The Ohioana Library is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2017 Ohioana Book Awards. First given in 1942, the awards are the second oldest state literary prizes in the nation and honor outstanding achievement by Ohio authors in five categories: Fiction, Poetry, Juvenile Literature, Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature, and Nonfiction. The sixth category, About Ohio/Ohioan, may also include books by non-Ohio authors.

This year’s finalists include such notable names as Douglas Brinkley, Martha Collins, Sharon Creech, J. Patrick Lewis, Loren Long, Candice Millard, Donald Ray Pollock, Julie Salamon, J.D. Vance, and Jacqueline Woodson. Six authors are finalists for their debut books, while nine are past Ohioana Award winners.

Ohioana will profile all the finalists in the coming weeks. Beginning Monday, May 23, it will present “30 Books, 30 Days,” a special feature on its Facebook page in which one finalist is highlighted each weekday thru Friday, June 30.

Winners will be announced in July, and the 2017 Ohioana Book Awards presented at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus on Friday, October 6.

Fiction

• Amy Gustine, You Should Pity Us Instead, Sarabande.
• Tiffany McDaniel, The Summer That Melted Everything, St. Martin’s Press.
• Donald Ray Pollock, The Heavenly Table, Doubleday.
• Marisa Silver, Little Nothing, Blue Rider Press.
• Jacqueline Woodson, Another Brooklyn, Amistad.

Poetry

• Martha Collins, Admit One: An American Scrapbook, University of Pittsburgh Press.
• Teri Ellen Cross Davis, Haint, Gival Press.
• Katie Hartsock, Bed of Impatiens, Able Muse Press
• John Matthias, Complayntes of Doctor Neuro & Other Poems, Shearsman Books.
• James J. Siegel, How Ghosts Travel, Spuyten Duyvil

Juvenile Literature

• Jessica Fries-Gaither, Notable Notebooks: Scientists and Their Writings, NSTA Kids.
• J. Patrick Lewis, The Navajo Code Talkers (illustrated by Jim Kelley), Creative Editions.
• Loren Long, Otis and the Kittens, Philomel Books.
• C.F. Payne (illustrator), Miss Mary Reporting (written by Sue Macy), Paula Wiseman Books.
• Linda Stanek, Once Upon an Elephant (illustrated by Shennen Bersani), Arbordale.

Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature

• Sharon Creech, Moo: A Novel, HarperCollins.
• Sally Derby, Jump Back, Paul: The Life and Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Candlewick.
• Mary Knight, Saving Wonder, Scholastic Press.
• Julie Salamon, Mutt’s Promise, Dial Books.
• Kathy Cannon Wiechman, Empty Places, Calkins Creek.

Nonfiction

• Douglas Brinkley, Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America, Harper.
• Beth Macy, Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother’s Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South, Little, Brown & Company.
• Kelly D. Mezurek, For Their Own Cause: The 27^th United States Colored Troops, Kent State University Press.
• Candice Millard, Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill, Doubleday
• Christopher Phillips, The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War and the Remaking of the American Middle Border, Oxford University Press.

About Ohio/Ohioan

• Debbie Cenziper and Jim Obergefell, Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality, William Morrow.
• Joanna Connors, I Will Find You: A Reporter Investigates the Life of the Man Who Raped Her, Atlantic Monthly Press.
• James Lee McDonough, William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country: A Life, W.W. Norton & Company.
• J.D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and a Culture in Crisis, Harper.
• Ronald C. White, American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant, Random House.