California Book Awards
The California Book Awards are annual literary awards given to California Writers and Publishers since 1931. The event is sponsored by Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California.[1] The California Book Awards are funded by an endowment from Dr. Martha Heasley Cox,[2] late professor of American Literature at San Jose State University. Medals (gold and silver) and cash prizes are currently awarded in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, First Work of Fiction, Californiana (nonfiction relating to California), Juvenile Literature (up to age 10), Young Adult Literature (age 11–16), and Notable Contribution to Publishing.[1] More than 400 books are submitted per year.[3] The winning books are selected by an independent jury.[4]
Winners
Californiana
| Year | Title | Author | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | The Big Oak Flat Road | Irene D. Paden | Silver | |
| 1956 | Men of the Western Waters: A Second Look at the First Americans | Dale Van Every | Silver | |
| 1957 | San Francisco Bay | Harold Gilliam | Silver | |
| 1958 | Montgomery and the Portsmouth | Fred B. Rogers | Silver | |
| 1959 | The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned : A Photographic Record of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire | William Bronson | Silver | |
| 1961 | Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America | Theodora Kroeber | Silver | |
| 1962 | Journey into Darkness: Cabeza de Vaca's Expedition Across North America, 1528-36 | John Upton Terrel | Silver | |
| 1963 | South From San Francisco - San Mateo County, CA | Frank Stanger | Silver | |
| 1964 | Sarah and the Senator | Robert Kroninger | Silver | |
| 1966 | Chancy and the Grand Rascal | Sid Flesischmen | Silver | |
| 1967 | Fool's Gold: The Decline and Fall of Captain John Sutter of California | Richard Dillon | Silver | |
| 1968 | Everyman's Eden | Ralph Roske | Silver | |
| 1969 | The Great Betrayal | Audrie Girdner | Silver | |
| 1970 | The El Dorado Trail | Ferol Egan | Silver | |
| 1971 | The Indispensable Enemy | Alexander Saxton | Silver | |
| 1972 | Monterey: The Presence of the Past | Augusta Fink | Silver | |
| 1973 | Chile, Peru & the California Gold Rush of 1849 | Jay Monaghan | Silver | |
| 1974 | An Everyday History of Somewhere | Ray Raphael | Gold | |
| 1975 | Nothing Seemed Impossible | David Lavender | Gold | |
| 1978 | The Dark Range | David R. Wallace | Silver | |
| 1981 | World Rushed in: The California Gold Rush | J. S. Holliday | Gold | |
| 1982 | Winemaking in California | Ruth Teiser | Gold | |
| 1983 | Klamath Knot | David R. Wallace | Silver | |
| 1984 | The University of California Southeby Book of California | Doris Muscatine | Gold | |
| 1985 | Art in San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-1980 | Thomas Albright | Gold | |
| 1986 | The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse | Vikram Sethi | Gold | |
| 1987 | Bitter Melon: Stories from the Last Rural Chinese Town in America | Jeff Gillenkirk | Gold | |
| 1988 | Julia Morgan, Architect | Sara Boutelle | Gold | |
| 1989 | Denial of Disaster: The Untold Story and Photographs of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 | Gladys S. Hansen | Gold | |
| 1990 | Bay Area Figurative Art 1950-65 | Caroline A. Jones | Gold | |
| 1991 | Farming on the Edge: Saving Family Farms in Marin County, California | John Hart | Gold | |
| Tradition and Innovation: A Basket History of the Indians of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Area | Yosemite Association | Silver | ||
| 1992 | Josiah Royce: From Grass Valley to Harvard | Robert V. Hine | Gold | |
| 1993 | The Great Central Valley | Robert Dawson, Gerald Haslam, and Stephen Johnson | Silver | |
| 1994 | The Unseen Peninsula | Robert Buelteman and Robert McDonald | Gold | |
| 1996 | Storm Over Mono | John Hart | Gold | [5] |
| 1997 | The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s | Kevin Starr | Silver | [6] |
| 1998 | Harvest Son: Planting Roots in American Soil | David Mas Masumoto | Silver | |
| 1999 | Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California | J. S. Holliday | Silver | |
| 2000 | The Literature of California Volume 1: Native American Beginnings to 1945 | Jack Hicks | Silver | |
| 2001 | Capturing Light: Masterpieces of California Photography, 1850-2000 | Drew Heath Johnson | Silver | [7] |
| 2002 | Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology | David Ulin | Silver | |
| 2003 | The King of California | Rick Wartzman and Mark Arax | Silver | |
| 2004 | Beasts of Field: California Migrant Farm Workers 1865-1913 | Richard Steven Street | Silver | [8] |
| 2005 | The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself | Philip Fradkin | Silver | [9] |
| 2006 | The Great Black Way | R. J. Smith | Silver | [10] |
| 2007 | Reinventing Los Angeles | Robert Gottlieb | Silver | |
| 2008 | The Los Angeles Plaza: Sacred and Contested Space | William David Estrada | Gold | |
| 2009 | Wherever There's A Fight | Elaine Ellinson and Stan Yogi | Gold | |
| 2010 | A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California | Laura Cunningham | Gold | |
| 2011 | Chuckwalla Land: The Riddle of California's Desert | David Rains Wallace | Gold | |
| 2012 | Sunshine Was Never Enough | John Laslett | Gold | |
| 2013 | Chief: The Quest for Justice in California | Ronald M. George | Gold | |
| 2014 | San Francisco's Jewel City | Laura A. Ackley | Gold | |
| 2015 | California's Wild Edge | Tom Killion | Gold | [11] |
| 2016 | An American Genocide | Benjamin Madley | Gold | |
| 2017 | The Modoc War | Robert Aquinas McNally | Gold | |
| 2018 | The Browns of California | Miriam Pawel | Gold | |
| 2019 | The Dreamt Land | Mark Arax | Gold | |
| 2021 | California Exposures | Richard and Jesse White | Gold | |
| 2022 | Everything Now | Rosecrans Baldwin | Gold | |
| 2023 | The High Sierra | Kim Stanley Robinson | Gold | |
| 2024 | California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline | Rosanna Xia | Gold | |
| 2025 | A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth | James Tejani | Gold |
Contribution to publishing
| Year | Title | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Textile Art in the Church | Marion Ireland | Silver | |
| 1983 | Mountains of the Middle Kingdom: Exploring the High Peaks of China and Tibet | Galen Rowell | Silver | |
| 1984 | The Hill Towns of Italy | Carole Field | Silver | |
| 1984 | Celebrating Italy | Carole Field | Silver | |
| 1985 | John O'shea, 1876-1956 | Walter Nelson-Rees | Silver | |
| 1986 | Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape | Galen Rowell | Silver | |
| 1987 | Dryland: Desert of North America | Phillip Hyde | Silver | |
| 1990 | O California | Steven Vincent | Silver | |
| 1992 | Napoleon | Proctor Jones | Silver | |
| 1993 | The Arts and Crafts Movement in California: Living the Good Life | Kenneth Trapp | Silver | |
| 1994 | Two Eagles/Dos Aguiles | Tupper Blake and Peter Steinhart | Silver | |
| 1997 | Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature | Harry W. Greene | Silver | [6] |
| 2000 | California Calls You | KD and Gary Kurutz | Silver | |
| 2001 | Splendide Californie! Selections by French Artists of California History 1786-1900 | Claudine Chalmers, Book Club of California | Silver | [7][12] |
| 2002 | High Sierra of California | Gary Snyder | Silver | |
| 2003 | Rising Up and Rising Down | William Vollmann | Silver | |
| 2006 | Children's Book Press | Children's Book Press | Silver | [10] |
| 2007 | Impressions of the East | Deborah Rudolph | Silver | |
| 2008 | Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970 | Stanford University Press | Gold | |
| 2009 | The Zohar Pritzker Edition, Volume Five | Stanford University Press | Gold | |
| 2010 | Autobiography of Mark Twain Volume 1 | University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles | Gold | |
| 2011 | Ten Years that Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978 | City Lights Publishers | Gold | |
| 2012 | Valley of Shadows and Dreams | Ken and Melanie Light | Gold | |
| 2013 | Scrape the Willow Until it Sings | Debora Valoma | Gold | |
| 2014 | The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin | Kim Bancroft | Gold | |
| 2015 | Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers | James Karman, Stanford University Press | Gold | [11] |
| 2016 | Ecosystems of California | Mooney and Zavalet, Yale University Press | Gold | |
| 2017 | The California Field Atlas | Obi Kaufmann | Gold | |
| 2018 | Carleton Watkins | Tyler Green | Gold | |
| 2019 | Jim Marshall: Show Me the Picture | Amelia Davis | Gold | |
| 2021 | A Natural History of the Anza-Borrego Region | Marie Simovich | Gold | |
| 2022 | A Rebel's Outcry | Jeffrey Gee Chin | Gold | |
| 2023 | The Klamath Mountains | Michael Kauffman | Gold | |
| 2024 | KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell | Robeson Taj Frazier | Gold | |
| 2025 | Terminal Island: Lost Communities on America's Edge | Geraldine Knatz and Naomi Hirahara, Angel City Press | Gold |
Fiction fiction / work
The California Book Award for First Fiction was first presented in 1977. In 1995, it was presented as the California Book Award for First Work.
| Year | Title | Author | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | The Wanderers | Ingrid Rimland | Gold | |
| 1978 | A Woman of Independent Means | Elizabeth F. Halley | Silver | |
| 1979 | Years of the French | Thomas Flanagan | Gold | |
| 1982 | Story for a Black Night | Clayton Bess | Silver | |
| 1983 | A Dime to Dance By | Walter Walker | Silver | |
| 1984 | Tapping the Source | Kem Nunn | Silver | |
| 1986 | Small Business: A Novel | Tom Parker | Silver | |
| 1987 | Imagining Argentina | Lawrence Thornton | Silver | |
| Unremembered Country Poems | Susan Griffin | Silver | ||
| 1992 | Cantora | Sylvia Lopez-Medina | Silver | |
| 1993 | Tuscaloosa | W. Glasgow Philips | Silver | |
| 1995 | Jackson Street and other Soldier Stories | John Miller | Gold | |
| Reckless Driver | Lisa Vice | Silver | ||
| 1996 | Sacred Dust | David Hill | Silver | [5] |
| 1997 | Circumnavigation | Steve Lattimore | Silver | [6] |
| 1998 | Hunger | Samantha Chang | Silver | |
| 1999 | Oxygen Man | Steve Yarbrough | Gold | [13] |
| The Artist of the Missing | Paul La Farge | Silver | [7] | |
| Crooked | Laura and Tom McNeal | Silver | ||
| 2000 | The Ice Harvest | Scott Phillips | Silver | |
| Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner | F. X. Toole | Silver | ||
| 2001 | Edgewater Angels | Sandro Meallot | Silver | [7] |
| 2002 | The Last Good Chance | Tom Barbash | Silver | |
| The Lovely Bones | Alice Sebold | Silver | ||
| 2003 | Drinking Coffee Elsewhere | ZZ Packer | Silver | |
| 2004 | Every Night is Ladies' Night | Michael Jamie-Becerra | Silver | [8] |
| 2005 | A Thousand Years of Good Prayer | Yiyun Li | Silver | |
| 2006 | Artificial Light | James Greer | Silver | [10] |
| 2007 | Sons and Other Flammable Objects | Porochista Khakpour | Silver | |
| 2008 | Telex From Cuba | Rachel Kushner | Gold | |
| The Legend of a Suicide | David Vann | Silver | ||
| 2009 | The Bigness of the World | Lori Ostlund | Gold | |
| 2010 | The Lost Books of the Odyssey | Zachary Mason | Gold | |
| 2011 | Turn of Mind | Alice LaPlante | Gold | |
| 2012 | A Partial History of Lost Causes | Jennifer DuBois | Gold | |
| Masha'allah and Other Stories | Mariah K. Young | Silver | ||
| 2013 | A Constellation of Vital Phenomena | Anthony Marra | Gold | |
| 2014 | Waiting for the Electricity | Christina Nichol | Gold | |
| The Un-Americans | Molly Antopol | Silver | ||
| 2015 | The Sympathizer | Viet Thanh Nguyen | Gold | [11] |
| 2016 | Dog Years | Melissa Yancy | Gold | |
| 2017 | Goodbye, Vitamin | Rachel Khong | Gold | |
| 2018 | There There | Tommy Orange | Gold | |
| Fruit of the Drunken Tree | Ingrid Rojas Contreras | Silver | ||
| 2019 | Home Remedies | Xuan Wang | Gold | |
| Last of Her Name | Mimi Lok | Silver | ||
| 2021 | How Much of These is God | C Pam Zhang | Gold | |
| 2022 | Skinship | Yoon Choi | Gold | |
| City of a Thousand Gates | Rebecca Sacks | Silver | ||
| 2023 | Nightcrawling | Leila Mottley | Gold | |
| The Red Arrow | William Brewer | Silver | ||
| 2024 | All-Night Pharmacy | Ruth Madievsky | Gold | |
| 2025 | Your Presence is Mandatory | Sasha Vasilyuk | Gold |
Fiction
| Year | Title | Author | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | When the Living Strive | Richard LaPiere | Silver | |
| 1942 | The Stranger in Big Sur | Lillian Bos Ross | Silver | |
| The Man Who Killed the Deer | Frank Waters | Silver | ||
| 1943 | Wide is the Gate | Upton Sinclair | Silver | |
| 1944 | Captain Retread | Donald Hough | Silver | |
| 1945 | High Bonnet | Idwal Jones | Silver | |
| 1946 | The Big Tree | Mary and Conrad Buff | Gold | |
| 1947 | Blood Brother | Elliot Arnold | Gold | |
| 1948 | Sky and Forest | C. S. Forester | Gold | |
| The Nine Brides and Granny Hite | Neill C. Wilson | Silver | ||
| 1949 | The Journey of Simon Mckeever | Albert Maltz | Gold | |
| The Revolt in San Marcos | Robert C. North | Silver | ||
| Epicurus, My Master | Max Radin | Silver | ||
| 1950 | Bridal Journey | Dale Van Every | Gold | |
| About Mrs. Leslie | Viña Delmar | Silver | ||
| 1951 | Sandra and the Right Prince | Mildred Napier Anderson | Gold | |
| No Vacancy | Mary Jane Rolfs | Silver | ||
| Tracy's Tiger | William Saroyan | Silver | ||
| 1952 | Time’s Traveler | Stanton Coblentz | Silver | |
| Wapiti the Elp | Neill C. Wilson | Silver | ||
| Winds of Mourning | H. L. Davis | Gold | ||
| 1953 | The High and the Mighty | Ernest Gann | Gold | |
| Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury | Silver | ||
| 1954 | The Nightmare | C. S. Forester | Gold | |
| Beyond the Hungry Country | Louise Stinetorf | Silver | ||
| Epics of Everest | Leonard Wibberley | Silver | ||
| 1955 | The Genius and the Goddess | Aldous Huxley | Silver | |
| The Good Shepherd | C. S. Forester | Silver | ||
| 1956 | The Long Watch | Elizabeth Linington | Silver | |
| Spook the Mustang | Harlan Thompson | Silver | ||
| 1957 | The Wilderness Brigade | Phyllis Demarest | Gold | |
| The Braintree Mission | Nicholas Wyckoff | Silver | ||
| The Flower Drum Song | C. Y. Lee | Silver | ||
| Knock and Wait a While | William Weeks | Silver | ||
| 1958 | Warlock | Oakley Hall | Gold | |
| The Sergeant | Dennis R. Murphys | Silver | ||
| 1959 | Flight from Ashiya | Elliot Arnold | Gold | |
| The Thirteenth Apostle | Eugene Vale | Silver | ||
| 1960 | The Infidels | Chloe Gartner | Silver | |
| A Shooting Star | Wallace Stegner | Silver | ||
| 1961 | Mila 18 | Leon Uris | Gold | |
| The Agony and the Ecstasy | Irving Stone | Silver | ||
| 1962 | The Everlasting Fire | Jon Reed Lauritzen | Silver | |
| Heart of the Wild: Animal Stories of the California Redwood Coast | Chet Schwarzkopf | Silver | ||
| 1963 | The House That Tai Ming Built | Virginia Lee | Silver | |
| 1964 | The Man | Irving Wallace | Silver | |
| Armageddon | Leon Uris | Silver | ||
| Gathering of Zion | Wallace Stegner | Silver | ||
| 1965 | The Year of the Death | Reuben Merliss | Silver | |
| 1966 | The Crow Flies Crooked | Jack Kisling | Silver | |
| All the Little Heroes | Herbert Wilner | Silver | ||
| 1967 | A Night of Watching | Elliott Arnold | Gold | |
| All the Little Live Things | Wallace Stegner | Silver | ||
| 1968 | Airport | Arthur Hailey | Silver | |
| 1970 | Crimson Ramblers of the World, Farewell | Jessamyn West | Silver | |
| 1971 | The Exorcist | William Peter Blatty | Gold | |
| 1973 | The Cowboy and the Crossack | Clair Huffaker | Silver | |
| Yours and Mine | Judith Rascoe | Silver | ||
| 1974 | The Connoisseur | Evan Connell, Jr. | Silver | |
| A Time for Titans | Viña Delmar | Silver | ||
| Against the Law | Leonard Levy | Silver | ||
| Love Out of Season | Ella Leffland | Silver | ||
| 1975 | The Great Train Robbery | Michael Crichton | Silver | |
| 1976 | A New Age Now Begins | Page Smith | Silver | |
| The Spectator Bird | Wallace Stegner | Silver | ||
| Small Moments | Nancy H. Packer | Silver | ||
| 1977 | Haywire | Brooke Hayward | Silver | |
| 1980 | Impossible Appetites: Nine Stories | James Fetler | Silver | |
| 1981 | Family: Novel in Form of a Memoir | Herbert Gold | Silver | |
| 1982 | Infinite Passion of Expectation: 25 Stories | Gina Berriault | Silver | |
| 1983 | A Gathering of Old Men | Ernest Gaines | Silver | |
| 1984 | Stones for Ibarra | Harriet Doerr | Silver | |
| 1985 | Face | Cecile Pineda | Silver | |
| Greasy Lake & Other Stories | T. Coraghessan Boyle | Silver | ||
| Reasons to Live | Amy Hempel | Silver | ||
| 1986 | Birds Landing | Ernest Finney | Silver | |
| 1987 | World's End | T. Coraghessan Boyle | Silver | |
| 1989 | The Joy Luck Club | Amy Tan | Silver | |
| 1990 | Even Now | Michelle Latiolais | Silver | |
| Limbo River | Rick Hillis | Silver | ||
| 1991 | Mariette in Ecstasy | Ron Hansen | Silver | |
| Sarah Canary | Karen Fowler | Silver | ||
| 1992 | When Nietzsche Wept | Irvin Yalom | Gold | |
| Red Square | Martin Cruz Smith | Silver | ||
| 1994 | The Palace Thief | Ethan Canin | Silver | |
| The Zoo Where You're Fed to God | Michael Ventura | Silver | ||
| 1995 | Naming the Spirits | Lawrence Thornton | Silver | |
| 1996 | Women in Their Beds | Gina Berriault | Gold | [5] |
| Flights in the Heavenlies | Ernest J. Finney | Silver | [5] | |
| 1997 | Le Divorce | Diane Johnson | Gold | [6] |
| Creek Walk and Other Stories | Miles Giles | Silver | [6] | |
| 1998 | Goodnight, Nebraska | Tom McNeal | Silver | |
| Lost Lake | Mark Slouka | Silver | ||
| 1999 | Leaving Pico | Frank Gaspar | Silver | |
| 2000 | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay | Michael Chabon | Gold | [15] |
| The Royal Family | William T. Vollmann | Silver | [15] | |
| 2001 | Highwire Moon | Susan Straight | Gold | [7][12] |
| Haussman, or The Distinction | Paul La Farge | Silver | [7][12] | |
| 2002 | The Miracle | John L'Heureux | Gold | |
| 2003 | Evidence of Things Unseen | Marianne Wiggins | Gold | |
| Old School | Tobias Wolff | Silver | ||
| Parasites Like Us | Adam Johnson | Silver | ||
| 2004 | The Confessions of Max Tivoli | Andrew Sean Greer | Gold | [8] |
| Graceland | Chris Abani | Silver | [8] | |
| Happy Baby | Stephen Elliott | Silver | [8] | |
| 2005 | Europe Central | William T. Vollmann | Gold | [9] |
| Nice Big American Baby | Judy Budnitz | Silver | [9] | |
| Snow Flower and the Secret Fan | Lisa See | Silver | [9] | |
| 2006 | Wizard of the Crow | Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o | Gold | [10] |
| Talk, Talk | T. C. Boyle | Silver | [10] | |
| 2007 | The Yiddish Policeman's Union | Michael Chabon | Gold | |
| A Thousand Splendid Suns | Khaled Hosseini | Silver | ||
| 2008 | The End of the Jews | Adam Mansbach | Gold | |
| 2009 | The Vagrants | Yiyun Li | Gold | |
| Both Ways is the Only Way I Want it | Maile Meloy | Silver | ||
| 2010 | I Hotel | Karen Tei Yamashita | Gold | |
| Model Home | Eric Puchner | Silver | ||
| 2011 | The Barbarian Nurseries | Héctor Tobar | Gold | |
| Love and Shame and Love | Peter Orner | Gold | ||
| 2012 | The Orphan Master's Son | Adam Johnson | Gold | |
| 2013 | We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves | Karen Fowler | Gold | |
| 2014 | An Unnecessary Woman | Rabih Alameddine | Gold | |
| Orfeo | Richard Powers | Silver | ||
| 2015 | A Manual for Cleaning Women | Lucia Berlin | Gold | [11] |
| Elevation: 6,040 | Ernest J. Finney | Silver | [11] | |
| 2016 | Moonglow | Michael Chabon | Gold | |
| The Portable Veblen | Elizabeth McKenzie | Silver | ||
| 2017 | The Age of Perpetual Light | Josh Weil | Gold | |
| So Much Blue | Percival Everett | Silver | ||
| 2018 | The Mars Room | Rachel Kushner | Gold | |
| Winter Kept Us Warm | Anne Raeff | Silver | ||
| 2019 | Your House Will Pay | Steph Cha | Gold | |
| 2021 | A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth | Daniel Mason | Gold | |
| Interior Chinatown | Charles Yu | Silver | ||
| 2022 | The Archer | Shruti Swamy | Gold | |
| The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen | Silver | ||
| 2023 | Heartbroke | Chelsea Bieker | Gold | |
| 2024 | Blackouts | Justin Torres | Gold | |
| 2025 | James | Percival Everett | Gold | |
| Creation Lake | Rachel Kushner | Silver |
General literature
| Year | Title | Author | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1932 | Barabbas | Sara Bard Field | Silver | |
| 1932 | Nur Mahal | Harold Lamb | Silver | |
| 1934 | Lord’s Anointed | Ruth Mckee | Silver | |
| 1935 | Laughter Out of the Ground | Robin Lampson | Silver | |
| 1936 | In Dubious Battle | John Steinbeck | Silver | |
| 1937 | The Education of Hyman Kaplan | Leo Rosten | Silver | |
| 1937 | Pity the Tyrant | Hans Storm | Silver | |
| 1938 | East of the Giants | George Stewart | Silver | |
| 1939 | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | Silver | |
| 1939 | The Time of Your Life | William Saroyan | Silver | |
| 1939 | Bright Heritage | Mary Provines | Silver | |
| 1939 | Death Loses a Pair of Wings: the Epic of William Gorgas and the Conquest of Yellow Fever | Robin Lampson | Silver | |
| 1940 | Wild Geese Calling | Stewart E. White | Silver | |
| 1941 | Anybody’s Gold: The Story of California Mining Towns | Joseph Henry Jackson | Silver | |
| 1942 | I Remember Christine | Oscar Lewis | Silver | |
| 1943 | Trio | Dorothy Baker | Silver | |
| 1944 | One Day at Beetle Rock | Sally Carrighar | Silver | |
| 1945 | A Lion in the Streets | Adria Locke | Silver | |
| 1946 | Western World: A Study of the Forces Shaping our Time | Royce Brier | Silver | |
| 1947 | The Trial of Soren Qvisr | Janet Lewis | Silver | |
| 1948 | Woman with a Sword: A Novel based on the Life of Ana Elle Carroll | Hollister Noble | Silver |
Juvenile and young adult
| Year | Category | Title | Author | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1940 | Juvenile | Blue Willow | Doris Gates | Silver | |
| 1942 | Juvenile | Long Adventure | Hildegard Hawthorne | Silver | |
| 1943 | Juvenile | Spurs for Antonia | Katherine Eyre | Silver | |
| 1944 | Juvenile | Mystery at Thunderbolt House | Howard Pease | Silver | |
| 1945 | Juvenile | The Singing Cave | Margaret Leighton | Silver | |
| 1946 | Juvenile | Towards Oregon | E. H. Staffelbach | Silver | |
| 1947 | Juvenile | Sancho of the Long, Long Horns | Allan Bosworth | Silver | |
| 1948 | Juvenile | Seabird | Holling C. Holling | Silver | |
| 1949 | Juvenile | At the Palace Gates | Helen Parrish | Silver | |
| 1950 | Juvenile | Tomas and the Red Headed Angel | Marion Garthwaite | Silver | |
| 1953 | Juvenile | Roaring River | Bill Brown | Silver | |
| 1955 | Juvenile | Westward the Eagle | Frederick Lane | Silver | |
| 1957 | Juvenile | David and the Phoenix | Edward Ormondroyd | Silver | |
| 1958 | Juvenile | First Scientist of Alaska: William Healey Dall | Edward A. Herron | Silver | |
| 1959 | Juvenile | This is the Desert: The Story of America's Arid Religion | Phillip Ault | Silver | |
| 1960 | Juvenile | Hawaii the Aloha State | Helen Bauer | Silver | |
| 1961 | Juvenile | The Gray Sea Raiders | Gordon Shirreffs | Silver | |
| 1962 | Juvenile | First Woman Ambulance Surgeon: Emily Barringer | Iris Noble | Silver | |
| 1963 | Juvenile | The Keys and the Candle | Maryhale Woolsey | Silver | |
| 1964 | Juvenile | A Spell is Cast | Eleanor Cameron | Silver | |
| 1965 | Juvenile | Campion Towers | John Beatty | Silver | |
| 1967 | Juvenile | Silent Ship, Silent Sea | Robb White | Silver | |
| 1968 | Juvenile | Quest for Freedom | Paul Rink | Silver | |
| 1969 | Juvenile | The Cay | Theodore Taylor | Silver | |
| Juvenile | The Green and Burning Tree | Eleanor Cameron | Silver | ||
| 1970 | Juvenile | Jonah and the Great Fish | Clyde Bulla | Silver | |
| 1971 | Juvenile | Annie and the Old One | Miska Miles | Silver | |
| 1972 | Juvenile | Samurai of Gold Hill | Yoshiko Uchida | Silver | |
| 1974 | Juvenile | The Paper Party | Don Freemand | Silver | |
| 1975 | Juvenile | Coyotes: Last Animals On Earth | Harold E. Thomas | Silver | |
| 1977 | Juvenile | Shepherd Watches. Shepherd Sings | Louis Irigaray | Silver | |
| 1978 | Juvenile | North of Danger | Dale Fife | Silver | |
| 1979 | Juvenile | Fool and the Dancing Bear | Pamela Stearns | Silver | |
| 1980 | Juvenile | Fight of the Sparrow | Julia Cunningham | Gold | |
| Juvenile | The Half-A-Moon Inn | Paul Fleischman | Silver | ||
| 1981 | Juvenile | A Jar of Dreams | Yoshiko Uchida | Silver | |
| 1983 | Juvenile | Cry of the Kalahari | Delia Owens | Silver | |
| Juvenile | Dear Mr. Henshaw | Beverly Cleary | Silver | ||
| 1984 | Juvenile | Monkey Puzzle and Other Poems | Myra C. Livingston | Silver | |
| 1985 | Juvenile | The Willow Maiden | Meghan Collins | Silver | |
| 1986 | Juvenile | The Secret of the Mountain | Esther Linfield | Silver | |
| 1987 | Juvenile | Nell's Quilt | Susan Terris | Silver | |
| 1988 | Juvenile | Step into the Night | Joan Ryder | Silver | |
| 1990 | Juvenile | The Fabulous Fifty | Morton Grosser | Silver | |
| Juvenile | Babushka's Doll | Patricia Polacco | Silver | ||
| 1991 | Juvenile | Fly Away Home | Eve Bunting | Silver | |
| Juvenile | Jayhawker | Patricia Beatty | Silver | ||
| 1992 | Juvenile | A Bowl of Mischief | Kristiana Gregory | Silver | |
| Juvenile | Chicken Sunday | Patricia Polacco | Silver | ||
| Juvenile | Earthquake at Dawn | Kristiana Gregory | Silver | ||
| 1993 | Juvenile | Bull Run | Paul Fleischman | Silver | |
| Juvenile | Dragon's Gate | Laurence Yep | Silver | ||
| Juvenile | Grandfather's Journey | Allen Say | Silver | ||
| 1994 | Juvenile | Catherine, Called Birdy | Karen Cushman | Silver | |
| Juvenile | Smoky Night | Eve Bunting | Silver | ||
| 1995 | Juvenile | The Faithful Friend | Robert San Souci | Silver | |
| Juvenile | A Time for Dancing | Davida Hurwin | Silver | ||
| Juvenile | Canto Familiar | Gary Soto | Silver | ||
| 1996 | Juvenile | A Girl Named Disaster | Nancy Farmer | Silver | [5] |
| Juvenile | Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman | Alan Schroeder | Silver | [5] | |
| 1997 | Juvenile | The Hired Hand: An African-American Folktale | Robert San Souci | Silver | [6] |
| 1998 | Juvenile | I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade | Diane Lee Wilson | Silver | |
| Juvenile | Sitting Ducks | Michael Bedeard | Silver | ||
| 1999 | Young Adult | Little Bo | Julie Andrews Edward | Silver | |
| 2000 | Juvenile | Jubal's Wish | Don and Audrey Wood | Silver | |
| Young Adult | At the Sign of the Star | Katharine Sturtevant | Silver | [15] | |
| 2001 | Young Adult | Notes from a Liar & Her Dog | Gennifer Choldenko | Silver | [7][12] |
| 2002 | Juvenile | When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marion Anderson | Brian Selznick and Pam Munoz | Silver | |
| Young Adult | This Land was Made for You and Me: Woody Guthrie | Elizabeth Patridge | Silver | ||
| 2003 | Juvenile | Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book | Yuyi Morales | Silver | |
| Young Adult | The City of Ember | Jeanne DuPrau | Silver | ||
| 2004 | Juvenile | Walt Whitman: Words for America | Barbara Kerley | Silver | [8] |
| Young Adult | Worth | A. LaFaye | Silver | [8] | |
| 2005 | Juvenile | Terrific | John Agee | Silver | [9] |
| Young Adult | Cloud Chamber | Joyce Maynard | Silver | [9] | |
| 2006 | Juvenile | Landed | Milly Lee | Silver | [10] |
| Young Adult | A True and Faithful Narrative | Katherine Sturtevant | Silver | [10] | |
| 2007 | Young Adult | Revolution is Not a Dinner Party | Ying Chang Compestine | Silver | |
| Young Adult | Thirteen Reasons Why | Jay Asher | Silver | ||
| 2008 | Juvenile | We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball | Kadir Nelson | Gold | |
| Young Adult | White Sands, Red Menace | Ellen Klages | Gold | ||
| 2009 | Juvenile | Lucky Breaks | Susan Patron | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Flygirl | Sherri Smith | Gold | ||
| 2010 | Juvenile | Grandma's Gloves | Cecil Castellucci | Gold | |
| Young Adult | The Things a Brother Knows | Dana Reinhardt | Gold | ||
| 2011 | Juvenile | One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street | Jonanne Rocklin | Gold | |
| Young Adult | The Apothecary | Maile Meloy | Gold | ||
| 2012 | Juvenile | The One and Only Ivan | Katherine Applegate | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Second Chance Summer | Morgan Matson | Gold | ||
| Young Adult | A Soldier's Secret: The Incredible True Story of Sarah Edmonds, A Civil War Hero | Marissa Moss | Silver | ||
| 2013 | Juvenile | Barbed Wire Baseball | Marissa Moss | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Far Far Away | Tom McNeal | Gold | ||
| 2014 | Juvenile | The Fourteenth Goldfish | Jennifer L. Holm | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Gabi, A Girl in Pieces | Isabel Quintero | Gold | ||
| 2015 | Juvenile | Melissa | Alex Gino | Gold | [11] |
| Young Adult | Challenger Deep | Neal Shusterman | Gold | [11] | |
| Young Adult | The Alex Crow | Andrew Smith | Silver | [11] | |
| 2016 | Juvenile | Cloud and Wallfish | Anne Nesbet | Gold | |
| Young Adult | The Sun Is Also a Star | Nicola Yoon | Gold | ||
| 2017 | Juvenile | Maya Lin: Thinking With Her Hands | Susan Goldman Rubin | Gold | |
| Young Adult | The 57 Bus | Dashka Slater | Gold | ||
| 2018 | Juvenile | The Language of Spells | Garret Weyr | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Picture Us In The Light | Kelly Loy Gilbert | Gold | ||
| 2019 | Juvenile | A Place to Belong | Cynthia Kadohata | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Frankly in Love | David Yoon | Gold | ||
| 2021 | Juvenile | Efrén Divided | Ernesto Cisneros | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Private Lessons | Cynthia Salaysay | Gold | ||
| The Black Kids | Christina Hammonds Reed | Silver | |||
| 2022 | Juvenile | Wishes | Muron Thi Van | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Home is Not a Country | Safia Elhillo | Gold | ||
| 2023 | Juvenile | Seen and Unseen | Elizabeth Partridge | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Ophelia After All | Racquel Marie | Gold | ||
| 2024 | Juvenile | The Honey Jar: An Armenian's Escape to Freedom | Joan Schoettler | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed | Dashka Slater | Gold | ||
| The Blood Years | Elana K. Arnold | Silver | |||
| 2025 | Juvenile | A Map for Falasteen: A Palestinian Child's Search for Home | Maysa Odeh and Aliaa Betawi | Gold | |
| Young Adult | Everything We Never Had | Randy Ribay | Gold |
Nonfiction
| Year | Category | Title | Author | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | Nonfiction-Memoir | Crowded Year: The Reminiscences of William G. McAdoo | William McAdoo | Gold | |
| The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens | Lincoln Steffens | Silver | |||
| Scholarship-History | Outpost of Empire | Herbert E. Bolton | Gold | ||
| 1932 | Nonfiction-Memoir | The Adventures of a Novelist | Gertrude Anderson | Gold | |
| 1933 | Nonfiction-Memoir | San Francisco A Pageant | Charles Dobie | Gold | |
| Deep Water: The Autobiography of a Sea Captain | Ernest Pryce Mitchell | Silver | |||
| Scholarship-Study | The Pursuit of Death: A Study of Shelley’s Poetry | B. P. Kurtz | Silver | ||
| 1934 | Nonfiction-Memoir | A Child Went Forth: the Autobiography of Dr. Helen Doyle | Helen Doyle | Gold | |
| Scholarship-History | The Revolutionary Emperor: Joseph II of Austria | Saul Padover | Silver | ||
| Scholarship | The Saga of the Comstock Lode | George Lyman | Gold | ||
| 1935 | General Scholarship | Tortilla Flat | John Steinbeck | Silver | |
| Nonfiction | San Francisco Tales | Charles Dobie | Gold | ||
| All Giants Wear Yellow Breeches: A Chronicle of Boyhood | Vernon Patterson | Silver | |||
| Scholarship | Literature and Society | Albert Guerard | Gold | ||
| 1936 | Scholarship | God and Man’s Destiny: Inquiries into the metaphysical foundations of faith | Hartley Alexander | Gold | |
| Rim of Christendom: A Biography of Eusebio Francisco Kino, Pacific Coast Pioneer | Herbert E. Bolton | Gold | |||
| Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party | George Stewart | Silver | |||
| Snow Covered Wagons: A Pioneer Epic: The Donner Party 1846-1847 | Julia Altrocchi | Silver | |||
| 1937 | Scholarship | Men of Mathematics | E. T. Bell | Gold | |
| The Early Stuarts: 1603 to 1660 | Godfrey Davies | Silver | |||
| People on the Earth | Edwin Corle | Silver | |||
| 1938 | Nonfiction-Memoir | Enchanted Vagabonds | Dana and Ginger Lamb | Gold | |
| Nonfiction | Gone Are the Days | Alexander Powell | Silver | ||
| Scholarship | France Overseas: A Study of Modern Imperialism | Herbert Priestley | Gold | ||
| The Big Four | Oscar Lewis | Silver | |||
| 1939 | Nonfiction-Memoir | Land Below the Wind | Agnes Keith | Gold | |
| Scholarship | San Francisco’s Literary Frontier | Franklin Walker | Gold | ||
| Flowering Earth | Donald Peattie | Silver | |||
| 1940 | Nonfiction | My Name Is Aram | William Saroyan | Silver | |
| Scholarship | The Structure of Art | Carl Thurston | Gold | ||
| A Diplomatic History of the American People | Thomas Bailey | Gold | |||
| 1940 | Scholarship | The March of the Barbarians | Harold Lamb | Silver | |
| 1941 | Nonfiction | Lord of Alaska: Baranov and the Russian Adventure | Hector Chevigny | Gold | |
| The Morning of America | Frank Klingberg | Silver | |||
| Nonfiction-Biography | Thackeray | John Dobbs | Silver | ||
| Scholarship | Many Mexicos | Lesley B. Simpson | Gold | ||
| 1942 | Scholarship | History of Historical Writing | James Westfall Thompson | Gold | |
| 1943 | Nonfiction | Brothers Under the Skin | Carey McWilliams | Gold | |
| The Day of Reckoning | Max Radin | Silver | |||
| Scholarship | Legacy of Nazism | Frank Munk | Gold | ||
| 1944 | Nonfiction | Caesar and Christ: A History of Roman Civilization and of Christianity from Their Beginnings to A.D. 325 | Will Durant | Gold | |
| Forward Observer | Edwin Westrate | Silver | |||
| Scholarship | Woodrow Wilson and the Lost Peace | Thomas Bailey | Gold | ||
| 1945 | Scholarship | The Age of the Great Depression: 1929-1941 | Laura Hinkley | Gold | |
| The Epic of Latin America | John A. Crow | Gold | |||
| Nonfiction | Minor Heresies, Major Departures: A China Mission Boyhood | John Espey | Gold | ||
| South America Called Them: Explorations of the Great Naturalists | Victor Von Hagen | Silver | |||
| 1946 | Nonfiction | The Christian Heritage in America | George Hedley | Silver | |
| Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement | George Mowry | Silver | |||
| 1947 | Nonfiction | The Great Forest | Richard Lillard | Silver | |
| A Yanqui in Patagonia | Bailey Willis | Silver | |||
| Scholarship | The Atlantic Frontier: Colonial American Civilization, 1607-1763 | Louis Wright | Gold | ||
| 1948 | Nonfiction | The Big Divide | David Lavender | Silver | |
| The Legend of Henry Ford | Keith Sward | Silver | |||
| Scholarship | The Age of the Great Depression: 1929-1941 | Dixon Wecter | Gold | ||
| 1949 | Nonfiction | The Universe of GBS | William Irvine | Gold | |
| Nonfiction | To Hell and Back | Audie Murphy | Silver | ||
| 1950 | Nonfiction | Sea Road to the Indies: An Account of the Voyages and Exploits of the Portuguese Navigators, Together with the Life and Times of Dom Vasco da Gama, Capitao-Mor, Viceroy of India and Count of Vidigueira Indies | Henry Hersch Hart | Gold | |
| Educating our Daughters: A Challenge to the Colleges | Lynn White | Silver | |||
| Fifth Chinese Daughter | Jade Snow Wong | Silver | |||
| 1951 | Nonfiction | The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements | Eric Hoffer | Gold | |
| The Negro and the Communist Party | Wilson Record | Silver | |||
| Ark of Empire: San Francisco’s Montgomery Block | Idwal Jones | Silver | |||
| 1952 | Nonfiction | Boss Ruef’s San Francisco: The Story of the Union Labor Party, Big Business, and the Graft Prosecution | Walton Bean | Gold | |
| Cottrell: Samaritan of Science | Frank Cameron | Gold | |||
| Please Excuse Johnny | Florence Mcghee | Silver | |||
| 1953 | Nonfiction | It’s Good to be Black | Ruby Goodwin | Gold | |
| Yankee Ships: An Informal History of the American Merchant Marine | Reese Wolfe | Silver | |||
| 1954 | Nonfiction | Howells and the Age of Realism | Everett Carter | Gold | |
| Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Poiwell and the Second Opening of the West | Wallace Stegner | Silver | |||
| Glory, God, and Gold | Paul Wellman | Silver | |||
| 1955 | Nonfiction | Cities in Revolt: Urban Life in America 1773-1776 | Carl Bridenbaugh | Gold | |
| Notre-Dame of Paris | Alan Temko | Gold | |||
| Streets of San Francisco | Samuel Dickson | Silver | |||
| 1956 | Nonfiction | The Nun's Story | Kathryn Hulme | Gold | |
| Tales of a Teacher | Beatrice S. Nathan | Gold | |||
| James Wilson, Founding Father: 1742-1798 | Charles Page Smith | Silver | |||
| 1957 | Nonfiction | Elizabethans at Home | Lu Emily Pearson | Gold | |
| 1958 | Nonfiction | Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Stael | J. Christopher Herold | Gold | |
| Era of Theodore Roosevelt: 1900-1912 | George Mowry | Silver | |||
| Land of Giants: Drive to the Pacific Northwest, 1750-1950 | David Lavender | Silver | |||
| 1959 | Nonfiction | Alexander Hamilton: A Portrait in Paradox | John C. Miller | Gold | |
| End of American Innocence | Henry F. May | Silver | |||
| Thaddeus Stevens: Scourge of the South | Fawn Brodie | Silver | |||
| 1960 | Nonfiction | Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York: 1746-1813 | George Dangerfield | Gold | |
| The War For the Union War Becomes Revolution 1862-1863 | Allan Nevins | Silver | |||
| 1961 | Nonfiction | Sinclair Lewis: An American Life | Mark Schorer | Gold | |
| Forth to the Wilderness | Dale Van Every | Silver | |||
| 1962 | Nonfiction | Franz Kafka: Parable and Paradox | Heinz Politzer | Gold | |
| John Adams | Page Smith | Gold | |||
| Adolph Autro: A Biography | Robert and Mary Stewart | Silver | |||
| 1963 | Nonfiction | The Hemlock and the Cross: Humanism, Socrates, and Christ | Geddes MacGregor | Gold | |
| A History of Russia | Nicholas Riasanovsky | Gold | |||
| Ah, Julian! A Memoir of Julian Brodetsky | Leonard Wibberley | Silver | |||
| James Gibbons Huneker: Critic of the Seven Arts | Arnold Schwab | Silver | |||
| 1964 | Nonfiction | Andreas Vesalius of Brussels | C. D. O'Malley | Gold | |
| 1965 | Nonfiction | The Search for Meriwether Lewis: From Tillamook to Grinder's Stand | Richard Dillon | Gold | |
| Blue Hen's Chick: A Life in Context | A. B. Guthrie | Gold | |||
| Oil, Land, and Politics: The California Career of Thomas Robert Bard | W. H. Hutchinson | Gold | |||
| Cellist | Gregor Piatigorsky | Silver | |||
| Final Challenge: The American Frontier 1804-1845 | Dale Van Every | SIlver | |||
| 1966 | Nonfiction | The Cave and the Mountain: A Study of EM Forster | Winfred Stone | Gold | |
| The Stone Mason of Tor House: The Life and Works of Robinson Jeffers | Melba Bennett | Gold | |||
| The Ordeal of the Constitution | Robert Rutland | Silver | |||
| Leonard Pitt Decline of the Californios A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890 | Leonard Pitt | Silver | |||
| 1967 | Nonfiction | Robert Lee. A Complete Man: A Portrait | Margaret Sanborn | Gold | |
| The Young Stalin: The Early Years of an Elusive Revolutionary | Edward Ellis Smith | Silver | |||
| Fathers | Herbert Gold | Silver | |||
| 1968 | Nonfiction | The Sane Positivist: Biography of Edward Thorndike | Geraldine Joncich | Gold | |
| Heroic Mexico: The Violent Emergence of a Modern Nation | William Weber Johnson | Gold | |||
| The Immigrant Upraised | Andrew Rolle | Silver | |||
| 1969 | Nonfiction | With Bold Knife and Fork | MFK Fisher | Gold | |
| Business at Bay: Critics and Heretics of American Business | Irving Michelman | Silver | |||
| German: Illusions and Dilemmas | Carl Landauer | Silver | |||
| 1970 | Nonfiction | Asian Ideas of the East and West | Stephen N. Hay | Gold | |
| The Rise of Modern China | Immanuel Hsu | Silver | |||
| Interpretations of Life | Will Durant | Silver | |||
| 1971 | Nonfiction | The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman | Ernest Gaines | Silver | |
| Monarchy in the Emporer's Eyes | Harold L. Kahn | Silver | |||
| 1972 | Nonfiction | Contour in Time | Travis Bogard | Gold | |
| The Pound Era | Hugh Kenner | Silver | |||
| Mao's Way | Edward E. Rice | Silver | |||
| Sand in a Whirlwind | Ferol Egan | Silver | |||
| 1973 | Nonfiction | Americans and the California Dream | Kevin Starr | Gold | |
| Steinbeck Country | Steve Crouch | Gold | |||
| Gideon Welles | John Niven | Silver | |||
| 1974 | Nonfiction | Ascent of Man | Jacob Bronowski | Gold | |
| 1975 | Nonfiction | Rape of the Nile | Brian Fagan | Gold | |
| The Opium War | Peter Ward Fay | Silver | |||
| Age of Napoleon | Will and Ariel Durant | Silver | |||
| Romantic Revolutionary | Robert Rosenstone | Silver | |||
| 1976 | Nonfiction | Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914 | Eugen Weber | Silver | |
| 1977 | Nonfiction | Botanical Prints | Henry Evans | Silver | |
| Fremont: Explorer for a Restless Nation | Ferol Egan | Silver | |||
| 1978 | Nonfiction | Max Perkins: Editor of Genius | A. Scott Berg | Gold | |
| Germany 1866-1945 | Gordon Craig | Silver | |||
| St. Nicholas of Myra, Bari, Manhattan | Charles W. Jones | Silver | |||
| 1979 | Nonfiction | Been in the Storm so Long | Leon Litwack | Silver | |
| Sea Glass | Laurence Yep | Silver | |||
| Symbols of Eternity: Art of Landscape Painting in China | Michael Sullivan | Silver | |||
| Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution | Gary B. Nash | Silver | |||
| 1980 | Nonfiction | Translating Neruda: Way to Macchu Picchu | John Felstiner | Gold | |
| Imperiled Union: Essays on the Civil War | Kenneth Stampp | Silver | |||
| Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775-1783 | Charles Royster | Silver | |||
| 1981 | Nonfiction | Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez | Richard Rodriguez | Gold | |
| Pursuit of a Dream | Janet S. Hermann | Silver | |||
| Will's Boy | Wright Morris | Silver | |||
| 1982 | Nonfiction | The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 | Robert Middlekauff | Gold | |
| 1983 | Nonfiction | The First Elizabeth | Carolly Erickson | Gold | |
| French Gothic Architecture 12th-13th Century | Jean Bony | Gold | |||
| 1984 | Nonfiction | Above Paris | Robert Cameron | Silver | |
| 1985 | Nonfiction | A History of Architecture Settings | Spiro Kostof | Gold | |
| 1986 | Nonfiction | France: Fin De Siecle | Eugen Weber | Gold | |
| Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence | Gene Brucker | Silver | |||
| 1987 | Nonfiction | Chaucer: His Life, His Works, His World | Donald R. Howard | Gold | |
| And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic | Randy Shilts | Silver | |||
| Voyage of Discovery: Captain Crook and the Exploration of the Pacific | Lynne Withey | Silver | |||
| 1988 | Nonfiction | The Way to the Western Sea: Lewis & Clark Across the Continent | David Lavender | Silver | |
| Green Architecture & The Agrarian Garden | Barbara S. Solomon | Silver | |||
| Picasso's Guernica, hist | Herschel Chipp | Silver | |||
| 1989 | Nonfiction | Strangers from a Different Shore | Ronald Takaki | Gold | |
| 1990 | Nonfiction | Sacred Mountains of the World | Edwin Bernbaum | Gold | |
| The Knight, Death, and the Devil | Ella Leffland | Silver | |||
| America in 1857: Nation on the Brink | Kenneth Stampp | Silver | |||
| 1991 | Nonfiction | Anne Sexton: A Biography | Diane Middlebrook | Gold | |
| Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women | Susan Faludi | Silver | |||
| 1992 | Nonfiction | Triumph and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People | Ramón Eduardo Ruiz | Gold | |
| Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father | Richard Rodriguez | Silver | |||
| 1993 | Nonfiction | Opera in America: A Cultural History | John Dizikes | Gold | |
| No Way to Build a Ballpark and Other Irreverent Essays in Architecture | Allan Temko | Silver | |||
| 1994 | Nonfiction | The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War | Peter Carroll | Silver | |
| School Girls | Peggy Orenstein | Silver | |||
| 1995 | Nonfiction | Poles Apart | Galen Rowell | Silver | |
| Possible Lives | Mike Rose | Silver | |||
| 1996 | Nonfiction | Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir | D. J. Waldie | Gold | [5] |
| Lisa Meitner | Ruth Sime | Silver | [5] | ||
| 1997 | Nonfiction | Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies | Jared Diamond | Gold | [6] |
| Glenn Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius | Peter Oswald | Silver | [6] | ||
| 1998 | Nonfiction | King Leopold's Ghost | Adam Hochschild | Gold | |
| All on Fire | Henry Mayer | Silver | |||
| 1999 | Nonfiction | Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 | David Kennedy | Gold | |
| Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe | Brad Gregory | Silver | |||
| 2000 | Nonfiction | Our Vietnam | A.J. Langguth | Gold | |
| 2001 | Nonfiction | American Colonies | Alan Taylor | Gold | [7][12] |
| 2002 | Nonfiction | Brown: The Last Discovery of America | Richard Rodriguez | Gold | |
| American Law in the 20th Century | Lawerance Friedman | Silver | |||
| 2003 | Nonfiction | River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West | Rebecca Solnit | Gold | |
| American Expressionism: Art and Social Change | Bram Dijkstra | Silver | |||
| 2004 | Nonfiction | Sorrow of Empire | Chalmers Johnson | Gold | [8] |
| 2005 | Nonfiction | Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire Slaves | Adam Hochschild | Gold | [9] |
| Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed | Jared Diamond | Silver | [9] | ||
| 2006 | Nonfiction | The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals | Michael Pollan | Gold | [10] |
| Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother | Sonia Nazario | Silver | [10] | ||
| 2007 | Nonfiction | Ralph Ellison: A Biography | Arnold Rampersad | Gold | |
| What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848 | David Walker Howe | Silver | |||
| 2008 | Nonfiction | Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life | John Adams | Gold | |
| Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West | Deanne Stillman | Silver | |||
| 2009 | Nonfiction | A Paradise Built in Hell | Rebecca Solnit | Gold | |
| Imperial | William T. Vollmann | Silver | |||
| Leaving India | Minal Hajratwala | Silver | |||
| 2010 | Nonfiction | Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History | Yunte Huang | Gold | [16] |
| The Harvard Psychedelic Club | Don Lattin | Silver | |||
| 2011 | Nonfiction | Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum | Jason Felch | Gold | |
| The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfiction, Etc. | Jonathan Lethem | Silver | |||
| 2012 | Nonfiction | God's Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine | Victoria Sweet | Gold | |
| The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele-Bloch Bauer | Anne-Marie O'Connor | Silver | |||
| 2013 | Nonfiction | Command and Control | Eric Schlosser | Gold | |
| Farewell Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti | Amy Wilentz | Silver | |||
| 2014 | Nonfiction | The Crusades of Cesar Chavez | Miriam Pawel | Gold | |
| Deep Down Dark | Héctor Tobar | Silver | |||
| 2015 | Nonfiction | Ghettoside | Jill Leovy | Gold | [11] |
| NeuroTribes | Steve Silberman | Silver | [11] | ||
| 2016 | Nonfiction | The Other Slavery | Andrés Reséndez | Gold | |
| Engineering Eden | Jordan Fisher Smith | Silver | [17] | ||
| 2017 | Nonfiction | The Color of Law | Richard Rothstein | Gold | |
| The Far Away Brothers | Lauren Markham | Silver | |||
| 2018 | Nonfiction | The Library Book | Susan Orlean | Gold | |
| American Prison | Shane Bauer | Silver | |||
| 2019 | Nonfiction | The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee | David Treuer | Gold | |
| Know My Name: A Memoir | Chanel Miller | Silver | |||
| 2021 | Nonfiction | South to Freedom | Alice L. Baumgartner | Gold | |
| Golden Gates | Conor Dougherty | Silver | |||
| 2022 | Nonfiction | Paraside | Lizzie Johnson | Gold | |
| Light on Fire | Gabrielle Selz | Silver | |||
| 2023 | Nonfiction | American Midnight | Adam Hochschild | Gold | |
| The Man Who Could Move Clouds | Ingrid Rojas Contreras | Silver | |||
| Bad Mexicans | Kelly Lylte Hernandez | Silver | |||
| 2024 | Nonfiction | Orphan Bachelors | Fae Myenne Ng | Gold | |
| 2025 | Nonfiction | Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves | Nicola Twilley | Gold | |
| Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future | Daniel Lewis | Silver |
Poetry
| Year | Title | Author | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1940 | In What Hour | Kenneth Rexroth | Silver | |
| 1942 | Proud Riders | H. L. Davis | Gold | |
| 1944 | The Phoenix and the Tortoise | Kenneth Rexroth | Silver | |
| 1946 | The Faultless Shore | Edward Weismiller | Silver | |
| 1947 | Journey to Victory | Hazel Louise Zimmerman | Silver | |
| 1949 | The Beast in His Hunger | Harry Brown | SIlver | |
| 1950 | Dominant Seventh | Phillips Kloss | Silver | |
| 1951 | Old Cronies | Leon Richardson | Silver | |
| 1955 | Symphony | Delina Margot-Pride | Silver | |
| 1958 | Magellan | Ann Stanford | Silver | |
| 1961 | A Ring of Willows | Eric Barker | Silver | |
| 1964 | Girl with Ocelot | Julia Altrocchi | Silver | |
| 1965 | The Selected Poems | Louis Simpson | Silver | |
| 1967 | The Rose of Solitude | Brother Antoninus | Silver | |
| 1969 | Short History of the Fur Trade | Andrian Stoutenburg | Silver | |
| 1970 | Testament for My Students | Kay Boyle | Silver | |
| 1971 | More Under Saturn | William Dickey | Silver | |
| 1973 | A Sense of Place | Celeste T. Wright | Silver | |
| 1973 | Living Together | Edgar Bowers | Silver | |
| 1975 | Returning Your Call | Leonard Nathan | Silver | |
| 1976 | Jack Straw's Castle | Thom Gunn | Gold | |
| 1976 | Adult Bookstore | Karl Shapiro | Silver | |
| 1977 | In Mediterranean Air | Ann Stanford | Silver | |
| 1978 | Songs for Wanderers | Sheila Moon | Silver | |
| 1979 | The Morning Star | Kenneth Rexroth | Silver | |
| 1979 | Dear Blood | Leonard Nathan | SIlver | |
| 1981 | Poems Old and New, 1918-1978 | Janet Lewis | Silver | |
| 1982 | Spacks Street: New and Selected Poems | Barry Spacks | Silver | |
| 1983 | Collected Poems, 1930-83 | Josephine Miles | Silver | |
| 1984 | Over All the Obscene Boundaries | Lawrence Ferlinghetti | Silver | |
| 1985 | The Countess of Forli | Ann Stanford | Silver | |
| 1985 | Early Light | W.S. Di Piero | Silver | |
| 1986 | Left Out in the Rain | Gary Snyder | Silver | |
| 1986 | Sapphics Against Anger and Other Poems | Timothy Steele | Silver | |
| 1988 | Collected Poems, 1931-83 | Czesław Miłosz | Silver | |
| 1988 | Of Gravity and Angels | Jane Hirshfield | Silver | |
| 1989 | Dead Languages | David Shields | Silver | |
| 1989 | Fortress | Brenda Hillman | Silver | |
| 1989 | Human Wishes | Robert Hass | Silver | |
| 1991 | Provinces: Poems 1987-91 | Czesław Miłosz | Silver | |
| 1991 | What Work Is | Philip Levine | Silver | |
| 1993 | Lost Body | Terry Ehret | Silver | |
| 1994 | The October Palace | Jane Hirshfield | Silver | |
| 1994 | The Philosopher's Club | Kim Addonizio | Silver | |
| 1995 | Lights & Mysteries | Thomas Centolella | Silver | |
| 1995 | Red Sauce, Whiskey & Snow | August Kleinzahler | Silver | |
| 1996 | Harping On: Poems | Carolyn Kizer | Silver | [5] |
| 1996 | Sun Under Wood | Robert Hass | Silver | [5] |
| 1997 | A Far Rockaway of the Heart | Lawerence Ferhinghetti | Silver | [6] |
| 1998 | The Art of the Lathe | B. H. Fairchild | Silver | |
| 1998 | Mrs. Dumpty | Chana Bloch | Silver | |
| 1999 | The Mercy | Philip Levine | Silver | |
| 1999 | The Potato Eaters | Leonard Nathan | Silver | |
| 2000 | Selected Poems | Fanny Howe | Gold | |
| 2001 | New and Collected Poems 1931-2001 | Czesław Miłosz | Gold | [7][12] |
| 2001 | Cool, Calm & Collected: Poems 1960-2001 | Carolyn Kizer | Silver | [7][12] |
| 2002 | Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest | B. H. Fairchild | Gold | |
| 2003 | The Strange Hours Travelers Keep | August Kleinzahler | Gold | |
| 2004 | School Among the Ruins | Adrienne Rich | Gold | [8] |
| 2005 | Niagara River | Kay Ryan | Gold | [9] |
| 2006 | New and Collected Poems, 1964-2006 | Ishmael Reed | Gold | [10] |
| 2007 | Chinese Apples | W. S. Di Piero | Gold | |
| 2008 | Sleeping it Off in Rapid City: Poems, New & Selected | August Kleinzahler | Gold | |
| 2008 | Practice | Dan Bellm | Silver | |
| 2009 | Chronic | D.A. Powell | Gold | |
| 2010 | Mortal Geography | Alexandra Teague | Gold | |
| 2010 | Suck on the Marrow | Camille T. Dungy | Silver | |
| 2011 | Ascension | Giovanni Singleton | Gold | |
| 2012 | Sea and Fog | Etel Adnan | Gold | |
| 2013 | Seasonal Works with Letter on Fire | Brenda Hillman | Gold | |
| 2013 | The Boss | Victoria Chang | Silver | |
| 2014 | The Feel Trio | Fred Moten | Gold | |
| 2015 | Cancer Angel | Beth Murray | Gold | [11] |
| 2016 | Restless Continent | Aja Couchois Duncan | Gold | |
| 2016 | Buck Studies | Douglas Kearney | Silver | |
| 2017 | Heaven is All Goodbyes | Tongo Eisen-Martin | Gold | |
| 2018 | Total Recall | Samantha Giles | Gold | |
| 2019 | Magical Negro | Morgan Parker | Gold | |
| 2019 | Jazz Funeral for Uncle Tom | Harmony Holiday | Silver | |
| 2021 | Quiet Orient Riot | Nathalie Khankan | Gold | |
| 2022 | Refractive Africa | Will Alexander | Gold | |
| 2023 | Time Regime | Jhani Randhawa | Gold | |
| 2024 | Mass for Shut-Ins | Mary-Alice Daniels | Gold | |
| 2025 | Theophanies | Sarah Ghazal Ali | Gold | |
| 2025 | Ward Toward | Cindy Juyoung Ok | Silver |
Controversy
The California Book awards sparked controversy after awarding John Steinbeck his third Gold Medal for The Grapes of Wrath, which triggered a series of protests throughout the state.[18] The Club was criticized for acknowledging a book that portrayed California in a poor light. It didn't take long, however, for The Grapes of Wrath to become an American classic.[1]
References
- ^ a b c "About the Awards". Commonwealth Club. Retrieved April 24, 2025.
- ^ "Founder of John Steinbeck Center Dies in San Francisco". Steinbeck Now. Retrieved April 24, 2025.
- ^ "120th Birthday Facts". Commonwealth Club. Retrieved April 24, 2025.
- ^ "California Book Awards". Commonwealth Club. Retrieved April 24, 2025.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Winners of the 66th Annual Commonwealth Club California Book Awards". The Los Angeles Times. November 2, 1997. p. 5. Retrieved November 17, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Winners of the 67th Annual Commonwealth Club California Book Awards". Chicago Tribune. November 22, 1998. Retrieved November 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Milosz, Straight win California Book Awards". San Francisco Chronicle. March 30, 2002. p. D5. Retrieved November 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Benson, Heidi (May 16, 2005). "'Max Tivoli' author wins California Book Award". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Steinbeck to Tan -- state's best". San Francisco Chronicle. June 6, 2006. p. D2. Retrieved November 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Winners announced in state book awards". The San Francisco Examiner. May 5, 2007. p. 17. Retrieved November 17, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Diverse winners honored at 85th Cal Book Awards". The San Francisco Examiner. June 12, 2016. p. 23. Retrieved November 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Milosz, LaFarge receive local book awards". The San Francisco Examiner. March 29, 2002. p. C8. Retrieved November 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Lazo, Dorina K. (July 31, 2000). "Getting It Write". The Fresno Bee. p. B1. Retrieved November 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d "The California Book Awards Winners 1931 - 2006" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on June 20, 2010. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
- ^ a b c "California Book Awards honor Chabon, Vollman, Sturtevant". Oakland Tribune. July 30, 2001. p. 6. Retrieved November 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Hughes, Karna (April 24, 2011). "UCSB professor wins California Book Award". Santa Barbara News-Press. p. D5. Retrieved November 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Rolland, Andrew (June 29, 2017). "Nevada City author honored at California Book Awards". The Sacramento Bee. Retrieved November 18, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Gershon, Livia (March 27, 2022). "Banning The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 California". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved April 24, 2025.