July 25, 2023
The 2023 Ohioana Book Award Winners and their books. Art by Kathryn Powers.
It’s that time of year again! The Ohioana Library is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 Ohioana Awards, including seven book awards and the Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant.
First given in 1942, the Ohioana Book Awards are the second oldest, and among the most prestigious, state literary prizes in the nation. Nearly every major writer from Ohio in the past 82 years has been honored, from James Thurber to Toni Morrison.
Six of the Ohioana Book Award winners were selected by juries. The Readers’ Choice Award was determined by voters in a public online poll. More than 2,000 votes were cast in this year’s Readers’ Choice Award poll!
Listed below are the 2023 Ohioana Book Award winners. Click on the title to learn more about the author and their winning book.
Nonfiction: Ross Gay, Inciting Joy
Fiction: Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts
Poetry: Saeed Jones, Alive at the End of the World
About Ohio or an Ohioan: Kelcey Ervick, The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women’s Lives
Middle Grade/Young Adult: Jasmine Warga, A Rover’s Story
Juvenile: Marcy Campbell, The More You Give
Readers’ Choice: John Scalzi, The Kaiju Preservation Society
Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant
The Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant is a competitive prize. Named for Ohioana’s second director and given since 1982, the Marvin Grant is awarded to an Ohio writer age 30 or younger who has not yet published a book. The 2023 Marvin Grant winner is Kortney Morrow. Kortney spent her early years making up stories, and she never stopped. Her writing has been featured or is forthcoming in The Academy of American Poets, Obsidian, Prairie Schooner, and Transition Magazine. When she’s not writing, you can find her daydreaming on her front porch. Kortney lives in Cleveland, where she was born and raised. Her winning entry will appear in this fall’s Ohioana Quarterly.
Award Ceremony
The 2023 Ohioana Awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, September 21, at 6:00 p.m. in the atrium of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. More information about the event and purchasing tickets is coming soon.