FOR MORE INFORMATION: Tessa Timperley 402-471-3434 800-307-2665
Shortlist for 2025 One Book One Nebraska Announced
What book will all Nebraskans be encouraged to read in 2025? We will all find out on October 12th at the Nebraska Celebration of Books (N.COB) literary festival. A collection of nonfiction essays about Nebraska, a novel set in 1950’s about personal journeys, a historical fiction novel about the Pacific theater in World War II —all stories with ties to Nebraska—are the finalists for the 2025 One Book One Nebraska statewide reading program. The finalists are:
My Nebraska: The Good, the Bad, and the Husker by Roger Welsch, The Globe Pequot Press, 2006.
The Lincoln Highway: A Novel by Amor Towles, Viking Press, 2021.
The Long March Home: A World War II Novel of the Pacific by Marcus Brotherton and Tosca Lee, Revell, 2023.
The One Book One Nebraska reading program is sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book, Humanities Nebraska, and the Nebraska Library Commission. It encourages Nebraskans across the state to read and discuss the same book, chosen from books written by Nebraska authors or that have a Nebraska theme or setting. A Nebraska Center for the Book committee selected the three finalists from a list of nineteen titles nominated by Nebraskans. In the coming weeks, Nebraska Center for the Book board members will vote on the 2025 selection.
Nebraskans are invited to take part in the Nebraska Celebration of Books (N.COB) Literary Festival where the choice for the 2025 One Book One Nebraska will be announced. Held on Saturday, October 12th, from 10:00am-5:30pm, in the Regency Suite, Heritage Room, and Swanson Auditorium located on the second floor of the UNL City Campus Union, this event aims to celebrate Nebraska’s literary heritage and contemporary authors. The festival 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 and Jane Geske Award.
This year’s One Book One Nebraska selection, Dancing with the Octopus: A Memoir of a Crime by Debora Harding, will be featured with a memoir writing workshop facilitated by Lucy Atkins from Larksong Writers Place. See http://onebook.nebraska.gov or https://www.facebook.com/OneBookOneNebraska for more information about ongoing 2024 One Book One Nebraska activities.
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.”
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.
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.
