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Sean Carroll's Remarkable Creatures wins 2010 Wisconsin Library Association Award

WISCONSIN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, MADISON--The Literary Awards Committee of the Readers’ Section of the Wisconsin Library Association has chosen Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species by Sean Carroll of Madison as the winner of the 2010 Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award, given for the highest literary achievement by a Wisconsin author for a book published in 2009. Beginning with Darwin’s work, the book traces the development of evolutionary thought. Remarkable creatures abound as Carroll opens a window into the lives and work of top evolutionary explorers who paved the way towards evolutionary understanding.

Two authors were chosen for their body of work as Notable Wisconsin Authors. James Magnuson, who grew up in a series of small towns in Wisconsin, is the author of multiple fiction titles, including The Hounds of Winter, Windfall and Ghost Dancing. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Kenneth Stampp is the author of several scholarly titles including The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-bellum South and The Era of Reconstruction, 1856-1877.

2010 Outstanding Achievement awards for 2009 publications include the following ten titles by Wisconsin authors. They are:

• Lauren Groff (formerly of Madison): Delicate Edible Birds and Other Stories
• Jim Knipfel (formerly of Green Bay): Unplugging Philco
• Greg Kot (formerly of Milwaukee): Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music
• Valerie Laken (Milwaukee): Dream House: a Novel
• Daniyal Mueenuddin (formerly of Elroy): In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
• Michael Perry (Fall Creek): Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting
• Jay Reed (Milwaukee): Thor and More
• Kristine Rusch (formerly of Superior): Diving into the Wreck
• Kathleen Kline Schmitt (Madison), Ronald Bruch (Oshkosh) and Frederick Binkowski (Milwaukee): People of the Sturgeon: Wisconsin's Love Affair with an Ancient Fish
• Patrick Somerville (formerly of Green Bay): The Cradle: a Novel

2010 Outstanding Achievement in Poetry awards for 2009 titles include the following five titles:

• Bruce Dethlefsen (Westfield): Breather
• Jesse Lee Kercheval (Madison): Cinema Muto
• John Koethe (Milwaukee): Ninety-Fifth Street: Poems
• Margaret Rozga (Waukesha): 200 Nights and One Day
• Angela Sorby (Milwaukee): Bird Skin Coat

The Wisconsin Library Association Literary Award is made possible by a grant from the WLA Foundation. The 2010 Literary Awards Committee members include: Ellen Jepson (chair), Jean Anderson, Anne Callaghan, Pat Chevis, Caroline Haskin, Brian Kopetsky, Amy Lutzke, Andrew Scott, Deb Shapiro, and Cece Wiltzius.

Date Posted: 06/30/10