Governor's Writers Day Awards at the Washington State Library, 1966-2000
Beginning in 1966, the Governor's Office and the Washington State Library sponsored a ceremony to recognize Washington's authors. In the beginning, the recognition was for the entire output of the author and independent of their most recent publication. Beginning in 1969, the list of recognized authors came from the previous year's publications. The Staff of the Washington/Northwest Room - now known as Special Collections - coordinated the Governor's Writers Day Awards, but the ceremony event involved virtually every department of the state library.
The list below contains each recipient, grouped by year, from 1966 until the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library assumed the responsibility for administration of the awards in 2000, then renamed the honor as the Washington State Book Awards, in 2001. Many of the award winning titles are a part of the Pacific Northwest Collection and available for circulation. Other titles are maintained in the Governor's Writers Award Collection and are available for review at the library's reading room in Tumwater, WA. In 2017, the Washington Center for the Book became a joint partnership between the Washington State Library and the Seattle Public Library. You may view recipients of the Washington State Book Awards, from 2001 to present-day, or review submission guidelines and access the entry form for the current award season, via the Washington Center for the Book resource page.
Jump to an Awards Year:
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
List of Recipients, By Year Awarded:
1966*
- Vokes Richardson
- Dr. Miriam Lincoln #
- Murray Morgan
- Gordon Newell
- Alan Nourse
- Josephine Stearns Norling #
- Ernest Norling
- Blanche Payne
- Robert F. Karolevitz
- lrving Petite
- Allis McKay
- Zola Helen Ross
- Max Savelle #
- Floyd Schmoe
- James Stevens
- David Wagoner
- Sophus Keith Winther
- Lawrence J. Zillman #
- Eva Greenslit Anderson
- Angelo Pellegrini
- Kenneth MacKenzie Dodson
- Ralph Andrews
- Herbert E. Arntson #
- Mary W. Avery
- Archie Binns
- Patricia Campbell
- Ella E. Clark
- Marg Nelson #
- Giovanni Costigan
- Carolyn Kizer
- Byron M. Fish
- Claudius O. Johnson
- Nard Jones
- Molly Cone
- Pauline B. Johnson
- Sister Mary Gilbert (f.k.a. Madeline DeFrees)
- Richard F. Hugo
- William Holm
- Dr. William R. Halliday
- Muriel L. Guberlet
- Wilbur J. Granberg
1967*
- Richard Lancaster
- Margaret Pitcairn Strachan #
- Robert H. Ruby
- Nancy Wilson Ross
- W. Dale Nelson
- Lucile McDonald
- Zoa Morin Sherburne
- Bill Gulick
- Ernest K. Gann
- William O. Douglas
- Doris Burn
- Nelson Bentley
- John R. Brown
- Janice Warnke
- Ruth Kirk
1968*
- Knute Skinner
- Robert L. Wood
- Evelyn Wells
- Melvin Rader
- Margaret E. Murie
- Howard McCord
- Hazel Heckman
- Archie Binns
- Erna Gunther
- Neta Lohnes Frazier
- Raymond A. Wohlrabe
- Murray Morgan
1969
- Captive Wild. By Lois Crisler
- The Great Columbia Plain: A Historical Geography, 1805-1910. By Donald W. Meinig
- The Higher Learning in America: A Reassessment. By Paul Woodring
- The Summerfolk. By Doris Burn
- Tragedy and Melodrama: Versions of Experience. By Robert Bechtold Heilman
- Market Sketchbook. By Victor Steinbrueck. By Illustrator's Award
- University of Washington Press. Printer's Award
1970
- Alaska Bush Pilots in the Float Country. By Archie Satterfield and Lloyd Jarman
- Annie Annie. By Molly Cone
- Freddie Found a Frog. By Alice Napjus
- Good Luck in Cracked Italian. By Richard F. Hugo
- Living Poor, A Peace Corps Chronicle. By Moritz Thomsen
- MacArthur's Amphibious Navy: Seventh Amphibious Force Operations, 1943-1945. By Daniel E. Barbey
- New and Selected Poems. By David Wagoner
- Nisei: The Quiet Americans. By Bill Hosokawa
- Washington. By Carl Gohs
- The Year of the Whale. By Victor B. Scheffer
- Glen C. Adams, Ye Galleon Press. Printer's Award
- The Mountaineers. Special Award
1971
- After the Death of an Elder Klallam, and Other Poems. By Duane W. McGinnis
- Glory of the Seas. By Michael Jay Mjelde
- Mill Town. By Norman H. Clark
- Minus Three. By Gene W. Mason
- Moving Through Here. By Don McNeill
- The Spokane Indians: Children of the Sun. By Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown
- Where is My Wandering Boy Tonight? By David Wagoner
- Pacific Search. Special Magazine Award
- Northwest Art News & Views. By Special Magazine Award
- Cool Clear Water: The Key to Our Environment. By Harvey Manning, Bob Spring, and Ira Spring. Author/Illustrator Award
- Desert Life. By Ruth and Louis Kirk. Author/Illustrator Award
1972
- Another Roadside Attraction. By Tom Robbins
- The Ballyhoo Bonanza. By John Fahey
- The Challenge of Rainier. By Dee Molenaar
- Come Wade the River. By Ralph Wahl
- How Much is Enough? Shaping the Defense Program, 1961-1969. By Alain Enthoven
- Phone Calls From the Dead. By Beth Bentley
- Revenge of the Lawn. By Richard Brautigan
- The Seeing Eye. By Victor B. Scheffer
- Snake River Country. By Bill Gulick
- Eskimo Boy Today. By Byron Fish, Bob Spring, and Ira Spring. Author/Illustrator Award
- Margaret McKenny. Special Award
1973
- Backpacking: One Step at a Time. By Harvey Manning
- Birds of Prey on the Pacific Northwest Slope. By Tony Angell
- The Burning. By Jack Cady
- The Game of Words. By Willard Espy
- Indian life on the Northwest coast of North America, as seen by the early explorers and fur traders during the last decades of the eighteenth century. By Erna Gunther
- Island Year. By Hazel Heckman
- Literatura Chicana: Texto Y Contexto/Chicano Literature: Text and Context. By Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, Joseph Sommers, and Antonia Castaneda Shular
- New Queens for Old: A Novella and Nine Stories. By Gabriel Fielding
- The Northwest Coast Indian ABC Book. By Charles Peck and Sherrill Carlson
- The Politics of Irish Literature: From Thomas Davis to W.B. Yeats. By Malcolm Brown
- The Politics of the Ocean. By Edward Wenk
- Seattle. By Nard Jones
- Swan among the Indians: life of James G. Swan, 1818-1900; based upon Swan's hitherto unpublished diaries and journals. By Lucile McDonald
- Edward S. Curtis. Special Award
1974
- An Atlas of Primate Gross Anatomy: Baboon, Chimpanzee and Man. By Charles D. Wood and Daris Swindler
- The Backyard Astronomer. By Alan Nourse
- Band of Brothers. By Ernest Gann
- The Dance of Legislation. By Eric Redman
- Desert: The American Southwest. By Ruth Kirk
- Flood Tide of Empire: Spain and the Pacific Northwest, 1543-1819. By Warren Cook
- Ladies' Home Journal Family Medical Guide. By Alan Nourse
- The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir. By Richard F. Hugo
- Master Builders of the Animal World. By David Hancocks
- The Year of the Angler. By Steve Raymond
- Index of Art in the Pacific Northwest. Henry Art Gallery. Special Award
1975
- Cry Crisis! Rehearsal in Alaska. By Harvey Manning
- Fisheries of the North Pacific: History, Species, Gear & Processes. By Robert J. Browning
- Go East, Young Man: the Early Years: The Autobiography of William O. Douglas. By William O. Douglas
- The Mask of State: Watergate Portraits. By Mary T. McCarthy
- Medicine Creek. By William O. Turner
- Sleeping in the Woods. By David Wagoner
- To Die Is Not Enough: A True Account of Murder and Retribution. By Donald Delano Wright
- Copper Canyon Press. Special Award: Small Presses
- Signpost Press. Special Award: Small Presses
- Spring Rain Press. Special Award: Small Presses
1976
- After the Blizzard. By James J. McAuley
- An Almanac of Words at Play. By Willard Espy
- Hosea Globe and the Fantastical Peg-Legged Chu. By Graydon Beeks
- Masked Rituals of Afikpo, the Context of African Art. By Simon Ottenburg
- Return to Sender: Or, When the Fish in the Water Was Thirsty. By Raymond Mungo
- The Windows to His World: The Story of Trevor Kincaid. By Muriel Lewis Guberlet
- There's a Sound in the Sea: A Child's-Eye View of the Whale. By Tamar Griggs
- Utopias on Puget Sound. By Charles Pierce LeWarne
- Folly Press (Phil Garland, publisher). Special Award
1977
- A White Serpent Castle. By Lensey Namioka
- Children of Dune. By Frank Herbert
- Country of Resemblances. By Beth Bentley
- Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. By Tom Robbins
- Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue on Craftsmanship and Aesthetics. By Bill Holm
- Seattle, Past to Present. By Roger Sale
- Stained Glass: Music for the Eye. By Jill and Robert Hill
- The Squirrel Cage: The Best of Douglass Welch. By Victor B. Scheffer
- Lewis and Clark's America: Seattle Art Museum, July 15 - September 26, 1976. Contributors to the [two volume] catalogue, Willis F. Woods, Paul Macapia, Mary E. Macapia. Seattle Art Museum. Special Award
1978
- After Ninety. By Imogen Cunningham
- Bugle of the Elk. By Paul S. Bernsen
- Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska. By Dorothy Jean Ray
- Holy the Firm. By Annie Dillard
- Island Between. By Margaret Murie
- The Secret of Fire 5. By Jack Olsen
- To Frighten a Storm: Poems. By Gladys Cardiff
- WASP, Where is thy Sting? By Florence King
- Northwest Arts (Maxine Cushing Gray, publisher). Special Award
1979
- A Hostage to Fortune. By Ernest K. Gann
- Exploring Washington Archaeology. By Richard D. Daugherty and Ruth Kirk
- Fairy Tales and After: From Snow White to E. B. White. By Roger Sale
- Inside Moves. By Todd Walton
- Northwest Traditions: Seattle Art: Museum, June29 - December 10, 1978. By Martha Kingsbury
- Ravens, Crows, Magpies, and Jays. By Tony Angell
- The Farm on the River of Emeralds. By Moritz Thomsen
- The Practice. By Alan E. Nourse
- This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind. By Ivan Doig
- Under Stars: Poems. By Tess Gallagher
- The Northwest Kitchen: A Seasonal Cookbook (Sumi Illustrations). By George Tsutakawa. Special Award: Illustrator
1980
- A Life in Architecture. By Monoru Yamasaki
- Asleep in Another Country. By Melinda Mueller
- Ceramics in the Pacific Northwest: A History. By LaMar Harrington
- Homebase. By Shawn Wong
- Profanity Hill. By Irene Burns Miller
- Puget's Sound: A Narrative of Early Tacoma and the Southern Sound. By Murray Morgan
- Second Wind: The Memoirs of an Opinionated Man. By Bill Russell
- Summoned to Jerusalem: The Life of Henrietta Szold. By Joan Dash
- The Dulcimer Boy. By Tor Seidler
- The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing. By Richard F. Hugo
- Vision Quest. By Terry Davis
- Reverend Edward Kowrach, Editor for multiple frontier diaries and journals published by Ye Galleon Press, Fairfield, WA. Special Award
1981
- Adventures of a Zoologist. By Victor B. Scheffer
- Edward S. Curtis in the Land of the War Canoes. By Bill Holm and George Irving Quimby
- Hambone. By Caroline Fairless
- Hazel's Star. By Daphne Enslow
- Klondike Lost: A Decade of Photographs bv Kinsey & Kinsey. By Norm Bolotin
- Printing Poetry: A Workbook in Typographic Reification. By Clifford Burke
- So Narrow the Bridge and Deep the Water. By Lisa Thomas
- The Right Madness on Skye. By Richard F. Hugo
- The Stranger Beside Me. By Ann Rule
- They Tried To Cut It All. By Edwin Van Syckle
- Winter Brothers: A Season at the Edqe of America. By Ivan Doig
- Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen. By Sven H. Rossel and Patricia L. Conroy. Special Award: Translation
- Seattle: Photography. By David Barnes. Special Award: Photography
1982
- A Closed Book: Poems. By Richard Blessing
- Concrete Mama: Prison Profiles from Walla Walla. By John McCoy
- Fireweed and Other Poems. By William H. Matchett
- Frank Matsura, Frontier Photographer. By JoAnn Roe
- It's Just Too Much. By Jean Davies Okimoto
- Talking Medicine: America's Doctors Tell Their Stories. By Peter Rabinowitz
- The Clay Pedestal: A Re-examination of the Doctor-Patient. By Thomas Preston
- The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art and Architecture. By Gyorgy Doczi
- The Right to Hope: Crisis and Community. By Melvin Rader
- They Shoot Canoes, Don't They? By Patrick E. McManus
- Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writinq Process. By Peter Elbow
- The Chickencoop Chinaman; and, The year of the Dragon: Two Plays. By Frank Chin. Special Award
- Mary Barnard. Special Award: Poetry and Translation
1983
- A Bundle of Sticks. By Pat Rhoads Mauser
- Digressions of a Native Son. By Emmett Watson
- Flood: Poems. By William Matthews
- Gardening With Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Guide. By Arthur R. Kruckeberg
- Getting Free: A Handbook for Women in Abusive Relationships. By Ginny NiCarthy
- Imaginary Crimes. By Sheila Ballantyne
- Indians of the Pacific Northwest: A History. By Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown
- Mountain in the Clouds: A Search for the Wild Salmon. By Bruce Brown
- Mountains of North America. By Fred Beckey
- Nepali Aama: Portrait of the Nepalese Hill Woman. By Broughton Coburn
- Never Done: A History of American Housework. By Susan Strasser
- Oxherding Tale. By Charles Johnson
- Zola Helen Ross. Special Award
1984
- 50 Northwest Artists: A Critical Selection of Painters and Sculptors Working in the Pacific Northwest. By Bruce Guenther, Marsha Burns, and Ed Marquand
- Beyond the Far Side. By Gary Larsen
- Cathedral: Stories. By Raymond Carver
- Cities in the Round. By Norman J. Johnston
- How to Suppress Women's Writing. By Joanna Russ
- Ish River: Poems. By Robert Sund
- Let Me Hear Your Voice: Portraits of Aging Immigrant Jews. By Mimi Handlin, Marilyn Smith Layton, and Rochelle Casserd
- Seashore Life of the Northern Pacific Coast: an Illustrated Guide to Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. By Eugene N. Kozloff
- The Language of Oppression. By Haig A. Bosmajian
- The Throwing Madonna: Essays on the Brain. By William H. Calvin
- Voices: A Life of Frank O'Connor. By James Matthews
- Yo no Bi: The Beauty of Japanese Folk Art. By William J. Rathbun
- Bill Holm. Special Award
1985
- English Creek. By Ivan Doig
- Grandfather Twilight. By Barbara Berger
- Magic Bullets. By Grant Fjermedal
- Mermaids in the Basement: Poems for Women. By Carolyn Kizer
- People of the Ice Whale: Eskimos, White Men and the Whale. By David Boeri
- Salt Air. By Sharon Bryan
- Seabirds of Eastern North Pacific and Arctic Waters. By Delphine Haley
- Sketchbook: A Memoir of the 1930s and the Northwest School. By William Cumming
- The Audubon Society Handbook for Butterfly Watchers. By Robert Michael Pyle
- The Complete Shade Gardener. By George Schenk
- The Goldmark Case: An American Libel Trial. By William L. Dwyer
- The Trumpeter Swan: A White Perfection. By Skylar Hansen
- Willingly: Poems. By Tess Gallagher
- Richard Hugo. Special Award
1986
- Blackbirds of the Americas. By Gordon H. Orians and Tony Angell
- Edward S. Curtis: The Life and Times of a Shadow Catcher. By Barbara A. Davis
- Leaving the Land. By Douglas Unger
- Place Names of Washington. By Robert Hitchman
- Sea Change: Poems. By Christopher Howell
- Shadow of Lies. By Donald E. McQuinn
- Steamer's Wake. By Jim Faber
- The Dark Path of Our Names. By Joan Swift
- The Imagery of Art Wolfe. By Art Wolfe
- The Indians of Puget Sound: The Notebooks of Myron Eells. By George P. Castile
- The Trillion Dollar Budget: How to Stop the Bankrupting of America. By Glenn R. Pascall
- The Year of the Trout. By Steve Raymond
- Bob Spring, Ira Spring, Vicky Spring and Harvey Manning. Special Award
1987
- At the Forest's Edge: Memoir of a Physician-Naturalist. By David Tirrell Hellyer
- Bay and Ocean: Ark Restaurant Cusine. By Jimella Lucas and Nanci Main
- Blind Trust. By John Nance
- Chihuly: Color, Glass and Form. By Dale Chihuly
- Jacob Lawrence, American Painter. By Ellen Wheat
- Renegade Tribe: The Palouse Indians and the Invasion of the Inland Pacific Northwest. By Clifford E. Trafzer and Richard D. Scheuerman
- Soldiers in Hiding: A Novel. By Richard Wiley
- The Lover of Horses and Other Stories. By Tess Gallagher
- The Origins of War: From the Stone Age to Alexander the Great. By Arther L. Ferrill
- The Tomorrow Makers: A Brave New World of Living-brain Machines. By Grant Fjermedal
- Tramp: Sagas of High Adventure in the Vanishing World of the Old Tramp Freighters. By Michael J. Krieger
- Ultramarine: Poems. By Raymond Carver
- Wintergreen: Rambles in a Ravaged Land. By Robert Michael Pyle
- Ruth Kirk. Special Award
- Charles Krebs. Special Award #
1988
- A History of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest 1743-1983. By Wilfred P. Schoenberg
- Being & Race: Black Writing Since 1970. By Charles Johnson
- Bone Flames; Jesus and Fat Tuesday and Other Short Stories. By Colleen J. McElroy
- Dancing at the Rascal Fair. By Ivan Doig
- Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. By Caroline W. Bynum
- King Midas and the Golden Touch. By Kathryn Hewitt
- Spirit and Ancestor: A Century of Northwest Coast Indian Art at the Burke Museum. By Bill Holm
- The Goddess Letters: The Myth of Demeter and Persephone Retold. By Carol Orlock
- The River That Flows Uphill: A Journey From the Big Bang to the Big Brain. By Dr. William H. Calvin
- The Year in Bloom: Gardening for All Seasons in the Pacific Northwest. By Ann Lovejoy
- At the Field's End: Interviews with 20 Pacific Northwest Writers. Edited by Nicholas O'Connell. Special Award
1989
- All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things. By Robert Fulghum
- Bears of the World. By Terry Domico
- Honey from the Lion: An African Journey. By Wendy Laura Belcher
- Micromysteries: Stories of Scientific Detection. By Gail Kay Haines
- Stehekin: A Valley in Time. By Grant McConnell
- The Good Times Are Killing Me: A Novel. By Lynda Barry
- The Social Origins of Private Life: A History of American Families. By Stephanie Coontz
- The World of Patience Gromes: Making and Unmaking a Black Community. By Scott C. Davis
- Washington's Audacious State Capitol and Its Builders. By Norman J. Johnston
- Women and Their Quilts: A Washington State Centennial Tribute. By Nancyann Johanson Twelker
- Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories. By Raymond Carver. Special Award: Posthumous
1990
- Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West. By Morris Berman
- Dead Languages: A Novel. By David Shields
- Fireweed: An American Saga. By Nellie Buxton Picken
- Passport. By Galen Garwood and Sam Hamill
- Remembered Drums: A History of the Puget Sound Indian War. By Jerry Eckrom
- The American Eagle. By Pat Leeson and Tom Leeson
- The Broken Cord. By Michael Dorris
- The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind: Stories. By David Guterson
- The Magic Fan. By Keith Baker
- Washington's Centennial Farms: Yesterday and Today. By Mary Beth Lang
- When I Kept Silence. By Naomi Clark
- Ted Rand. Special Award: Excellence in Children's Book Illustration
1991**
- Floating in My Mother's Palm: A Novel. By Ursula Hegi
- George Tsutakawa. By Martha Kingsbury
- Gwinna. By Barbara Berger
- Late Frontier: A History of Okanogan County, Washington. By Bruce A. Wilson
- Peoples of Washington: Perspectives on Cultural Diversity. By S.E. Solberg and Sid White
- Picture Postcard. By Fredrick D. Huebner
- The End of the Holocaust: The Liberation of the Camps. By Jon Bridgman
- The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest. By Timothy Egan
- The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers. By Moritz Thomsen
- Washington: A Centennial Atlas. By James W. Scott
- Willo Davis Roberts. Special Award: Contributions to the field of children's literature
- LeRoy Soper, University Bookstore. Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award
1992
- A Separate Battle: Women and the Civil War. By Ina Chang
- A Time of Gathering: Native Heritage in Washington State. By Robin K. Wright
- Augury. By Phillip Garrison
- Hidden Coast: Kayak Explorations from Alaska to Mexico. By Joel Rogers
- Hood Canal: Splendor at Risk. By Christopher Dunagan and Jeff Brody
- Nch'l-Wana, "The Big River": Mid-Columbia Indians and Their Land. By James Selam and Eugene S. Hunn
- Out of the Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound. By John Keeble
- Solider of the Great War. By Mark Helprin
- Stalking the Ice Dragon: An Alaskan Journey. By Susan Zwinger
- The Wives' Tale. By Alix Wilber
1993
- At the Helm of Twilight. By Anita Endrezze
- Come Back Salmon: How a Group of Dedicated Kids Adopted Pigeon Creek and Brought It Back to Life. By Sidnee Wheelwright and Molly Cone
- Killing Color. By Charlotte Watson Sherman
- Moon Crossing Bridge: Poetry. By Tess Gallagher
- Seya's Song. By Ron Hirschi
- Snow Crash. By Neal Stephenson
- Spiritual Space: The Religious Architecture of Pietro Belluschi. By Meredith L. Clausen
- Talking to High Monks in the Snow: An Asian American Odyssey. By Lydia Y. Minatoya
- The Final Forest: The Battle for the Last Great Trees of the Pacific Northwest. By William A Dietrich
- Two Trains Running. By August Wilson
- Murray Morgan. Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award
- Vi Hilbert. Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award
1994
- Oh How Can I Keep on Singing? Voices of Pioneer Women: Poems. By Jana Harris
- Baseball Saved Us. By Ken Mochizuki
- Lifting the Veil: The Feminine Face of Science. By Linda Jean Shepherd
- Palestinians: The Making of a People. By Joel S. Migdal
- Reconciliation Road: A Family Odyssey of War and Honor. By John Douglas Marshall
- The Pugilist at Rest: Stories. By Thom Jones
- The Triumph of Tradition: The Emergence of Whitman College, 1859-1924. By G. Thomas Edwards
- Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle. By Eduardo Calderon and Paul De Barros
- Pacific Northwest the Beautiful Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from the Pacific Northwest. By E. Jane Armstrong, Kathy Casey and Lane Morgan
- First Indian on the Moon; The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven; Old Shirts and New Skins. By Sherman Alexie
- Rick Simonson, Elliot Bay Book Company. Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award
1995
- An Ocean Between Us: The Changing Relationship of Japan and the United States, Told in Four Stories From the Life of an American. By Evelyn Iritani
- April and the Dragon Lady. By Lensey Namioka
- Carl F. Gould: A Life in Architecture and the Arts. By William T. Booth
- George S. Long: Timber Statesman. By Charles Twining
- Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries. By Sharon McGrayne
- Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America. By Jack Nisbet
- Squish: A Wetland Walk. By Nancy Luenn
- Stones from the River. By Ursula Hegi
- Tankers Full of Trouble: The Perilous Journey of Alaska Crude. By Eric Nalder
- The Gifts of the Body. By Rebecca Brown
- The University of Washington Press (Seattle) in honor of the 75th anniversary of the press, with special recognition of the contribution of four staff members: Don Ellegood (Former Press Director), Audrey Meyer (Art Director), Naomi Pascal (Editor-in-Chief), and Pat Soden (Current Press Director). Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award
1996
- Ironman. By Chris Crutcher
- Maija. By Tiina Nunnally
- Noah's Choice: The Future of Endangered Species. By Mark L. Plummer
- Storm Boy. By Paul Owen Lewis
- Tesserae: Memories & Suppositions. By Denise Levertov
- The Greatest Sound on Earth, or Eine Kleine Alte Fahrt Mit Orchester. By Myron Richards
- The Land That Slept Late: The Olympic Mountains in Legend & History. By Robert L. Wood
- The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River. By Richard White
- Tusk and Stone. By Malcolm Bosse
- Spencer G. Shaw, Master Storyteller and Professor Emeritus of the School of Library Science, University of Washington. Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award
- An Evening at the Garden of Allah. By Roger Simpson and Don Paulson
- Bad Land: An American Romance. By Jonathan Raban
- Bucking the Sun: A Novel. By Ivan Doig
- Buddha. By Demi
- Harping On: Poems 1985-1995. By Carolyn Kizer
- Into the Wild. By Jon Krakauer
- No One Walks on My Father's Moon. By Chara M. Curtis and Rebecca Hyland
- Olympic National Park: A Natural History Guide. By Tim McNulty
- Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacres and the Indian Mutiny of 1857. By Andrew Ward
- This Place on Earth: Home and the Practice of Permanence. By Alan Thein Durning
- David Wagoner, Poet and Novelist. Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award
1998
- Dark Blue Suit and Other Stories. By Peter Bacho
- Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence. By George B. Dyson
- Echoes of the Elders: The Stories and Paintings of Chief Lelooska. By Chief Lelooska
- Love Like Gumbo. By Nancy Rawles
- Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. By Edward J. Larson
- The Fair and the Falls: Spokane's Expo '74: Transforming an American Environment. By J. William T. Youngs
- The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier. By Bruce Barcott
- The Profile Makers: Poems. By Linda Bierds
- The Ring of Truth: An Original Irish Tale. By Teresa Bateman
- Warren G. Magnuson and the Shaping of Twentieth-Century America. By Shelby Scates
- Glen Adams, Publisher, Ye Galleon Press, Fairfield. Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award
1999
- After a Spell: Poems. By Nance Van Winckel
- Building Washington: A History of Washington State Public Works. By Genevieve McCoy and Paul Dorpat
- Divided Destiny: A History of Japanese Americans in Seattle. By David A. Takami
- Escape of the Bird Women. By Linda Andrews
- Indians in the Making: Ethnic Relations and the Indian Identities Around Puget Sound. By Alexandra Harmon
- Kirtland Cutter: Architect in the Land of Promise. By Henry C. Matthews
- Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West. By Timothy Egan
- Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness. By Robin Hemley
- Remembering Ahanagran: Storytelling in a Family's Past. By Richard White
- The Flower in the Skull. By Kathleen Alcalá
- Tess Gallagher, Mentor and Author, Port Angeles. Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award
2000†
- Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage. By Robert Michael Pyle
- Origins of Architectural Pleasure. By Grant Hildebrand
- Salmon Without Rivers: A History of the Pacific Salmon Crisis. By Jim Lichatowich
- Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine. By Thom Jones
- Sunrise to Paradise: The Story of Mount Rainier National Park. By Ruth Kirk
- The Father of the Predicaments. By Heather McHugh
- The Tiger Iris. By Joan Swift
- Ties That Bind, Ties That Break. By Lensey Namioka
- Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems. By David Wagoner
- What She Left Me. By Judy Doenges
- Walter Carr, Founder and Former Owner of the Elliot Bay Book Company, Seattle. Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award
Notes: * Prior to 1969 the awards were given to authors without mentioning specific book titles. The 1969 awards were for books published in 1968, and that pattern remains constant: awards in one year for books published the previous calendar year. ** Beginning in 1991, a new award, the Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award, honored a person who has given his or her vision and time to add to the cultural enrichment of this state and the Pacific Northwest. The award was named after the librarian most responsible for the development of the Washington Author Collection and the Governor's Writers Awards. The final award was presented to Mary Randlette, Photographer, of Olympia as part of the 2001 Washington State Book Awards. † 2000 is the final year that the award was known as the Governor's Writers Award, and is the first year that it was admnistered by the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library. While not administered by the State Library, the awards for this year have been included for the sake of completeness.
# - no holdings at WSL; link redirects to author results at OCLC WorldCat