Minnesota Book Award nominees include Duluth ties

Among this year's nominees for Minnesota Book Awards: a Duluth-raised photographer who considers what it means to be Chinese - in Minnesota and beyond; a retired University of Wisconsin-Superior professor who wrote a relatively untapped history; and a novelist with a Duluth fascination who has a new series set in San Francisco.

The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library announced the finalists for Children's Literature; General Nonfiction; Genre Fiction; Memoir and Creative Nonfiction; Middle Grade Literature; Minnesota Nonfiction; Novel and Short Story; Poetry; and Young Adult Literature on Saturday.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony on April 6 at the InterContinental Hotel St. Paul Riverfront. Tickets start at $40 and are available at thefriends.org/mnba.

Wing Young Huie's book, "Chinese-Ness: The Meaning of Identity and the Nature of Belonging," was published by Minnesota Historical Society Press. According to the publisher, Huie used "documentary and conceptual photography strategies" in his book, which is nominated in the Memoir and Creative Nonfiction category.

In the same category, Dianna Hunter's "Wild Mares: My Lesbian Back-To-The-Land Life" chronicles her place within the feminist movement, specifically the communal farm living in rural Minnesota.

Brian Freeman, known for Duluth-based detective novels, has a new series set in California. His "The Voice Inside" is up for an award in the Genre Fiction category.

Nominees

Children's Literature

• "Best Friends in the Universe" by Stephanie Watson, LeUyen Pham
• "Hush Hush, Forest" by Mary Casanova, Nick Wroblewski
• "The Rabbit Listened" by Cori Doerrfeld
• "Small Walt and Mo the Tow" by Elizabeth Verdick, Marc Rosenthal

General Nonfiction

• "Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick" by Maya Dusenbery
• "The Relentless Business of Treaties: How Indigenous Land Became U.S. Property" by Martin Case
• "A Stranger's Journey: Race, Identity, and Narrative Craft in Writing" by David Mura
• "Whaleback Ships and the American Steel Barge Company," by C. Roger Pellett

Genre Fiction

• "Dreadful Young Ladies and Other Stories" by Kelly Barnhill
• "Leave No Trace" by Mindy Mejia
• "The Shadows We Hide" by Allen Eskens
• "The Voice Inside" by Brian Freeman

Memoir and Creative Nonfiction

• "The Art of the Wasted Day" by Patricia Hampl
• "Chinese-Ness: The Meanings of Identity and the Nature of Belonging" by Wing Young Huie
• "The 1-35W Bridge Collapse: A Survivor's Account of America's Crumbling Infrastructure" by Kimberly J. Brown
• "Wild Mares: My Lesbian Back-to-the-Land Life" by Dianna Hunter

Middle Grade Literature

• "The Collectors" by Jacqueline West
• "The Key to Every Thing" by Pat Schmatz
• "Louisiana's Way Home" by Kate DiCamillo
• "Otherwood" by Pete Hautman

Minnesota Nonfiction

• "The Children of Lincoln: White Paternalism and the Limits of Black Opportunity in Minnesota, 1860-1876
• "The Crusade for Forgotten Souls: Reforming Minnesota's Metal Institutions, 1946-1954" by Susan Bartlett Foote
• "Gichi Bitobig, Grand Marais: Early Accounts of Anishinaabeg and the North Shore Fur Trade," by Timothy Cochrane
• "Gunflint Burning: Fire in the Boundary Waters" by Cary J. Griffith

Novel and Short Story

• "A Lady's Guide to Selling Out" by Sally Franson
• "Laurentian Divide: A Novel" by Sarah Stonich
• "Oranges" by Gary Eldon Peter
• "The Patron Saint of Lost Girls" by Maureen Aitken

Poetry

• "The Body of the World" by Mary Moore Easter
• "GeNtry!fication: Or the Scene of the Crime" by Chaun Webster
• "Not Here" by Hieu Minh Nguyen
• "Wilder" by Claire Wahmanholm

Young Adult Literature

• "Dream Country" by Shannon Gibney
• "Hooper" by Geoff Herbach
• "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss
• "What I Leave Behind" by Alison McGhee