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University of Washington Press
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Press Release
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For Immediate Release
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Seattle, WA -- The Washington Center for the Book celebrated the 2009 Washington State Book Award winners on Wednesday, October 14 at 7 p.m. at the Seattle Public Library.
This is the 43rd year of the program, formerly called the Governor's Writers Awards and the awards are given based on the strength of the publication's literary merit, lasting importance and overall quality.
S'abadeb, The Gifts: Pacific Coast Salish Art and Artists, edited by Barbara Brotherton and copublished with Seattle Art Museum, was awarded the General Nonfiction Prize. S'abadeb captures the essence of Coast Salish culture
through its artistry, oral traditions, and history. Developed in
conjunction with the first extensive exhibition of the art and culture
of the Coast Salish peoples of Washington State and British Columbia,
the book traces the development of Salish art from prehistory to the
present. Sculpture in wood, stone, and bone -- including monumental
house posts -- as well as expertly crafted basketry, woven regalia, and
contemporary works in glass, print media, and painting showcase a
sweeping artistic tradition and its contemporary vibrant manifestations.
S'abadeb
is the Lushootseed term for "gifts" and invokes a principle at the
heart of Salish sculpture: reciprocity, both in the public and
spiritual domains. This richly symbolic word expresses the importance
of giving gifts at potlatches, of giving thanks during first food
ceremonies, of the creativity bestowed upon artists and other leaders,
and of the roles of the master artists, oral historians, and cultural
leaders in passing vital cultural information to the next generations.
The theme of S'abadeb and practices of reciprocal exchange in Salish
society are illuminated here through the intersection of art with
ceremony, oral traditions, the land, and contemporary realities.
Brotherton, a curator of Native American art at the Seattle art Museum,  edited the book and other contributors include Crisca Biewert, Steven C. Brown, Sharon Fortney,
Vi taqseblu Hilbert, Michael Kew, Carolyn J. Marr, Gerald Bruce subiyay
Miller, Jay Miller, Astrida Blukis Onat, C. Michael CHiXapkaid Pavel,
Qwalsius Shaun Peterson, Susan Point, Wayne Suttles, and Ellen White.
The Weather of the Pacific Northwest, by Cliff Mass, was a finalist in the same category. Mass unravels
the intricacies of Northwest weather, from the mundane to the
mystifying and
brings together eyewitness accounts, historical records, and
meteorological science to explain Pacific Northwest weather. He also
considers possible local effects of global warming and helps
guide readers in interpreting the Northwest sky and in securing weather
information on their own. This book was supported by the Samuel and Althea Stroum Book Series.
Carl Maxey: A Fighting Life, by Jim Kershner, was a finalist in the History/Biography category. Carl Maxey, raised in an orphanage in Spokane, managed to make a nat ional name for
himself, first as an NCAA championship boxer at Gonzaga University, and
then as eastern Washington's first prominent black lawyer and a
renowned civil rights attorney who always fought for the underdog. This book was supported by the V Ethel Willis White Book Fund.
The authors of the six award-winning books, as well as the illustrator of the picture book, will receive a $1,000 honorarium, thanks to the generous support of The Seattle Public Library Foundation and Eulalie and Carlo Scandiuzzi.
For more information on the Washington State Book Awards, please see the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library.
For more information on these University of Washington Press titles, please contact Rachael Levay at (857) 756.8443 or remann@u.washington.edu
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About University of Washington Press
The Press traces its origins to 1915, when Edmond Meany's Governors of Washington, Territorial and State was issued. The first book to bear the University of Washington Press imprint, an edition of The Poems of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
edited by Frederick M. Padelford, appeared in 1920. Since that time the
Press has published approximately 4,400 books, of which about 1,400 are
currently in print. Today we publish about seventy new titles each year.
From
the beginning the Press has reflected the University's major academic
strengths. Building on those strengths, combined with a vigorous
creativity in developing regional partners, the University of
Washington Press has achieved recognition as the leading publisher of
scholarly books and distinguished works of regional nonfiction in the
Pacific Northwest.
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University of Washington Press
Rachael Levay
Publicist
(857) 756.8443
remann@u.washington.edu
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