2020 Celebration of Nebraska Books will be held online from Monday, October 19 to Friday, October 23, 2020
The celebration, free and open to the public online
The 2020 Nebraska Book Awards will honor authors and publishers of books with a Nebraska connection published in 2019.
The Jane Geske Award will be presented to honor an organization that exemplifies exceptional contributions to literacy, books, reading, libraries, or literature in Nebraska. The annual Jane Geske Award commemorates Geske’s passion for books, and was established in recognition of her contributions to the well-being of the libraries of Nebraska. Jane Pope Geske was a founding member of the Nebraska Center for the Book, former director of the Nebraska Library Commission, and a long-time leader in Nebraska library and literary activities.
The Mildred Bennett Award recognizes an individual who made significant contributions to the fostering of the literary tradition in Nebraska. This annual award reminds us all of the literary and intellectual traditions that enrich our lives and mold our world.
On Friday, October 23, the 2020 One Book One Nebraska book selection, All the Gallant Men: An American Sailor’s Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor by Donald Stratton with Ken Gire, will be featured, and an introduction of the 2021 One Book One Nebraska book choice will conclude the festivities.
A Nebraska biography, Midwest nonfiction, a book of essays —all stories with ties to Nebraska and the Great Plains—are the finalists for the 2021 One Book One Nebraska statewide reading program. The finalists are:
- The Nature of Home: A Lexicon and Essays by Lisa Knopp, Bison Books (2004)
- Black Print with a White Carnation: Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star Newspaper, 1938-1989 by Amy Helene Forss, University of Nebraska Press (2014)
- The Loren Eiseley Reader by Loren Eiseley, The Loren Eiseley Society (2009)
- Prairie Forge: The Extraordinary Story of the Nebraska Scrap Metal Drive of World War II by James J. Kimble, Bison Books (2014)
The 2020 Celebration of Nebraska Books is sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, and History Nebraska’s Nebraska History Museum—with hospitality furnished by Friends of University of Nebraska Press and Humanities Nebraska supporting the One Book One Nebraska presentation. For more information contact Tessa Terry, 402-471-3434 or 800-307-2665, or visit the Facebook pages of the Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, and One Book One Nebraska.