MPBA Announces Regional Book Award Winners

The Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association (MPBA) has announced the winners of its annual Regional Book Awards, which are presented to outstanding books published in 2002 that are set in the Mountains and Plains region.

The Regional Book Award Winners are:

• Fiction: Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling (BlueHen/Putnam)
  
• Nonfiction: Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt (Knopf/Vintage)
  
• The Arts: Drawn to Yellowstone: Artists in America's First National Park by Peter Hassrick (University of Washington Press)
  
• Children's: Women Artists of the West: Five Portraits in Creativity and Courage by Julie Danneberg (Fulcrum Publishing)
  

The MPBA awards will be presented at a banquet at the Radisson Hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on March 15, 2003. The banquet is open to the public, and tickets are $30. All proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to literacy groups in the region. MPBA has donated nearly $60,000 to literacy since the inception of the awards. The deadline for ticket orders is March 10.

The "Spirit of the West" Literary Achievement Award will also be presented at the banquet. The award is given to an author "whose body of work captures the unique spirit of [the] region." This year's winner is Craig Childs, author of six books, including Soul of Nowhere and The Secret Knowledge of Water (Sasquatch Books), which was named one of 2002's top books by the Los Angeles Times.

For more information or to order tickets, visit the MPBA Web site at www.mountainsplains.org or call (800) 752-0249. Tickets may also be purchased in Santa Fe at Collected Works Bookstore [(505) 988-4226] and Garcia Street Books [(505) 986-0151].