California Book Award Gold Medal

The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History, edited by Michael Kauffmann and Justin Garwood, was chosen as the Gold Medal winner for Contribution to Publishing at the 92nd Annual California Book Awards by the Commonwealth Club.

ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARDS

The Selection Process

Each year, The Commonwealth Club receives hundreds of books from California authors for award consideration. Our dedicated jury spends several months assessing each entry, narrowing down the many submitted works to a group of finalists and finally the medalists themselves.

Types of Awards

The California Book Awards began in 1931 with two gold medals—one for a work of fiction and one for nonfiction. Through the years several more categories have been added, bringing the total number of awards given each year to 11.

Medals are now awarded in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, First Work of Fiction, Californiana, Young Adult Literature (ages 12–16), Juvenile Literature (ages up to 11) and Notable Contribution to Publishing.

We are honored by this award and thank the California Book Awards committee for this recognition.


2023 GOLD MEDALS

CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHING
The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History, Edited by Michael Kauffmann and Justin Garwood, Backcountry Press

CALIFORNIANA
The High Sierra: A Love Story, Kim Stanley Robinson, Little, Brown and Company

FICTION
Heartbroke, Chelsea Bieker, Catapult

FIRST FICTION
Nightcrawling, Leila Mottley, Alfred A. Knopf

NONFICTION­
American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis, Adam Hochschild, Mariner Books

JUVENILE
Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyataka, and Ansel Adams’s Photographs Reveal About the Japanese American Incarceration, Elizabeth Partridge and Lauren Tamaki, Chronicle Books

YOUNG ADULT
Ophelia After All, Racquel Marie, Feiwel & Friends

POETRY
Time Regime, Jhani Randhawa, Gaudy Boy


Learn more and get tickets to the ceremony on June 5, at 6 p.m:

California Book Award Gold Medal