Colorado Book Awards

 By Charlotte Hinger

The Colorado Book Awards event was held Saturday, July 26. I was thrilled that Mary's Place was a finalist for the Historical Novel award. First place went to All Our Yesterdays, by Joel H. Morris. It's about Lady MacBeth and I'm eager to read it.

I was delighted to learn that an anthology, Ramas Y Raices, written by Type M's very own Mario Acevedo was also a finalist. It features the best of CALMA--the Colorado Alliance of Latina Mentors and Authors. There were twenty-four contributors. 

The Colorado Book Awards are very suspenseful for the finalist. All the finalists are revealed early, but the winner is not announced until that very special Saturday night. 

Winners from each category read a selection from their book and then gave thanks to people they wanted to acknowledge. The winner of the Creative Non-Fiction Award was Brandon Shimoda with The Afterlife is Letting Go. This book was also chosen as Booklist's one of the top ten history books of the year. No small feat! In fact, Shimoda has won quite a number of prestigious awards. 

Afterlife is about the Japanese American concentration camps during World War 11. All the reviews praise his research plus his ability to integrate his own family's history. 

Honestly, if he writes as well as he speaks this book must be outstanding. He literally broke my heart. Although Afterlife is based on the Japanese experience, he then referred to the terrors of the Israel Hamas War. Of course I was aware of the staggering toll on people, but he also pointed out the obliteration of libraries. 

Why had that not occurred to me? In a very short time, precious rare books have been destroyed and libraries reduced to rubble. Historical and family records no longer exist. 

I'm not sure I could breathe without access to a library.