The WLA Literary Award is presented at each annual conference of the Wisconsin Library Association for literary achievement by a Wisconsin author. The award is given for a single publication, fiction or nonfiction, copyrighted in the year prior to the giving of the award. Authors must be a person who was born in Wisconsin, currently living in Wisconsin, or lived in the state for a significant length of time.
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2024 WLA Literary Awards (Nonfiction)
The Sound of Undoing: A Memoir in Essays deconstructs the way sound has overwhelmingly shaped Paige Towers’s life. Each essay focuses on a different sound, some perceptible—like the sound of a loon call or gunshot—and others abstract—like the sound of awakening. Given a hypersensitivity to noise from which she has both suffered and benefited since childhood, Towers uses these sounds as a starting point for making sense of past events. She reflects on the estrangement of a beloved sister, sexual abuse and assault, and the link between mental illness and noise in her family, as well as nature, religion, violence, and other themes. Experimental in form and provocative in content, The Sound of Undoing also makes use of research on silence, nature and noise pollution, listening, sound art, autonomous sensory meridian response, and the acoustic environment in general. By exploring memories and feelings triggered by certain noises, this lyrical meditation untangles a life infused with meaning through sound. --https://www.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2024 WLA Literary Awards (Fiction)
When Leah Kempler meets Charlie Nelson in line at the grocery store, their attraction is immediate and intense. Charlie, with his big feelings and grand proclamations of love, captivates her completely. But there are peculiarities of his life—he’s older than her but lives with his parents; he meets up with a friend at odd hours of the night; he sleeps a lot and always seems to be coming down with something. He confesses that he’s a recovering heroin addict, but he promises Leah that he’s never going to use again. Leah's friends and family are concerned. As she finds herself getting deeper into an isolated relationship, one of manipulation and denial, the truth about Charlie feels as blurry as their time together. Even when Charlie’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic, when he starts to make Leah feel unsafe, she can’t help but feel that what exists between them is destined. Charlie is wide open, boyish, and unbearably handsome. The bounds of Leah’s own pain—and love—are so deep that she can’t see him spiraling into self-destruction. --from https://www.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2023 WLA Literary Award (Nonfiction)
The true story of Gene Moran, a World War II tail gunner who survived a four-mile fall without a parachute – only to land in Nazi hands. Gene endured life as a prisoner of war for seventeen grueling months, an experience which would remain untold for most of his life until he met John Armbruster. Part survival saga, part a journey of storytelling, Tailspin is a remarkable and unvarnished firsthand account of war, trauma, and resilience. John Armbruster is an American history and government teacher in southwestern Wisconsin. -- from https://www.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2023 Literary Award (Fiction)
A specter of a long-buried past comes calling, threatening to unravel a marriage – and meanwhile, new friends bring happiness and complications of their own. When the terrible events of a fateful evening threaten everyone’s carefully crafted lives, each must determine the value of truth. Still True, is an immersive and heartfelt exploration of love, trust, and secrets in small-town Wisconsin, driven by multilayered characters so nuanced as to seem real. Maggie Ginsberg is a writer and author and is a senior editor at Madison Magazine. -- https://www.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2022 Literary Award (Nonfiction)
The Birdman of Koshkonong delves into the life of one of Wisconsin’s most influential, yet least well-known, naturalists. An accomplished ornithologist and botanist, Kumlien was instrumental in recording the impact of early agriculture on Wisconsin’s native flora and fauna in the mid-1800s. Martha currently resides in Milwaukee. -- from https://www.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2022 Literary Award (Fiction)
Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, seventeen-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey. In the crucible of collective life, Marie emerges a leader with a progressive vision for her sisters. Matrix gathers currents of violence, sensuality, and religious ecstasy in a mesmerizing portrait of consuming passion, aberrant faith, and a woman that history moves both through and around. Groff received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. -- from https://www.wisconsinlibraries.org/
Winner 2021
A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Homeland Elegies blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession in the world that 9/11 made. Part family drama, part social essay, part picaresque novel, at its heart it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home. Available to download: eBook Audio --https://www.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2020 winner
Living back home in Bangalore after attending university, Shalini is adrift since her mother's recent death. When her father encourages her to come up with some sort of plan, she surprises even herself with a ready response: in fact, she's planning a trip to Kashmir. Secretly, she hopes to find a friend of her mother's whom she hasn't seen in years, a traveling salesman named Bashir Ahmed who stopped visiting when the political unrest in his region took too great a toll on him and his family. On her travels north, Shalini is struck repeatedly by how ill-prepared she was for such a journey, and by how little she wants it to end. Alternating chapters address Shalini's time in Kashmir, where she is introduced to others' astonishing struggles—and welcomed into their care—in a way she's never before experienced; and flash back to her childhood, unraveling the mysteries of her sharp-edged, dearly beloved mother and the man Shalini has crossed a country to find. Available to download: eBook Audio --https://www.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2019 Winner
The Immortalists follows the lives of four siblings living in New York’s Lower East Side in 1969. Drawn to a mystic woman who claims to divine the date of one’s death, the Gold children learn their futures. The prophecies hang over the Gold family for the next forty years as they grapple with choices over fate, science versus nurture and what they owe to themselves and each other. --from http://wla.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2018 Winner
The Great Lakes―Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior―hold 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work and recreation for tens of millions of Americans. But they are under threat as never before, and their problems are spreading across the continent. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is a compulsively readable portrait of an ecological catastrophe happening right before our eyes, blending the epic story of the lakes with an examination of the perils they face and the ways we can restore and preserve them for generations to come.--http://wla.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2017 Winner
Nicholas Petrie’s debut novel is an exciting thriller that introduces Peter Ash, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, who comes home from the wars with post-traumatic stress and a mission to help a Marine friend’s widow rebuild an old porch at her home. What he finds under there, a mean ugly dog and a suitcase full of cash and explosives, sends him on an adventure through the city of Milwaukee. Petrie combines the usual elements of a suspense mystery novel with insightful reflections on how returning veterans cope with fitting in again to “normal” society.
~ from wla.wisconsinlibraries.org
2016 Winner
[It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War] offers many thrilling tales, addressing the risks and nomadic lifestyle inherent to a combat photographer’s career. Readers will gain a deeper appreciation of how photographers capture images that tell stories without words. This book is recommended to anyone searching for a riveting read, one that challenges our views of other cultures, offers compelling war reporting and inspires with a story of overcoming great obstacles to further one’s life passion. --http://wla.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2015 Winner
Shotgun Lovesongs is, in many ways, a quiet novel. The reader is allowed to sit with the characters, and to be moved by their emotions and their bonds of love and friendship. While the sense of place is very strong, it still relates to most rural communities (and is therefore relatable for many readers). The Awards Committee appreciated the characters’ flaws and depth and the novel’s multiple points of view, each adding another layer to the story. Mr. Butler’s excellent descriptions bring both the setting and the people into focus for readers. This is a novel that lingers in the readers’ mind, with big thematic moments but not artificial melodrama. --http://wla.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2014 Winner
Let Him Go is the story of George and Margaret Blackledge living in 1951 North Dakota. They’ve lost their only son and now their 4-year-old grandson has been taken away as well. Margaret is determined to get him back and George, who is just about done with life, nevertheless does what he can to help her. “Watson is the master of spare prose. Let Him Go is quietly riveting as Watson explores just what’s worth fighting for and the sacrifices people are willing to make.” said Jane Jorgenson, Chair of the Literary Awards Committee.--http://wla.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2013 Winner
Eliot Treichel’s debut short story collection showcases life’s private reflections—big and small—that shape and define individuals. Though the setting is small-town Wisconsin, the emptiness of this rough, lonely expanse feels universal. Anyone who has yearned to ease the ache of a fading relationship will be able to connect to Treichel’s expertly captured characters and their plights of family, fidelity and friendship.--http://wla.wisconsinlibraries.org/
2012 Winner
In his debut novel, The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach examines the lives of 5 people and the ways in which their paths intersect at the fictional Westish College in Wisconsin. Henry Skrimshander is recruited to play by sophomore Mike Schwartz. Through Schwartz’s intervention, Henry is admitted late and finds housing with Owen, another star on the team. Schwartz and Owen take Henry under their wing to help him adjust to the world of academia. Guert Affenlight, the college president, finds himself falling helplessly in love after what seems a lifetime alone as a single parent to his daughter Pella. Pella, meanwhile, shows up at Westish to try to figure out her own future. When Henry commits an unlikely error during a game, it seems the lives of all of these characters begin to spin out of control. Not really about baseball, this story is more about perfection and failure, heartbreak and doubt, and how we find meaning in our lives. These characters will stay with the reader long after the last page. http://wla.wisconsinlibraries.org/
