The 2024 Colorado Book Awards Recognize the Best in Local Lit

The Colorado Book Awards returned to Denver for a sold-out awards ceremony on Friday, June 21, after moving its annual celebration of the best in local lit around the state in recent years. Its welcome return to the Tivoli Turnhalle Theater on the downtown Auraria campus offered a historic and appropriately grand backdrop to the awards, which celebrate the finest achievements from the previous year in several bookish categories.

This year marked the 33rd iteration of the CBAs, and there were some significant changes to the categories. Where there were originally two categories for the novel form — literary and general fiction — those were consolidated into one single award. But there was a return to a formerly used category, as well: the Short Story Collection, which had been phased out some years back but returned for 2024. Likewise, the popular Romance category enjoyed its second year in the rotation. In all, 2024's event included fifteen categories.

The Colorado Book Awards are produced by Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book, and supported by several local agencies devoted to honoring good writing, including CU Denver's English Department, which helped host the awards at the Tivioli Turnhalle. The finalists' books were available for on-site purchase courtesy of the Bookies, where they can still be purchased.

An alphabetical listing of all fifteen categories and their winners and finalists is below. Congratulations to all these finalists, and to the Colorado Book Awards for recognizing the literary accomplishments in our state.

Anthology
Winner:
Reading Colorado: A Literary Road Guide, Peter Anderson

Finalists:
Been Outside: Adventures of Black Women, Nonbinary, and Gender Nonconforming People in Nature, Amber Wendler and Shaz Zamore

Unioverse: Stories of the Reconvergence, Angie Hodapp and Joshua Viola

Unplugged Voices: 125 Tales of Art and Life from Northern New Mexico, the Four Corners and the West, Sara Frances

Children’s Literature
Winner:
Lia & Luís: Puzzled!, Ana Crespo and Giovana Medeiros

Finalists:
Building a Dream: How the Boys of Koh Panyee Became Champions, Darshana Khiani and Dow Phumiruk

Light Speaks, Christine Layton and Luciana Navarro Powell

Something Spectacular: A Rock’s Journey, Carmela Lavigna Coyle and Carly Allen-Fletcher

Creative Nonfiction
Winner:
Losing Music, John Cotter

Finalists:
Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, Ben Goldfarb

Living River: The Promise of the Mighty Colorado, Dave Showalter
Soil: the Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, Camille T. Dungy

General Nonfiction
Winner:
So Much Stuff: How Humans Discovered Tools, Invented Meaning, and Made More of Everything, Chip Colwell

Finalists:
Western Water A to Z: The History, Nature, and Culture of a Vanishing Resource, Robert R. Crifasi
When Innocence Is Not Enough: Hidden Evidence and the Failed Promise of the Brady Rule, Thomas L. Dybdahl

Historical Fiction
Winner:
To Die Beautiful, Buzzy Jackson

Finalists:
A Bakery In Paris, Aimie K. Runyan
Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown, Annie Dawid

History
Winner:
Women of the Colorado Gold Rush Era, J.v.L Bell and Jan Gunia

Finalists:
Galloping Gourmet: Eating and Drinking with Buffalo Bill, Steve Friesen

HILOS CULTURALES: Cultural Threads of The San Luis Valley, Patricia B. Martinez, Herman A Martinez, and Enrique R. Lamadrid

Juvenile Literature
Winner:
Brave Bird at Wounded Knee: A Story of Protest on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Rachel Bithell and Eric Freeberg

Finalists:
Backcountry, Jenny Goebel

Skyriders, Polly Holyoke

The Girl From Earth’s End, Tara Dairman

Mystery
Blood Betrayal, Ausma Zehanat Khan
Minotaur Books

Finalists:
Standing Dead, Margaret Mizushima

Take the Honey and Run: A Beekeeping Mystery, Jennie Marts

Novel
Winner:
The Applicant, Nazli Koca

Finalists:
Homestead: A Novel, Melinda Moustakis

The Last Animal, Ramona Ausubel

Poetry
Winner:
How You Walk Alone in the Dark, Erin Block

Finalists:
Maps You Can’t Make, Mariella Saavedra Carquin

Still and Still Moving, Katie Scruggs Galloway

Romance
Winner:
Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other, Bethany Turner

Finalists:
Autumn of the Big Snow, Lou Jacobs

Raising Elle, S.E. Reichert

Science Fiction/Fantasy
Winner:
Dark Moon Shallow Sea, David R. Slayton

Finalists:
Not Quite Dead Geniuses at Large on an Angry Planet, R. Gary Raham

Silenced, Ann Claycomb

Short Story
Winner:
Uranians: Stories, Theodore McCombs

Finalists:
Defensible Spaces, Alison Turner

This Is Salvaged: Stories, Vauhini Vara

Thriller
Winner:
No Child of Mine, Nichelle Giraldes

Finalists:
Once Upon a Lie, Rebecca Taylor

The Girls in the Cabin, Caleb Stephens

Young Adult Literature
Winner:
Rez Ball, Byron Graves

Finalists:
Seven Percent of Ro Devereux, Ellen O’Clover

Surviving Daybreak, Kendra Merritt

For more information on past winners and next year's event, see the CBA website.