The Midwest Booksellers Association has announced the winners of its Midwest Booksellers' Choice awards. Locally owned, independent bookstores in 10 states selected the following: Fiction, "A Gate at the Stairs," Lorrie Moore. Nonfiction, "The Girls from Ames," Jeffrey Zaslow. Poetry, "The Chain Letter of the Soul," Bill Holm. Picture book, "Otis," Loren Long. And children's literature, "Shiver," Maggie Stiefvater.
Honor books are: Fiction, "Driftless," David Rhodes. Nonfiction, "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day," Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François. Poetry, "Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude," edited by Jim Perlman and others. Picture book, "Moose on the Loose," Kathy-jo Wargin, illustrated by John Bendall-Brunello. And children's literature, "Odd and the Frost Giants," Neil Gaiman.
Also ...
•"Metaphysical Bailout," a chapbook by James Cihlar of St. Paul, has been published by Pudding House Press of Columbus, Ohio. Cihlar is the author of "Undoing." Some of the poems in his new book have appeared in Prairie Schooner and Blue Earth Review. The book is available at Common Good Books and Micawber's Bookstore in St. Paul. Cihlar will read with poets Heid Erdrich and William Reichard at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 at Birchbark Books, 2115 W. 21st St., Mpls.
•"Play Their Hearts Out: A Coach, His Star Recruit, and the Youth Basketball Machine," by George Dohrmann, will be published in October by Ballantine Books. Dohrmann, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated magazine, won a Pulitzer Prize while a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 2000. Dohrmann will sign books at 7 p.m. Oct. 20 at Barnes & Noble Galleria, 3225 W. 69th St., Edina.
•"Deadly Reunion," by Ron Handberg, has been published by North Star Press of St. Cloud. This is Handberg's fifth novel, a mystery set in a mythical Twin Cities television newsroom. Handberg is a retired broadcast journalist with WCCO radio and TV. His publication party will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 16 at Once Upon a Crime, 604 W. 26th St., Mpls.
•"Whispers of the Ancients: Native Tales for Teaching and Healing in Our Time," written by Tamarack Song of northern Wisconsin and illustrated by Ojibwe artist Moses Amik Beaver, has been published by the University of Michigan Press. The book is a collection of Indian tales and their meanings.
