: My Life as a Social Psychologist, Elliot Aronson, Basic Books
• A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California, Laura Cunningham, Heyday
• Cakewalk, a memoir, Kate Moses, The Dial Press
• Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, Rebecca Solnit, University of California Press
• Deep Blue Home: An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean, Julia Whitty, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

POETRY

• Suck on the Marrow, Camille T. Dungy, Red Hen Press
• Trance Archive: New and Selected Poems, Andrew Joron, City Lights Publishers
• Writing the Silences, Richard O. Moore, University of California Press
• Rough Honey, Melissa Stein, The American Poetry Review
• Pleasure, Brian Teare, Ahsahta Press
• Come on All You Ghosts, Matthew Zapruder, Copper Canyon Press

TRANSLATION

Fiction

• Translation by Anne Milano Appel, Blindly, by Claudio Magris, from Italian, Penguin Group (Canada)
• Translation by David Frick, A Thousand Peaceful Cities, by Jerzy Pilch, from Polish, Open Letter Books
• Translation by Damion Searls, Comedy in a Minor Key, by Hans Keilson, from German, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Poetry

• Translation by Kurt Beals, engulf-enkindle, by Anja Utler, from German, Burning Deck
• Translation by Joshua Edwards, Ficticia, by María Baranda, from Spanish, Shearsman Books
• Translation by John Sakkis and Angelos Sakkis, Maribor, by Demosthenes Agrafiotis, from Greek, Post-Apollo Press

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

• Arroz con leche/Rice Pudding: Un poema para cocinar/A Cooking Poem, Jorge Argueta, illustrator Fernando Vilela, Groundwood Books/Libros Tigrillo
• The Haunting of Charles Dickens, Lewis Buzbee, Feiwel and Friends
• The Vinyl Princess, Yvonne Prinz, HarperTeen/HarperCollins Publishers
• Other Goose: Re-Nurseried!! and Re-Rhymed!! Children's Classics, J. Otto Seibold, Chronicle Books
• Shooting Kabul, N.H. Senzai, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers/Paula Wiseman Books

SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD

Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry, edited by Neelanjana Banerjee, Summi Kaipa, and Pireeni Sundaralingam, University of Arkansas Press

FRED CODY AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Afghan American writer, lecturer, editor and teacher Tamim Ansary.

Winner of last year's Nonfiction book award for Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes, Tamim Ansary is also the author of West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story and a great many books for children. He was born in Afghanistan and lived there until high school when he won a scholarship to Colorado Rocky Mountain School.  He went on to attend Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Mr. Ansary gained prominence in 2001 after he penned a widely circulated e-mail that denounced the Taliban and called on the United States to bring political change to Afghanistan. His book West of Kabul, East of New York is a literary memoir recounting his bicultural perspective on contemporary world conflicts. West of Kabul, East of New York was San Francisco's One City One Book selection for 2008. Mr. Ansary also edited and published a group of essays by young Afghans entitled Snapshots: This Afghan American Life with funding from a 2008 grant from the Christianson Fund. In the middle of 2008 Mr. Ansary gave a series of lectures to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, associated with San Francisco State University, on the history and development of Islam. This series was rebroadcast on KALW Radio. Mr. Tamim moderates the San Francisco Writers Workshop in an attempt to give back to younger writers what was given to him when young. Tamim Ansary lives in San Francisco with his wife. They have two daughters.

History of the Northern California Book Awards

Since 1981, the Northern California Book Reviewers (formerly BABRA), a volunteer group of book reviewers and book review editors, has honored the work of Northern California authors. One of the group's founders was Fred Cody, proprietor of the famed independent bookstore in Berkeley. Shortly after his death, the group 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 respected member of the literary community.  Previous recipients include Dorothy Bryant, 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, Malcom Margolin, Adrienne Rich, Wallace Stegner, Kay Boyle, William Everson, Alice Walker, Gary Snyder, Jessica Mitford, Tillie Olsen, M.F.K. Fisher, Robert Duncan, Al Young, and Nancy J. Peters.

The Awards' Sponsors

The 2011 Awards are presented by Northern California Book Reviewers, Poetry Flash, Center for the Art of Translation, PEN West, Mechanics' Institute, Red Room (redroom.com), San Francisco Public Library and Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

General event information

The 30th annual Northern California Book Awards take place on Sunday, April 10, 1:00-2:30 pm at the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Public Library's Main Branch, 100 Larkin Street in San Francisco. A book signing and reception with the authors follows the Awards Ceremony in the Latino/Hispanic Room from 2:30-4:00 pm. Nominated books will be for sale by Readers Bookstore at the Main/Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.  Admission to the Book Awards is free. The event is wheelchair accessible. For more information, please telephone (510) 525-5476 or visit www.poetryflash.org

Northern California Book Award Winners will be announced to the press on April 11th.