Minn. Book Awards honor local writers, advocates

Kent Nerburn
Kent Nerburn of Bemidji received a Minnesota Book Award in the memoir and creative nonfiction category with "The Wolf at Twilight," which explores the legacy of Indian boarding schools.
MPR photo/Euan Kerr

A fixture of the Twin Cities literary scene was honored at the 2010 Minnesota Book Awards Saturday night. Carolyn Holbrook, a longtime advocate of arts in education, received the Kay Sexton Award for her contributions to Minnesota's literary community.

Holbrook founded the Whittier Writers' Workshop in 1981, was program director of the Loft Literary Center from 1989-1993, and founded SASE: The Write Place, in 1993. She now teaches at Hamline University.

Holbrook's work has focused on keeping the arts accessible to people of all walks of life.

Winners were also announced in eight main award categories.

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David Housewright won for fiction of a specific genre with his crime novel "Jelly's Gold."

Concordia College professor Joy Lintleman's portrait of Swedish immigrant life in rural Minnesota, "I go to America," took the award for general nonfiction.

National favorite Kate DiCamillo's "The Magician's Elephant" received the young people's literature prize, while Joyce Sidman picked up the award for children's literature with "Red Sings from Treetops."

Jude Nutter took home the Minnesota Book Award for her poetry collection, "I Wish I had a Heart Like Yours, Walt Whitman."

Cary J. Griffiths' book on caving, "Opening Goliath," won in the Minnesota specific category.

Kent Nerburn took the memoir and creative nonfiction category with "The Wolf at Twilight," and Marlon James won the novel and short story category with "The Book of the Night Women."