Since 1931, the California Book Awards have honored the exceptional literary merit of California writers and publishers. Each year a select jury considers hundreds of books from around the state in search of the very best in literary achievement. Over its 90 years, the California Book Awards have honored the writers who have come to define California to the world. Among them are John Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner, MFK Fisher, Thom Gunn, Richard Rodriquez, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joan Didion, Ishmael Reed, and Amy Tan. Recent award winners include Hector Tobar, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Susan Orlean, Rachel Kushner, Rachel Khong, Tommy Orange, Morgan Parker and Steph Cha.

This year’s winners include:

GOLD MEDALS

FICTION
A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, Daniel Mason, Little, Brown and Company 

FIRST FICTION
How Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang, Riverhead Books

NONFICTION
South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War, Alice L. Baumgartner, Basic Books

JUVENILE
Efrén Divided, Ernesto Cisneros, Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

YOUNG ADULT
Private Lessons, Cynthia Salaysay, Candlewick Press

POETRY
Quiet Orient Riot, Nathalie Khankan, Omnidawn 

CALIFORNIANA
California Exposures: Envisioning Myth and History, Richard White, with photos by Jesse Amble White, W.W. Norton & Company 

CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHING
A Natural History of the Anza-Borrego Region, Marie Simovich and Mike Wells, Sunbelt Publications

SILVER MEDALS

FICTION
Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu, Pantheon/Vintage

NONFICTION
Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream, Conor Dougherty, Penguin Press

YOUNG ADULT
The Black Kids, Christina Hammonds Reed, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers