The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library announced finalists Saturday in 10 categories for the 2025 Minnesota Book Awards, sponsored this year by Education Minnesota. New this year is a special anthology category that will be included every other year. Award winners will be announced at the Minnesota Book Awards ceremony April 22 at Ordway Center for Performing Arts. The Kay Sexton Award will also be presented that evening. Tickets are $27 and will be available at www.thefriends.org/mnba beginning Jan. 27. The preface begins at 6 p.m., followed by the ceremony at 7:30. There will be an option to access the livestream free online. Here are the finalists (asterisks indicate a local publisher) Anthology, sponsored by Minnesota Humanities Center “Dreaming our Futures: Ojibwe and Očhéthi Šakówiņ Artists and Knowledge Keepers” edited by Brenda J. Child & Howard Oransky (University of Minnesota Press)* “Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces” edited by Margret Aldrich & Michelle Filkins (Spout Press)* “Raised by Wolves: Fifty Poets on Fifty Poems” edited by Carmen Gimenez & Jeff Shotts (Graywolf Press)* “When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology” edited by Shannon Gibney & Nicole Chung (HarperTeen/HarperCollins Publishers) Children’s literature “Mr. Fox’s Game of ‘No!'” by David LaRochelle; illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka (Candlewick Press) “The Rock in My Throat” by Kao Kalia Yang; illustrated by Jiemei Lin (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing Group)* “Snow Steps” by Karen Latchana Kenney; illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich (WorthyKids/Hachette Book Group) “What Lolo Wants” by Cristina Oxtra; illustrated by Jamie Bauza (Kids Can Press) General nonfiction “The College Student’s Guide to Mental Health” by Mia Nosanow (New World Library) “The New Science of Social Change: A Modern Handbook for Activists” by Lisa Mueller (Beacon Press) “Red Stained: The Life of Hilda Simms” by Jokeda “JoJo” Bell (Minnesota Historical Society Press)* “We Are the Evidence: A Handbook for Finding Your Way After Sexual Assault” by Cheyenne Wilson (Balance/Grand Central Publishing) Genre fiction, sponsored by Macalester College “Big in Sweden” by Sally Franson (Mariner Books/HarperCollins Publishers) “Monsters We Have Made” by Lindsay Starck (Vintage Books/Penguin Random House) “Where They Last Saw Her” by Marcie Rendon (Bantam/Penguin Random House) “The Witches of Santo Stefano” by Wendy Webb (Lake Union Publishing/Amazon Publishing Memoir & creative nonfiction “Perennial Ceremony: Lessons and Gifts from a Dakota Garden” by Teresa Peterson (University of Minnesota Press)* “Sticky Notes: Memorable Lessons from Ordinary Moments” by Matt Eicheldinger (Andrews McMeel Publishing) “When Skies Are Gray: A Grieving Mother’s Lullaby” by Lindsey Henke (She Writes Press) “Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother’s Life” by Kao Kalia Yang (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster) Middle-grade literature, sponsored by Education Minnesota “The Diamond Explorer” by Kao Kalia Yang (Dutton Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House) “Telephone of the Tree” by Alison McGhee (Rocky Pond Books/Penguin Random House) “Not Quite a Ghost” by Anne Ursu (Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins Publishers) “Samira’s Worst Best Summer” by Nina Hamza (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins Publishers) Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction, sponsored by Annette and John Whaley “Dodge County, Incorporated: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America” by Sonja Trom Eayrs (Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press) “It Took Courage: Eliza Winston’s Quest for Freedom” by Christopher P. Lehman (Minnesota Historical Society Press)* “The Minneapolis Reckoning: Race, Violence, and the Politics of Policing in America” by Michelle S. Phelps (Princeton University Press) “To Banish Forever: A Secret Society, the Ho-Chunk, and Ethnic Cleansing in Minnesota” by Cathy Coats (Minnesota Historical Society Press)* Novel & short story, sponsored by Minnesota Humanities Center “The French Winemaker’s Daughter” by Loretta Ellsworth (Harper Paperbacks/HarperCollins Publishers) “In Wells’ Time” by David Nash (Unsolicited Press) “The Mighty Red” by Louise Erdrich (Harper/HarperCollins Publishers) “Obligations to the Wounded” by Mubanga Kalimamukwento (University of Pittsburgh Press) Poetry, sponsored by Wellington Management “Bluff” by Danez Smith (Graywolf Press)* “Theophanies” by Sarah Ghazal Ali (Alice James Books) “Birthing Butterflies” by Claudia May (Finishing Line Press) “Run From Your Now” by Ben Westlie (Kelsay Books) Young adult literature “Dispatches from Parts Unknown” by Bryan Bliss (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publishers) “Rules for Camouflage” by Kristin Cronn-Mills (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group) “We Got the Beat” by Jenna Miller (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins Publishers) “Where Wolves Don’t Die” by Anton Treuer (Arthur Levine/Levine Querido) Related Articles Books | Book Review: Kyle Paoletta’s ‘American Oasis’ offers lessons for a hotter, drier world Books | Literary calendar for week of Jan. 19 Books | Readers and writers: Books to reflect on and celebrate aging Books | Anti-‘woke’ author Jordan Peterson cancels six stops on his arena tour, including St. Paul Books | Readers and writers: Novels, books for kids and a chance to draw