Governor's Writers Day Awards at the Washington State Library, 1966-2000

Beginning in 1966, the Governor's Office and the Washington State Library sponsored a ceremony to recognize Washington's authors. In the beginning, the recognition was for the entire output of the author and independent of their most recent publication.  Beginning in 1969, the list of recognized authors came from the previous year's publications. The Staff of the Washington/Northwest Room - now known as Special Collections - coordinated the Governor's Writers Day Awards, but the ceremony event involved virtually every department of the state library.

The list below contains each recipient, grouped by year, from 1966 until the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library assumed the responsibility for administration of the awards in 2000, then renamed the honor as the Washington State Book Awards, in 2001. Many of the award winning titles are a part of the Pacific Northwest Collection and available for circulation.  Other titles are maintained in the Governor's Writers Award Collection and are available for review at the library's reading room in Tumwater, WA.  In 2017, the Washington Center for the Book became a joint partnership between the Washington State Library and the Seattle Public Library.  You may view recipients of the Washington State Book Awards, from 2001 to present-day, or review submission guidelines and access the entry form for the current award season, via the Washington Center for the Book resource page.

 

Jump to an Awards Year:

1966   1967   1968   1969

1970   1971   1972   1973   1974   1975   1976   1977   1978   1979

1980   1981   1982   1983   1984   1985   1986   1987   1988   1989

1990   1991   1992   1993   1994   1995   1996   1997   1998   1999

2000   [2001-Present]

List of Recipients, By Year Awarded:

1966*

 

1967*

 

1968*

 

1969

 

1970

 

1971

 

1972

 

1973

 

1974

 

1975

 

1976

 

1977

 

1978

 

1979

 

1980

 

1981

 

1982

 

1983

 

1984

 

1985

 

1986

 

1987

 

1988

 

1989

 

1990

 

1991**

 

1992

 

1993

 

1994

 

1995

 

1996

 

1997

 

1998

 

1999

 

2000†

 

 

Notes: * Prior to 1969 the awards were given to authors without mentioning specific book titles. The 1969 awards were for books published in 1968, and that pattern remains constant: awards in one year for books published the previous calendar year. ** Beginning in 1991, a new award, the Nancy Pryor Blankenship Award, honored a person who has given his or her vision and time to add to the cultural enrichment of this state and the Pacific Northwest. The award was named after the librarian most responsible for the development of the Washington Author Collection and the Governor's Writers Awards.  The final award was presented to Mary Randlette, Photographer, of Olympia as part of the 2001 Washington State Book Awards. † 2000 is the final year that the award was known as the Governor's Writers Award, and is the first year that it was admnistered by the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library.  While not administered by the State Library, the awards for this year have been included for the sake of completeness.

# - no holdings at WSL; link redirects to author results at OCLC WorldCat