Category Archives: Books & Reading

Nebraska’s 2024 Book Award Winners Announced

Posted on August 23, 2024 by Bailee Juroshek

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 23, 2024

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Tessa Timperley
402-471-3434
800-307-2665

Nebraska’s 2024 Book Award Winners Announced

Celebrate Nebraska’s 2024 Book Award winners with author readings and an awards presentation ceremony at the Nebraska Celebration of Book’s (NCOB) literary festival. Held at the UNL City Campus Union on October 12th, winners of the 2024 Nebraska Book Awards will be honored at the celebration which will include an author roundtable during the festival and the awards ceremony directly after at 3:30. The ceremony will feature readings by some of the winning authors, designers, and illustrators of books with a Nebraska connection published in 2023. And the winners are:

Children’s Picture Book: Ted Kooser: More Than a Local Wonder written by Carla Ketner, illustrated by Paula Wallace. Publisher: University of Nebraska Press.

Children’s Novel: The Adventures of Pearl and Monty: The Bait and Switch by E. Adams. Publisher: Jade Forest Publishing.

Teen Novel: The Unstoppable Bridget Bloom by Allison L. Bitz. Publisher: HarperTeen.

Cover and Design: Feisty Righty: A Cancer Survivor’s Journey by Jennifer D. James, Cover Art by Courtney Keller. Publisher: Self Published.

Design Honor: Horizons by Julie S. Paschold. Publisher: Atmosphere Press.

Fiction: The War Begins in Paris: A Novel by Theodore Wheeler. Publisher: Little, Brown and Company.

Nonfiction Nebraska as Place: Field Guide to a Hybrid Landscape by Dana Fritz. Publisher: Bison Books.

Nonfiction History: The First Migrants by Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld. Publisher: Bison Books.

Poetry: The Gathering of Bastards by Romeo Oriogun. Publisher: University of Nebraska Press.

Poetry Honor: The Book Eaters by Carolina Hotchandani. Publisher: Perugia Press.

This year’s Book Awards Celebration will be a combined event with the Nebraska Book Festival, called “The Nebraska Celebration of Books” which aims to celebrate Nebraska’s literary heritage and contemporary authors. Held, Saturday, October 12th, from 10:00am-4:30pm, on the second floor of the UNL City Campus Union in the Regency Suite, Heritage Room, and Swanson Auditorium, the event will honor the 20th anniversary of the One Book One Nebraska program with a panel of past authors. In addition it will feature Nebraska authors, a SLAM poetry showcase, book vendors, and presentation of the Nebraska Center for the Book’s Nebraska Book Awards, Mildred Bennett Award, Jane Geske Award, and 2025 One Book One Nebraska announcement.

The 2024 One Book One Nebraska selection, Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime by Debora Harding (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020) will be featured with a memoir writing workshop facilitated by Lucy Adkins of Larksong Writers Place.

The Nebraska Book Awards are sponsored and facilitated by the Nebraska Center for the Book and the Nebraska Library Commission.

The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the national Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and the Nebraska Library Commission.

As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, “bringing together people and information.”

The Nebraska Celebration of Books (NCOB) host sponsors include Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln City Libraries, and Francie and Finch Bookshop, with supporting sponsors including Outskirts Press, KZUM 89.3FM, and Concierge Marketing at this time. Humanities Nebraska provides support for the One Book One Nebraska program.

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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.    

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Books Chosen to Represent Nebraska at National Book Festival

Posted on July 29, 2024 by Bailee Juroshek

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 29, 2024

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Tessa Timperley
402-471-3434
800-307-2665

Books Chosen to Represent Nebraska at National Book Festival

“Eat Your Woolly Mammoths!: Two Million Years of the World’s Most Amazing Food Facts, from the Stone Age to the Future” and “Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime” chosen for the National Center for the Book’s Great Reads from Great Places program.

The Nebraska Center for the Book has selected one youth book and one adult book by Nebraska authors to represent the state at the 2024 National Book Festival: Eat Your Woolly Mammoths! by James Solheim and Dancing with the Octopus by Debora Harding.

Both titles will be part of the National Center for the Book’s Great Reads from Great Places program. Great Reads from Great Places features books and authors representing the literary heritage of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Marianas. For over 20 years this program has included a highlighted youth title from each affiliate center. In 2022, Great Reads from Great Places began including titles for adults for the first time.

This year’s National Book Festival on August 24th will be held in-person in Washington, D.C., but will include many livestreamed and recorded virtual programs celebrating books and authors.

About the Books

“Eat Your Woolly Mammoths!: Two Million Years of the World’s Most Amazing Food Facts, from the Stone Age to the Future” by James Solheim

“If there’s one thing that transcends time, it’s our love for food! But what did people generations ago consume? And what will we eat in the years ahead? James Solheim’s Eat Your Woolly Mammoths! serves up the stories behind the world’s most delicious, nutritious, and amazing foods—from the Stone Age to the future. For readers who love the fascinating facts that bring history to life. Let the feast begin!

Would you like a plate of woolly mammoth? Or perhaps a sample of fresh tuna eyeballs? From scorpions on sticks and llama salami to oysters and chocolate chip cookies, you’ll travel through the centuries and around the world and discover the amazing foods that have been eaten—and enjoyed—throughout history.

Eat Your Woolly Mammoths! explores the history of food and is full of fun, digestible facts that young historians, cooks, and scientists will gobble up. An accessible, educational, and funny text combined with laugh-out-loud illustrations make this ideal pick for independent readers and snackers everywhere. A great choice for readers who munched through Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Fun Facts and Silly Stories and the National Geographic Kids: Weird but True books. Includes sidebars, fun facts, recipes, additional resources, and more!”

Nebraska’s Great Reads from Great Places book is chosen from the previous year’s Nebraska Book Award winners and this book was awarded two 2023 Nebraska Book Award in the Children’s Nonfiction Book category and the Children’s Books Design category.

“Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime” by Debora Harding

This memoir of native Nebraskan, Debora Harding, is all about a traumatic childhood event, the aftereffects of which would change her family forever. Harding expertly weaves the past with the present in a riveting story of survival and family dynamics. Harding’s debut book has been compared to bestsellers like The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and Educated by Tara Westover.

“With remarkable narrative skill, Harding untangles the lingering effects of family dysfunction and criminal trauma. This is a page-turner with a deep heart and soul, full of forgiveness but demanding of accountability.”  —BookPage, “Best Books of 2020: Memoirs”

Chosen as the 2024 One Book One Nebraska selection, libraries across Nebraska and other literary and cultural organizations have participated in book discussions, activities, and events that encourage Nebraskans to read and discuss this book.

The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the Nebraska Library Commission.  

As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, “bringing together people and information.”  

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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.

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Announcing a New Literary Festival Event to Take Place this Fall

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Bailee Juroshek

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
July 16, 2024

FOR MORE INFORMATION:                            
Tessa Timperley
Communications Coordinator
Nebraska Library Commission
Email

Rosemary Sekora
Marketing and Sales Manager
University of Nebraska Press
rsekora@unl.edu

Announcing a New Literary Festival Event to Take Place this Fall

Book lovers, get your calendars to save the date. A new literary festival is taking place in Lincoln. 

The 2024 Nebraska Celebration of Books (NCOB) will take place on Oct. 12, 2024, in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln City Campus Union at 1400 R Street. Two presentations, a writing workshop, and a slam poetry competition will take place on second floor leading up to the presentation of the Nebraska Book Awards at 3:30 p.m. NCOB will also host local bookstores and other vendors throughout the day beginning at 10:00 a.m.

The event will officially kick off on Oct. 11 at White Elm Brewing with a literary trivia night at 5:30 p.m.

All events are free and open to the public. NCOB would like to thank the following organizations for making this new event possible: Nebraska Center for the Book, Zero Street Fiction series, Larksong Writers Place, Nebraska Writers Collective, Nebraska Library Commission, Lincoln City Libraries, and the University of Nebraska Press.

For additional information on attending or becoming a sponsor of this event, please visit https://bookfestival.nebraska.gov/

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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.

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What We’re Reading: Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me

Posted on June 4, 2024 by Bailee Juroshek

Where Nebraska Center for the Book board members share their thoughts about the books they are reading. This month’s review is by Laurie Yocom; Director, Wilson Public Library, Cozad.

Review of Wolves, Boys, & Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler.

I’m getting ready to plan a vacation to Yellowstone this fall, so I picked up a 2010 young adult novel, Wolves, Boys & Other Things That Might Kill Me by Kristen Chandler, to get me in the mood. It also happened to fill a niche in our library’s summer reading challenge as far as being set in a national park.

The main character is K.J., who at 16 has a few things on her plate. Her dad, a reformed lawyer, has been a hunting and fishing guide for as long as K.J. can remember, but doesn’t know how to relate to his daughter. What she can’t remember is her mother, who died in a car accident when she was a toddler. K.J. struggles with dyslexia and expectations about school from her father. The resident klutz of her class, She has “bloomed” over the summer, now getting notice from all the townspeople—and not necessarily about her new look.

Thanks to her journalism class, K.J.’s interest in wolves intensifies when she partners with the new boy in town, Virgil. His mother has come to Montana to study the wolves. With Virgil’s photographs and K.J.’s research, it is not long before things escalate between those who want the wolves in the park and those who want them dead. And maybe someone wants K.J. dead, too.

Chosen as her high school newspaper’s editor, K.J. comes of age, falls in love, and learns about standing up for yourself and your ideas. The themes of bravery and not backing down is told throughout the story in terms of the main character as well as the wolves. Jokes, articles, quotes, and poetry sprinkled between chapters keep the serious narrative somewhat light.

By reading this, I got a sense of the Montana wildlife I hope to encounter this fall, especially an appreciation for wolves that I may not have had before. If you’re looking for a nonfiction selection about wolves, check out The Wolf Almanac: A Celebration of Wolves and Their World by Robert H. Busch.

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2024 One Book One Nebraska Bookmarks Now Available!

Posted on April 29, 2024 by Bailee Juroshek

Looking for more ways to engage readers with One Book One Nebraska? We now have bookmarks for 2024’s selection, “Dancing with the Octopus” by Debora Harding. Contact us at the Nebraska Center for the Book at CenterForBook@nlc.state.ne.us if you’re interested in receiving some bookmarks for your library!

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Young Nebraskans Win Writing Competition    

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Bailee Juroshek

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 26, 2024

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Tessa Timperley
402-471-3434
800-307-2665

Young Nebraskans Win Writing Competition    

Nebraska students competed for the twenty-fifth year in the annual Letters About Literature competition. They wrote to tell an author about how books can make a difference in a young person’s life. Young Nebraska writers who wrote winning letters in the Letters About Literature competition will attend a proclamation signing ceremony on April 11th with Gov. Jim Pillen. Letters About Literature is a state-wide reading and writing promotion program. The competition encourages young people to read, be inspired, and write back to the author (living or dead) who had an impact on their lives.

This annual contest is coordinated and sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, Lincoln City Libraries, Humanities Nebraska, Connie Osborne, Francie & Finch Bookshop of Lincoln, and Chapters Bookstore in Seward.

Young Nebraska writers to be honored are:

Level I (Grades 4-6):
Winner is Brooklyn Green of Lincoln’s Irving Middle School, who wrote to S.E. Hinton about their book, The Outsiders.
Runner-up is Justin Kang-Shizuka of Lincoln’s Prescott Elementary, who wrote to George Takei about their book, They Called Us Enemy.

Level II (Grades 7-8):
Winner is Henry Skretta of Lincoln’s Irving Middle School who wrote to Neal Shusterman about their book, Scythe.
Runner-up is Liam Brown Kramer of Lincoln’s Irving Middle School who wrote to Robert Louis Stevenson about their book, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Level III (Grades 9-12):
Winner is Chloe Kasischke of Wahoo Public High School, who wrote to Allison Britz about their book, Obsessed: A Memoir of My Life with OCD.
Runner-up is Aidan Blakely of Omaha North High School, who wrote to Amy Tan about their book The Joy Luck Club.

The students wrote personal letters to authors explaining how his or her work changed their view of themselves or the world. They selected authors from any genre, fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic. Winners were chosen from three competition levels: upper elementary, middle school, and high school.

The Nebraska winners will be honored at a reception at Lincoln City Library’s Bennett Martin branch and receive cash prizes and gift certificates. Their winning letters will then be placed in the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors at Bennett Martin Public Library in Lincoln. For more information about the competition see http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/programs/LAL.html

The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the Nebraska Library Commission.

As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, “bringing together people and information.”

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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.

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25th Annual Nebraska Book Awards Submissions Now Open!

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Bailee Juroshek

Entries for the 25th annual Nebraska Book Awards are now being accepted!

The competition is open to Nebraska authors, Nebraska publishers, and other authors or publishers of books set in or relating to Nebraska. Books published in 2023, as indicated by the copyright date, are eligible for nomination in 2024. They must be professionally published, have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), and be bound.

You can submit a book to be entered in one or more of the following categories: Children/Young Adult, Cover/Design/Illustration, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Certificates will be awarded to the winners in each category, and they will be invited out to participate as featured authors at the October 12th, 2024 Nebraska Celebration of Books in Lincoln. The event will culminate in an awards ceremony for the authors, publishers, and their families, where winning books will be displayed and authors will have the opportunity to read from and sign their books.

The entry fee is $40 per book and per category entered. Deadline for entries is May 31, 2024. For more information, including entry forms, see: http://www.centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/awards/nebookawards.htm

Interested in learning more about previous winners? You can find a complete list of information on all 25 years of Nebraska Book Award winners, including the title, author, publisher, and category won, here: https://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/awards/winners/nebook.html

To see a list of previous submissions made to enter the Nebraska Book Awards, you can see the records from 2010-2023 here: https://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/awards/nebookawards.html#submissions

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2024 One Book One Nebraska: Now Available on BARD!

Posted on February 21, 2024 by Tessa Timperley

“Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime” by Debora Harding is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. BARD is a service offered by the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress.

This memoir of native Nebraskan, Debora Harding, is all about a traumatic childhood event, the aftereffects of which would change her family forever. Harding expertly weaves the past with the present in a riveting story of survival and family dynamics.

“With remarkable narrative skill, Harding untangles the lingering effects of family dysfunction and criminal trauma. This is a page-turner with a deep heart and soul, full of forgiveness but demanding of accountability.”

BookPage, “Best Books of 2020: Memoirs”

This title has been selected as the 2024 One Book One Nebraska. The program is now in its 20th year of bringing Nebraskans together for the reading and discussion of one great book written by Nebraska authors or that have a Nebraska theme or setting. Nearly every One Book One Nebraska winner is available on cartridge and for download on BARD.

The narration was done by Connie Healey, who has been volunteering for NLC’s Talking Book and Braille department for 10 years and received a Nebraska Library Association’s Outstanding Volunteer Award in 2022. The recording took over 30 hours in the studio and an additional 20 hours of post-production to prepare for our patrons. Connie has now read three One Book One Nebraska selections, the other two being “The Bones of Paradise” by Jonis Agee and “Prairie Forge” by James J. Kimble.

TBBS borrowers can request “Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime,” DBC02052, or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.

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Nominate Books Now for the 2024 Nebraska Book Awards

Posted on February 15, 2024 by Tessa Timperley

The 2024 Nebraska Book Awards program, sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book (NCB) and Nebraska Library Commission, will recognize and honor books that are written by Nebraska authors, published by Nebraska publishers, set in Nebraska, or relate to Nebraska.

Books published in 2023, as indicated by the copyright date, are eligible for nomination. They must be professionally published, have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), and be bound. Books may be entered in one or more of the following categories: Nonfiction, Fiction, Children/Young Adult, Cover/Design/Illustration, and Poetry. Winners in each category will be invited to participate as featured authors at the October 12th, 2024 Nebraska Celebration of Books in Lincoln. The event will culminate in an awards ceremony for the authors, publishers, and their families, where winning books will be displayed and authors will have the opportunity to read from and sign their books.

The entry fee is $40 per book and per category entered. Deadline for entries is May 31, 2024. For more information, including entry forms, see http://www.centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/awards/nebookawards.html

Books may be entered in one of two ways, either complete the Online Entry Form and submit payment through PayPal, then mail three copies of the book to the below address. Or, mail the Entry Form [pdf], three copies of the book, and the entry fee via a check made out to the Nebraska Center for the Book to the below address.

NCB Book Awards Competition
c/o Nebraska Library Commission
The Atrium
1200 N Street, Suite 120
Lincoln, NE 68508-2023

The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars. Together we build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the national Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and the Nebraska Library Commission.

As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, “bringing together people and information.”

The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.    

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Dancing with the Octopus Proclaimed the 2024 One Book One Nebraska

Posted on January 12, 2024 by Tessa Timperley

On Jan. 8, 2024, Governor Jim Pillen signed a proclamation honoring 2024 One Book One Nebraska: Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020) by Debora Harding. Rod Wagner, Nebraska Center for the Book (NCB) Board member, and Nebraska Library Commission Director spoke about the program and selection. Dancing with the Octopus is a riveting and thoughtful memoir written by Nebraska native Debora Harding. Kidnapped, assaulted at the age of 14, then left abandoned by her attacker in the middle of a snow storm, Harding recounts the trauma inflicted on herself and her family in the wake of the attack. Poignant in the discussion of mental health and fraught family dynamics that Harding would carry into adulthood, she chooses to meet her attacker many years later. The full proclamation can be viewed on the One Book One Nebraska webpages at http://onebook.nebraska.gov.

The One Book One Nebraska reading program, sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, and Humanities Nebraska is entering its twentieth year. It encourages Nebraskans across the state to read and discuss one book, chosen from books written by Nebraska authors or that have a Nebraska theme or setting. Libraries across Nebraska will join other literary and cultural organizations in planning book discussions, activities, and events to encourage Nebraskans to read and discuss this book. Support materials to assist with local reading/discussion activities are available at http://onebook.nebraska.gov.

The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the Nebraska Library Commission.

As Nebraska’s state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services-“bringing together people and information.”

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The most up-to-date news releases from the Nebraska Library Commission are always available on the Library Commission Website, http://nlc.nebraska.gov/publications/newsreleases.

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