2002-2011 Connecticut Book Award Winners

2002 Winners

Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Literary Community

  • None listed

Fiction

  • Kate Walbert for “Garden of Kyoto”

Memoir/Biography

  • Char Miller for “Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism”

Non-fiction

  • Cortney Davis for “I Knew a Woman”
  • Michael Pollan for “Botany of Desire”

Poetry

  • Marilyn Nelson for “Carver:  A Life in Poems”

Children’s Author

  • Marilyn Nelson for “Carver:  A Life in Poems”

Design

  • Helen Robinson for “Carver:  A Life in Poems by Marilyn Nelson”

2003 Winners

Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Literary Community

  • Rennie McQuilkin

Fiction

  • Stewart O’Nan for “Wish You Were Here”

Memoir/Biograph

  • Bob Smith for “Hamlet’s Dresser”

Non-fiction

  • Robert Thorson for “Stone by Stone”

Poetry

  • Vivian Shipley for “When There Is No Shore”

Children’s Author

  • Bruce Clements for “A Chapel of Thieves”

Children’s Illustrator

  • David A. Johnson for “Abraham Lincoln” by Amy Cohn and Suzy Schmidt

Design

  • Jessica Helfand for “Reinventing the Wheel”

2004 Winners

Lifetime achievement award

  • Wally Lamb

Fiction

  • Stewart O’Nan for “Night Country”

Memoir/Biography

  • Colin McEnroe for “My Father’s Footprints”

Nonfiction

  • Christopher Bickford and Howard R. Lamar for “Voices of the New Republic”

Poetry

  • Susan Howe for “The Midnight”

Children’s Author

  • Pegi Deitz Shea for “Tangled Threads”

Children’s Illustrator

  • Wendell Minor for “Into the Woods”

Design

  • Robin Price for “Language of Her Body”

2005 Winners

Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Literary Community

  • Vivian Shipley

Fiction

  • Peter Duval for “Rear View”

Memoir

  • Charles Slack for “Hetty:  The Genius and Madness of America’s First Female Tycoon”

Non-fiction

  • James Gustave Speth for “Red Sky at Morning:  America and the Crisis of the Global Environment”

Poetry

  • Sophie Cabot Black for “The Descent”

Children’s Author

  • Leslie Connor for “Miss Bridie Chose a Shovel”

Children’s Illustrator

  • Etienne Delessert for “Who Killed Cock Robin?”

Design

  • William Drenttel and Don Whelan for “Lasting Impressons:  The Grolier Club Library”

2006 Winners

Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Literary Community

  • Marilyn Nelson

Fiction

  • Alice Mattison for “In Case We’re Separated”

Memoir/Biography

  • Roya Hakakian for “Journey from the Land of No:  A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran”

Non-fiction

  • Robert Farris Thompson for “Tango:  The Art History of Love”

Poetry

  • Gabrielle Calvocoressi for “The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart”

Children’s Author

  • Philip Caputo for “10,000 Days of Thunder:  A History of the Vietnam War”

Children’s Illustrator

  • Nancy Elizabeth Wallace for “Alphabet House”

Design

  • George Kokkinidis with Alexander Isley Inc. for “The Works:  Anatomy of a City”

2007 Winners

Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Literary Community

  • Morton Schindel

Fiction

  • Katharine Weber for “Triangle”

Memoir/Biography

  • Denis R. Caron for “A Century in Captivity:  The Life and Trials of Prince Mortimer, a Connecticut Slave”

Non-fiction

  • David Brion Davis for “Inhuman Bondage:  The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World”

Poetry

  • None listed

Children’s Author

  • Lane Smith for “John, Paul, George & Ben”

Children’s Illustrator

  • Barbara McClintock for “Adele and Simon”

Design

  • Wendell Minor for “Rossiter:  Country Houses of Washington, Connecticut”

2008 Winners

Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Literary Community

  • Suzy Staubach

Fiction

  • Philip Roth for “Exit Ghost”

Memoir/Biography

  • Wally Lamb for “I’ll Fly Away”

Non-fiction

  • David W. Blight for “Slave No More”

Poetry

  • Margaret Gibson for “One Body”

Children’s Author

  • Elizabeth Alexander and Marilyn Nelson for “Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color”

Children’s Illustrator

  • Wendell Minor for “Sitting Bull Remembers”

Design

  • Howard Gralia for “Drawn to Enchant”

2009 Winners

Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Literary Community

  • Bessy Reyna

Fiction

  • Stewart O’Nan for “Songs for the Missing”

Memoir/Biography

  • Steve Courtney for “Joseph Hopkins Twichell:  The Life and Times of Mark Twain’s Closest Friend”

Non-fiction

  • Jonathan Stevenson for “Thinking Beyond the Unthinkable:  Harnessing Doom from the Cold War to the Age of Terror”

Poetry

  • Dick Allen for “Present Vanishing”

Children’s Author

  • Leslie Connor for “Waiting for Normal”

Children’s Illustrator

  • Bill Thompson for “Baseball Hour”

Design

  • Jessica Helfand for “Scrapbooks:  An American History”

2010 Winners

Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Literary Community

  • Lary Bloom

Fiction

  • Todd Johnson for “The Sweet By and By”

Memoir/Biography

  • Susan Campbell for “Dating Jesus:  A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl”

Non-fiction

  • John Wargo for “Green Intelligence:  Creating Environments That Protect Human Health”

Poetry

  • Rennie McQuilkin for “The Weathering”

Children’s Author

  • Pegi Deitz Shea for “Noah Webster:  Weaver of Words”

Children’s Illustrator

  • Matt Collins for “A Picture Book of Harry Houdini”

Design

  • Howard L. Gralla for “The Architecture of the Yale Center for British Art”

2011 Winners

Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Literary Community

  • Roxanne J. Coady
  • Kat Lyons

Fiction

  • Michael C. White for “Beautiful Assassin”

Memoir

  • Mark Oppenheimer for “Wisenheimer:  A Childhood Subject to Debate”
  • Andrew J. Hoffman for “Builder’s Apprentice:  A Memoir”

Non-fiction

  • Susan P. Shoelwer (and Connecticut Historical Society Staff) for “Connecticut Needlework:  Women, Art and Family, 1740-1840”

Poetry

  • Elizabeth Alexander for “Crave Radiance:  New and Selected Poems 1990-2010”

Children’s Author

  • Karen Romano Young for “Doodle Bug:  A Novel in Doodles”

Children’s Illustrator

  • Bill Thomson for “Chalk”
  • Andrea Wisnewski for “The Ink Garden of Brother Theophane”

Design

  • None listed

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