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Celebration: Northern California Book Awards

Sunday, 7/11/2021
2:00 - 4:00
Virtual Library

United States

Register

The 40th annual Northern California Book Awards recognize the best published works of 2020 by Northern California authors. 

 

YouTube Live

 

Categories include: Fiction, General Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Children's Literature (Younger Readers, Middle Grade, Older Readers/YA) and Translation (Poetry and Fiction). Northern California reviewers and editors, members of the Northern California Book Reviewers, select the awards by reading and discussing the titles' merits. All of the nominated books, the NCBR Recommended Reading List of Books Published in 2020, are acknowledged and celebrated at the ceremony.

History of the Northern California Book Awards

Since 1981, the Northern California Book Reviewers, a volunteer group of book reviewers and book review editors, have honored the work of Northern California authors. One of the group's founders was Fred Cody, proprietor of the famed independent bookstore in Berkeley. The NCBR created an award in his name to honor a lifetime of achievements and distinguished service to the literary community. The Fred Cody Award for lifetime achievement is presented every year to a member of the literary community. Previous recipients include Jack Hirschman, Sandra M. Gilbert, Daniel Ellsberg, Judy Grahn, Susan Griffin, Willis Barnstone, Adam Hochschild, Kay Ryan, Michael Pollan, Al Young, Andrew Hoyem, Diane di Prima, Orville Schell, Philip Levine, Ronald Takaki, Francisco X. Alarcón, Carolyn Kizer, Ishmael Reed, Maxine Hong Kingston, Robert Hass, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Malcolm Margolin, Adrienne Rich, Wallace Stegner, Kay Boyle, William Everson, Alice Walker, Gary Snyder, Jessica Mitford, Tillie Olsen, M.F.K. Fisher, Robert Duncan, Nancy J. Peters and Tamim Ansary.

The Awards’ Sponsors Poetry Flash, Women’s National Book Association-San Francisco Chapter, PEN West, Mechanics' Institute Library, San Francisco Public Library and Friends of the San Francisco Public Library sponsor and/or present the Northern California Book Awards.

Nominated books may be purchased from our partners at City Lights Books. 

 

 

 

Author Readings & Lectures

Engage with your favorite writers and discover your next read.

Celebrations

Connect with your community through Library gatherings.

Summer Stride

Summer Stride is the Library's annual summer learning, reading and exploration program for all ages and abilities. Read and learn with the Library all summer long.

This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

Attending Programs

For questions about the program or help registering, contact sfplcpp@sfpl.org. All programs are drop-in (no registration necessary) unless otherwise noted. All SFPL locations are wheelchair accessible. For accommodations (such as ASL or language interpretation), call (415) 557-4557 or contact accessibility@sfpl.org. Requesting at least 3 business days in advance will help ensure availability.

Notice: This event may be filmed or photographed. By participating in this event, you consent to have your likeness used for the Library’s archival purposes and promotional materials. If you do not want to be photographed, please inform a staff person or the photographer. A sticker will be provided to help identify you so that we can avoid capturing your image.

Public Notice and Disclaimer

This program uses a third-party website link. By clicking on the third-party website link, you will leave SFPL's website and enter a website not operated by SFPL. This service may collect personally identifying information about you, such as name, username, email address, and password. This service will treat the information it collects about you pursuant to its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of each third-party website or service that you visit or use, including those third parties with whom you interact through our Library services. For more information about these third-party links, please see the section of SFPL’s Privacy Policy describing Links to Other Sites.

The views and opinions expressed in programs presented by groups unaffiliated with SFPL do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SFPL or the City.