Winners of the 2009 Midwest Booksellers' Choice Awards, which honor "authors from the Midwest Booksellers Association region and/or books about the region" and are voted on by MBA members, are:
- Fiction: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (Ecco)
- Nonfiction: Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting by Michael Perry (HarperCollins)
- Poetry: Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle by Freya Manfred (Red Dragonfly Press)
- Children's Picture Book: Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Harry Bliss (Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins)
- Children's Literature: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean (HarperCollins Children's Books)
Honor recipients:
- Fiction: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick (Algonquin)
- Nonfiction: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter (Grand Central)
- Poetry: Yellowrocket by Todd Boss (Norton)
- Children's Picture Book: Snow by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Lauren Stringer (Harcourt Children's Books)
- Children's Literature: Savvy by Ingrid Law (Dial Books for Young Readers)
The winners and honor book recipients will be celebrated at a reception Friday, September 25, during the MBA trade show in St. Paul, Minn.
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Brunonia Barry, author of The Lace Reader, has won the 2009 Baccante literary prize and will receive it September 26 during the sixth annual International Women's Fiction Festival, located in Matera, Italy. The prize judges called the book "an amazing journey through the world of publishing, a debut that turned a self-published story into a massive global success. . . . It's the story of a wounded woman, a symbol of women readers everywhere, who seeks to understand and interpret the world around her by delving deep inside herself. . . . The Lace Reader is a richly evocative book guaranteed to sweep the reader along in a headlong rush of events, against the brilliantly-described backdrop of modern-day Salem, Massachussetts and with a fascinating cast of characters, guaranteed to keep readers captivated all the way to the shocking ending."