Minnesota Book Awards Past Finalists and Winners
by Award Year, 1988-2007

1988 | 1989 | 1991* | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997
1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007

*Note: No awards were held in 1990. 

Please also note that the award winners listed for each year were awarded in the year following publication (i.e. winners published in 2006 were announced in 2007 at the 19th Annual Minnesota Book Awards).

(Winners indicated by the icon; all others are Finalists)

1998 Autobiography & Biography

 John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life
Paul C. Nagel
Knopf

Minstrel: My Adventures in Newspapering
Jim Klobuchar
University of Minnesota Press

Romanoff--Prince of Rogues: The Life & Times of a Hollywood Icon
Jane Pejsa
Kenwood Publishing

1998 Children's Non-Fiction

 Stolen Dreams: Portraits of Working Children
David L. Parker
Lerner Publishing Group

Afrikatrek: A Journey by Bicycle Through Africa
Dan Buettner
Lerner Publishing Group

Great Lives: The American Frontier
Patricia Calvert
Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn, and Beans: How the Foods of the Americas Changed Eating Around the World
Sylvia A. Johnson
Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Horsepower: The Wonder of Draft Horses
Cris Peterson
Alvis Upitis, illustrator
Boyds Mills Press

1998 Collected Works

 Tanzania on Tuesday: Writing by American Women Abroad
Kathleen Coskran, editor
C.W. Truesdale, editor
New Rivers Press

North Writers II: Our Place in the Woods
John Henricksson, editor
University of Minnesota Press

The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading
Michael Dorris, editor
Emilie Buchwald, editors
Milkweed Editions

1998 Creative Non-Fiction

 North Enough: Aids and Other Clear-Cuts
Jan Zita Grover
Graywolf Press

The West Pole
Diane Glancy
University of Minnesota Press

The Rez Road Follies: Canoes, Casinos, Computers, and Birch Bark Baskets
Jim Northrup
Kodansha

1998 Fantasy & Science Fiction

 From the End of the Twentieth Century
John M. Ford
NESFA Press

Freedom and Necessity
Stephen Brust
Emma Bull
TOR

Emerald House Rising
Peg Kerr
Warner Books

1998 Fun & Humor

 Growing Up Lutheran: What Does This Mean?
Janet Letnes Martin
Suzann Johnson Nelson
Caranga Press

Having Fun with Baseball Nicknames
Phil Blazovich
MLC Publications

Burma-Shave: The Rhymes, the Signs, the Times
Bill Vossler
North Star Press of St. Cloud

1998 Help & Guidance

 Taking Charge of My Mind and Body: A Girl's Guide to Outstmarting Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking, and Eating Problems
Gladys Folkers
Jeanne Engelmann
Marie Olofsdotter, illustrator
Free Spirit Publishing

Brave New Girls: Creative Ideas to Help Girls Be Confident, Healthy, & Happy
Jeanette Gadeberg
Fairview Press

The Therapy Answer Book: Getting the Most Out of Counseling
Kathleen J. Papatola
Fairview Press

1998 History

 Icy Pleasures: Minnesota Celebrates Winter
Paul Clifford Larson
Afton Historical Society

The Loaf that Became a Legend: A History of Saint John's Bread
Kenneth M. Jones
Diane Deale Jones
North Star Press of St. Cloud

Salt Lantern: Traces of an American Family
William Towner Morgan
University of Iowa Press

1998 Illustrated Books

 Connections & Reflections: Mothers & Daughters in Their Own Light, in Their Own Words
Catherine Koemptgen
Pfeifer Hamilton

15 Years in a Photographer's Life
Nadine Blacklock
Blacklock Nature Photography

Death of the Dream: Classic Minnesota Farmhouses
William G. Gabler
Afton Historical Society Press

1998 Information

 Minnesota Business Almanac: Minnesota's Guide to Business, 1997-1998 edition, A publication of Twin Cities Business Monthly, MSP Communications
Greg Breining
Fodor's Travel Publications/Compass American Guides

36 One-Day Discovery Tours: Fun Places to Drive Within and From Minneapolis and St. Paul, new and expanded edition
Carvel Lee
Nodin Press

1998 Mystery & Detective

 Practice to Deceive
David Housewright
Norton

Term Limits
Vince Flynn
Cloak & Dagger Press

Murder in the Air
Ellen Hart
Ballantine Books

1998 Nature

 A Wild Neighborhood
John Henricksson
Betsy Bowen, illustrator
University of Minnesota Press

 Boundary Waters: The Grace of the Wild
Paul Gruchow
Milkweed Editions
*Winner of the 1998 John T. Flanagan Award

Sugartime: The Hidden Pleasures of Making Maple Syrup with a Primer for the Novice Sugarer
Susan Carol Hauser
The Lyons Press

1998 Non-Fiction

 Cleaning Up: The Story Behind the Biggest Legal Bonanza of Our Time
David Lebedoff
The Free Press

Golf Beats Us All (and So We Love It)
Joseph A. Amato
Johnson Books

Death in the Dark: Midnight Executions in America
John D. Bessler
Northeastern University Press

The Spirit of the Sixties: The Making of Postwar Radicalism
James J. Farrell
Routledge

The History of Money: From Sandstone to Cyberspace
Jack Weatherford
Crown Publishers

1998 Novel

 Floating Kingdom: A Novel
George Rabasa
Coffee House Press

Bitter Grounds
Sandra Benitez
Hyperion

Errands
Judith Guest
Ballantine Books

The Dean's List
Jon Hassler
Ballantine Books

All American Dream Dolls
David Haynes
Milkweed Editions

Your Oasis on Fame Lake
Lorna Landvik
Fawcett Columbine

1998 Personal Papers

 The Far Islands and Other Cold Places: Travel Essays of a Victorian Lady
Elizabeth Taylor
James Taylor Dunn, editor
Pogo Press

Dear Poppa: The World War II Berman Family Letters
Compiled by Ruth Berman
udy Barett Litoff, editor
Minnesota Historical Society Press

Views from the Publisher's Desk: Editorials by Elmer L. Andersen, Former Governor of Minnesota
Elmer L. Andersen
Nodin Press

1998 Picture Books

 If You Were Born a Kitten
Marion Dane Bauer
Simon & Schuster Books for Younger Readers

Is That You, Winter?: A Story
Stephen Gammell
Harcourt, Brace & Company/Silver Whistle

Shingebiss: An Ojibwe Legend Retold
Betsy Bowen, illustrator
Nancy Van Laan, author
Houghton Mifflin

The Lost and Found House
Steve Johnson, illustrator
Lou Fancher, illustrator
Michael Cadnum, author
Viking

The Year of the Ranch
Alice McLeran
Viking

Wanted: Best Friend
A.M. Monson
Dial Books for Young Readers

Rosie's Fiddle
Phyllis Root
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard

Celebration!
Jane Resh Thomas
Hyperion Books for Children

1998 Poetry

 Selected Poems, 1965-1995
Michael Dennis Browne
Carnegie Mellon Press

Morning Poems
Robert Bly
HarperCollins

Faith in Ice Times: Poems
Mark Christensen
Loonfeather Press

Home from the Field: Collected Poems
Leo Dangle
Spoon River Poetry Press

Fishing for Myth
Heid E. Erdrich
New Rivers Press

Bonfire: Poems
Connie Wanek
New Rivers Press

1998 Short Stories

 Small Invasions: Stories
Beth Weatherby
Plains Press

Grandmother's Gift: Stories from the Anishinabeg
Anne M. Dunn
Holy Cow! Press

The Natural Father
Robert Lacy
New Rivers Press

Crowning the Queen of Love: Short Stories
Susan Welch
Coffee House Press

1998 Young Adult Fiction

 The Broken Blade
William Durbin
Delacorte Press

Wolf Shadows
Mary Casanova
Hyperion Books for Children

Lone Wolf
Kristine L. Franklin
Candlewick Press

Thin Ice
Marsha Qualey
Delacorte Publishing

back to the top

The Minnesota Book Awards is a Capital City project, led by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library,
in consortium with the Saint Paul Public Library and the Mayor’s office in the City of Saint Paul. 
Outreach partners for the Book Awards include the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA)
and the Minnesota Library Association (MLA).