Two sisters won honors Saturday night, and the memoir of a St. Paul Hmong woman picked up two awards at the 21st Minnesota Book Awards gala event in St. Paul.

Louise Erdrich of Minneapolis won her fourth Minnesota Book Award, taking honors for her novel "The Plague of Doves" (HarperCollins), which was also a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize this year and won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award this month.

Erdrich previously won Minnesota Book Awards for "The Painted Drum," "The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse" and "Tales of Burning Love."

Her sister Heid Erdrich won her first Minnesota Book Award for her collection of poems, "National Monuments" (Michigan State University Press).

And Kao Kalia Yang of St. Paul won the award for memoir and creative nonfiction for her book, "The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir" (Coffee House Press). Her book also won the Readers' Choice Award, selected by more than 2,000 readers.

Other winners:

• Children's literature: Susan Marie Swanson of St. Paul, for "The House in the Night" (Houghton Mifflin), which also won this year's Caldecott Medal for illustration.

• General nonfiction: Catherine Friend, "The Compassionate Carnivore: Or, How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald's Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint and Still Eat Meat" (DaCapo Press).

• Genre fiction: Julie Kramer, for her murder mystery "Stalking Susan" (Doubleday).

• Young people's literature: Brian Malloy, "Twelve Long Months" (Scholastic).

• Minnesota: Barbara W. Sommer, "Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota" (Minnesota Historical Society Press).

The eight winners were selected from 319 books nominated, with 32 chosen as finalists.

Other awards that were announced previously were presented Saturday, including the Kay Sexton Award for lifetime achievement, which went to Patrick Coleman, acquisitions librarian at the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Book Artist Award, which went to book designer Paulette Myers-Rich. Her work is currently on display at St. Paul's Central Library.

lhertzel@startribune.com • 612-673-7302