Colorado Humanities, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting humanities education for adults and children, announced the winners for its 2022 Colorado Book Awards. With 15 categories ranging from Young Adult Literature to Historical Fiction, the finalists list will have a great last-minute present for any reader.

Anthology

“All the Lives We Ever Lived, Volume 2” edited by Manuel Aragon and Roxanne Banks Malia 

“Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas” edited by Carina Bissett, Hillary Dodge, and Joshua Viola and illustrated” by Aaron Lovett — winner

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“Tell It Slant: An Anthology of Creative Nonfiction by Writers from Colorado’s Prisons” edited by Elijah Null, Julie Rada, and Suzie Q. Smith

Biography

“The Girl Who Dared to Defy: Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver” by Jane Little Botkin

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“Alpha: Eddie Gallagher and the War for the Soul of the Navy Seals” by David Philipps — winner

“Borderlands Curanderos: The Worlds of Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo” by Jennifer Koshatka Seman

Children’s Literature

“Read Island” by Nicole Magistro and illustrated” by Alice Feagan — winner

“The Beak Book” by Robin Page

“Hugsby” by Dow Phumiruk

Creative Nonfiction

“The Next Everest: Surviving the Mountain’s Deadliest Day and Finding the Resilience to Climb Again” by Jim Davidson

“Bless the Birds: Living with Love in a Time of Dying” by Susan J. Tweit

“Desert Chrome: Water, a Woman, and Wild Horses in the West” by Kathryn Wilder — winner

General Fiction

“The Night of Many Endings” by Melissa Payne

“Mixed Company” by Jenny Shank — winner

“The Boundaries of Their Dwelling” by Blake Sanz

General Nonfiction

“The Entrepreneur’s Weekly Nietzsche: A Book for Disruptors” by Dave Jilk and Brad Feld

“Breakthrough: How to Overcome Doubt, Fear, and Resistance to Be Your Ultimate Creative Self” by Todd Mitchell

“The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighborhood” by Julian Rubinstein — winner

Historical Fiction

“Luther, Wyoming” by Tomas Alamilla and Mario Acevedo

“Chloe’s Mistigri” by Thomas L. Hall

“The Cape Doctor” by E.J. Levy — winner

History

“Queen City: A Brief History and Illustrated Architecture New and Old of Denver, Colorado” by Karl Christian Krumpholz

“Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue” by Adrian Miller — winner

“Going to Trinidad: A Doctor, a Colorado Town, and Stories from an Unlikely Gender Crossroads” by Martin J. Smith

Juvenile Literature 

“Noah McNichol and the Backstage Ghost” by Martha Freeman

“Alone” by Megan E. Freeman — winner

“Bats, Bandits, and Buggies: A Ruby and Maude Adventure” by Nancy Oswald

Literary Fiction

“Site Fidelity: Stories” by Claire Boyles

“What If We Were Somewhere Else” by Wendy J. Fox — winner

“Jeremy Bannister, or The Ups and Downs of an Aspiring Novelist” by Gary Reilly (posthumously” by Mark Stevens)

Mystery

“Red Rabbit on the Run” by Jodi Bowersox — winner

“Canyonlands Carnage: A National Park Mystery” by Scott Graham

“Break Bone Fever: A Finnerty and Liccione Mystery” by Wanda Venters and Mary Rae

Poetry

“Barefoot and Running” by Morgan Liphart

“We the Jury” by Wayne Miller — winner

“Convergences” by Ruth Obee

“White Lung” by Kimberly O’Connor

Science Fiction/Fantasy

“Khyven the Unkillable” by Todd Fahnestock

“The Reincarnationist Papers” by D. Eric Maikranz — winner

“Magic and Misrule” by KM Merritt

Thriller

“My Heart is a Chainsaw” by Stephen Graham Jones

“The Secret Next Door: A Novel” by Rebecca Taylor

“The Dead Husband: A Novel” by Carter Wilson — winner

Young Adult Literature

“To Break a Covenant” by Alison Ames

“Rise of the Red Hand” by Olivia Chadha — winner

“Girl on the Ferris Wheel” by Julie Halpern and Len Vlahos

The 2023 book awards are open for submissions until Jan. 9, 2023, for books published for the first time in the last quarter of 2021 or all of 2022. The nonprofit needs volunteer selectors and judges for the competition. Learn more at ColoradoHumanities.org.