The California Book Awards are annual literary awards given to California Writers and Publishers since 1931. The event is sponsored by Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California. [1] The California Book Awards are funded by an endowment from Dr. Martha Heasley Cox, [2] late professor of American Literature at San Jose State University. Medals (gold and silver) and cash prizes are currently awarded in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, First Work of Fiction, Californiana (nonfiction relating to California), Juvenile Literature (up to age 10), Young Adult Literature (age 11–16), and Notable Contribution to Publishing. [3] More than 400 books are submitted per year. [4] The winning books are selected by an independent jury. [5]
The California Book Awards were created in 1931 by then Commonwealth Club president James A. Johnston, with the goal to foster literature on the West Coast, specifically in California. [6] It began with two gold medals—one for a work of fiction and one for nonfiction. Through the years, several more categories have been added, bringing the total number of awards given each year to 11 throughout the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Juvenile Literature, Young Adult Literature, First Work of Fiction, Californiana, and Notable Contribution to Publishing. The awards have recognized more than 450 California authors. [7]
| Year | Title | Author | Genre | Award |
| 1931 | Outpost of Empire | Herbert E. Bolton | Scholarship-History | Gold |
| Crowded Year: The Reminiscences of William G. McAdoo | William McAdoo | Nonfiction-Memoir | Gold | |
| The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens | Lincoln Steffens | Nonfiction-Memoir | Silver | |
| 1932 | Barabbas | Sara Bard Field | General Literature | Silver |
| The Adventures of a Novelist | Gertrude Anderson | Nonfiction-Memoir | Gold | |
| Nur Mahal | Harold Lamb | General Literature | Silver | |
| 1933 | The Pursuit of Death: A Study of Shelley’s Poetry | B.P. Kurtz | Scholarship-Study | Silver |
| San Francisco A Pageant | Charles Dobie | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Deep Water: The Autobiography of a Sea Captain | Ernest Pryce Mitchell | Nonfiction-Memoir | Silver | |
| 1934 | Lord’s Anointed | Ruth Mckee | General Literature | Silver |
| The Saga of the Comstock Lode | Dr. George Lyman | Scholarship | Gold | |
| A Child Went Forth: the Autobiography of Dr. Helen Doyle | Dr. Helen Doyle | Nonfiction-Memoir | Gold | |
| The Revolutionary Emperor: Joseph II of Austria | Saul Padover | Scholarship-History | Silver | |
| 1935 | Tortilla Flat | John Steinbeck | General Scholarship | Silver |
| Literature and Society | Albert Guerard | Scholarship | Gold | |
| San Francisco Tales | Charles Dobie | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Laughter Out of the Ground | Robin Lampson | General Literature | Silver | |
| All Giants Wear Yellow Breeches: A Chronicle of Boyhood | Vernon Patterson | Nonfiction-Memoir | Silver | |
| 1936 | In Dubious Battle | John Steinbeck | General Literature | Silver |
| Rim of Christendom: A Biography of Eusebio Francisco Kino, Pacific Coast Pioneer | Herbert E. Bolton | Scholarship | Gold | |
| God and Man’s Destiny: Inquiries into the metaphysical foundations of faith | Hartley Alexander | Scholarship | Gold | |
| Snow Covered Wagons: A Pioneer Epic: The Donner Party 1846-1847 | Julia Altrocchi | Scholarship | Silver | |
| Ordeal by Hunger: The SStory of the Donner Party | George Stewart | Scholarship | Silver | |
| 1937 | Pity the Tyrant | Hans Storm | General Literature | Silver |
| Men of Mathematics | Dr. E.T. Bell | Scholarship | Gold | |
| People on the Earth | Edwin Corle | Scholarship | Silver | |
| The Early Stuarts:1603 to 1660 | Godfrey Davies | Scholarship | Silver | |
| The Education of Hyman Kaplan | Leo Rosten | General Literature | Silver | |
| 1938 | East of the Giants | George Stewart | General Literature | Silver |
| France Overseas: a Study of Modern Imperialism | Herbert Priestley | Scholarship | Gold | |
| Enchanted Vagabonds | Dana Lamb | Nonfiction-Memoir | Gold | |
| The Big Four | Oscar Lewis | Scholarship | Silver | |
| Gone are the Days | Alexander Powell | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| 1939 | The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | General Literature | Silver |
| San Francisco’s Literary Frontier | Franklin Walker | Scholarship | Gold | |
| Land Below the Wind | Agnes Keith | Nonfiction-Memoir | Gold | |
| Flowering Earth | Donald Peattie | Scholarship | Silver | |
| Bright Heritage | Mary Provines | General Literature | Silver | |
| The Time of Your Life (play) | William Saroyan | General Literature | Silver | |
| Death Loses a Pair of Wings: the Epic of William Gorgas and the Conquest of Yellow Fever | Robin Lampson | General Literature | Silver | |
| 1940 | Wild Geese Calling | Stewart E. White | General Literature | Silver |
| The Structure of Art | Carl Thurston | Scholarship | Gold | |
| A Diplomatic History of the American People | Thomas Bailey | Scholarship | Gold | |
| The March of the Barbarians | Harold Lamb | Scholarship | Silver | |
| My Name is Aram | Willian Saroyan | Nonfiction-Memoir | Silver | |
| Blue Willow | Doris Gates | Juvenile | Silver | |
| In What Hour | Kenneth Rexroth | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1941 | Anybody’s Gold: The Story of California Mining Towns | Joseph Henry Jackson | General Literature | Silver |
| Many Mexicos | Lesley B. Simpson | Scholarshiup | Gold | |
| Lord of Alaska: Baranov and the Russian Adventure | Hector Chevigny | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Thackeray | John Dobbs | Nonfiction-Biography | Silver | |
| The Morning of America | Frank Klingberg | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| When the Living Strive | Richard LaPiere | Fiction | Silver | |
| 1942 | I Remember Christine | Oscar Lewis | General Literature | Silver |
| HIstory of Historical Writing | James Westfall Thompson | Scholarship | Gold | |
| Proud Riders | H.L. Davis | Poetry | Gold | |
| The Stranger in Big Sur | Lillian Bos Ross | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Man Who Killed the Deer | Frank Waters | Fiction | Silver | |
| Long Adventure | Hildegard Hawthorne | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1943 | Trio | Dorothy Baker | General Literature | Silver |
| Legacy of Nazism | Frank Munk | Scholarship | Gold | |
| Brothers Under the Skin | Carey McWilliams | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Day of Reckoning | Max Radin | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Wide is the Gate | Upton Sinclair | Fiction | Silver | |
| Spurs for Antonia | Katherine Eyre | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1944 | One Day at Beetle Rock | Sally Carrighar | General Literature | Silver |
| Woodrow Wilson and the Lost Peace | Thomas Bailey | Scholarship | Gold | |
| Caesar and Christ: A History of Roman Civilization and of Christianity from Their Beginnings to A.D. 325 | Will Durant | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Captain Retread | Donald Hough | Fiction | Silver | |
| Forward Observer | Edwin Westrate | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Mystery at Thunderbolt House | Howard Pease | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The Phoenix and the Tortoise | Kenneth Rexroth | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1945 | A Lion in the Streets | Adria Locke | General Literature | Silver |
| The Epic of Latin America | John A. Crow | Scholarship | Gold | |
| The Brontes: Charlotte and Emily | Laura Hinkley | Scholarship | Gold | |
| Minor Heresies, Major Departures: A China Mission Boyhood | John Espey | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| High Bonnet | Idwal Jones | Fiction | Silver | |
| South America Called Them: Explorations of the Great Naturalists | Victor Von Hagen | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Singing Cave | Margaret Leighton | Juvenile | Singing | |
| 1946 | Western World: A Study of the Forces Shaping our Time | Royce Brier | General Literature | Silver |
| The Big Tree | Mary and Conrad Buff | Fiction | Gold | |
| The Christian Heritage in America | George Hedley | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement | George Mowry | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Towards Oregon | E.H. Staffelbach | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The Faultless Shore | Edward Weismiller | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1947 | The Trial of Soren Qvisr | Janet Lewis | General Literature | Silver |
| The Atlantic Frontier: Colonial American Civilization, 1607-1763 | Louis Wright | Scholarship | Gold | |
| Blood Brother | Elliot Arnold | Fiction | Gold | |
| The Great Forest | Richard Lillard | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| A Yanqui in Patagonia | Bailey Willis | NonFiction | Silver | |
| Sancho of the Long, Long Horns | Allan Bosworth | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Journey to Victory | Hazel Louise Zimmerman | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1948 | Woman with a Sword: A Novel based on the Life of Ana Elle Carroll | Hollister Noble | General Literature | Silver |
| The Age of the Great Depression: 1929-1941 | Dixon Wecter | Scholarship | Gold | |
| Sky and Forest | C.S. Forestor | Fiction | Gold | |
| The Big Divide | David Lavender | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Legend of Henry Ford | Keith Sward | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Nine Brides and Granny Hite | Neill C. Wilson | Fiction | Silver | |
| Seabird | Holling C. Holling | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1949 | The Revolt in San Marcos | Robert C. North | Fiction | Silver |
| The Universe of GBS | William Irvine | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Journey of Simon Mckeever | Albert Maltz | Fiction | Gold | |
| To Hell and Back | Audie Murphy | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Epicurus, My Master | Max Radin | Fiction | Silver | |
| At the Palace Gates | Helen Parrish | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The Beast in His Hunger | Harry Brown | Poetry | SIlver | |
| 1950 | About Mrs. Leslie | Vina Delmar | Fiction | Silver |
| Sea Road to the Indies: An Account of the Voyages and Exploits of the Portuguese Navigators, Together with the Life and Times of Dom Vasco da Gama, Capitao-Mor, Viceroy of India and Count of Vidigueira Indies | Nonfiction | Gold | ||
| Bridal Journey | Dale Van Every | Fiction | Gold | |
| Educating our Daughters: A Challenge to the Colleges | Lynn White | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Fifth Chinese Daughters | Jade Snow Wong | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Tomas and the Red Headed Angel | Marion Garthwaite | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Dominant Seventh | Phillips Kloss | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1951 | Tracy’s Tiger | William Saroyan | Fiction | Silver |
| The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements | Eric Hoffer | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Sandra and the Right PRince | Mildred Napier Anderson | Fiction | Gold | |
| Ark of Empire: San Francisco’s Montgomery Block | Idwal Jones | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Negro and the Communist Party | Wilson Record | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| No Vacancy | Mary Jane Rolfs | Fiction | Silver | |
| Old Cronies | Leon Richardson | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1952 | Winds of Mourning | H.L. Davis | Fiction | Silver |
| Boss Ruef’s San Francisco: The Story of the Union Labor Party, Big Business, and the Graft Prosecution | Walton Bean | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Cottrell: Samaritan of Science | Frank Cameron | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Time’s Traveler | Stanton Coblentz | Fiction | Silver | |
| Please Excuse Johnny | Florence Mcghee | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Wapiti the Elp | Neill C. Wilson | Fiction | Silver | |
| 1953 | Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury | Fiction | Silver |
| It’s Good to be Black | Ruby Goodwin | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The High and the Mighty | Ernest Gann | Fiction | Gold | |
| Yankee Ships: An Informal History of the American Merchant Marine | Reese Wolfe | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Roaring River | Bill Brown | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1954 | Beyond the Hungry Country | Louise Stinetorf | Fiction | Silver |
| Howells and the Age of Realism | Everett Carter | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Nightmare | C.S. Forester | Fiction | Gold | |
| Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Poiwell and the Second Opening of the West | Wallace Stegner | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Glory, God, and Gold | Paul Wellman | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Epics of Everest | Leonard Wibberley | Fiction | Silver | |
| 1955 | The Good Shepherd | C.S. Forester | Fiction | Silver |
| Notre-Dame of Paris | Alan Temko | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Cities in Revolt: Urban Life in America 1773-1776 | Carl Bridenbaugh | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Streets of San Francisco | Samuel Dickson | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Genius and the Goddess | Aldous Huxley | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Big Oak Flat Road | Irene D. Paden | Californiana | Silver | |
| Westward the Eagle | Frederick Lane | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Symphony | Delina Margot-Pride | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1956 | The Long Watch | Elizabeth Linington | Fiction | Silver |
| The Nun's Story | Kathryn Hulme | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Tales of a Teacher | Beatrice S. Nathan | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| James Wilson, Founding Father: 1742-1798 | Charles Page Smith | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Spook the Mustang | Harlan Thompson | Fiction | Silver | |
| Men of the Western Waters: A second Look at the First Americans | Dale Van Every | Californiana | Silver | |
| 1957 | The Flower Drum Song | C.Y. Lee | Fiction | Silver |
| Elizabethans at Home | Lu Emily Pearson | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Wilderness Brigade | Phyllis Demarest | Fiction | Gold | |
| Knock and Wait a While | William Weeks | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Braintree Mission: A Fictional Narrative of London and Boston | Nicholas Wyckoff | Fiction | Silver | |
| San Francisco Bay | Harold Gilliam | Californiana | Silver | |
| David and the Phoenix | Edward Ormondroyd | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1958 | The Sergeant | Dennis R. Murphys | Fiction | Silver |
| Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Stael | J. Christopher Herold | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Warlock | Oakley Hall | Fiction | Gold | |
| Land of Giants: Drive to the Pacific Northwest, 1750-1950 | David Lavender | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Era of Theodore Roosevelt: 1900-1912 | George Mowry | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Montgomery and the Portsmouth | Fred B. Rogers | Californiana | Silver | |
| First Scientist of Alaska: William Healey Dall | Edward A. Herron | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Magellan | Ann Stanford | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1959 | The Thirteenth Apostle | Eugene Vale | Fiction | Silver |
| Alexander Hamilton: A Portrait in Paradox | John C. Miller | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Flight from Ashiya | Elliot Arnold | Fiction | Gold | |
| Thaddeus Stevens: Scourge of the South | Fawn Brodie | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| End of American Innocence | Henry F. May | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Earth Shook, The Sky Burned : A Photographic Record of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire | William Bronson | Californiana | Silver | |
| This is the Desert: The Story of America's Arid Religion | Phillip Ault | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1960 | The War For The Union War Becomes Revolution 1862-1863 | Allan Nevins | Nonfiction | Silver |
| Chancellor Robert R. Livingston of New York: 1746-1813 | George Dangerfield | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Infidels | Chloe Gartner | Fiction | Silver | |
| A Shooting Star | Wallace Stegner | Fiction | Silver | |
| Hawaii the Aloha State | Helen Bauer | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1961 | The Agony and the Ecstasy | Irving Stone | Fiction | Silver |
| Sinclair Lewis: An American Life | Mark Schorer | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Mila 18 | Leon Uris | Fiction | Gold | |
| Forth to the Wilderness | Dale Van Every | NonFiction | Silver | |
| Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America | Theodora Kroeber | Californiana | Silver | |
| The Gray Sea Raiders | Gordon Shirreffs | Juvenile | Silver | |
| A Ring of Willows | Eric Barker | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1962 | The Everlasting Fire | Jon Reed Lauritzen | Fiction | Silver |
| John Adams | Page Smith | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Franz Kafka: Parable and Paradox | Heinz Politzer | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Heart of the Wild: Animal Stories of the California Redwood Coast | Chet Schwarzkopf | Fiction | Silver | |
| Adolph Autro: A Biography | Robert & Mary Stewart | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Journey into Darkness: Cabeza de Vaca's Expedition Across North America, 1528-36 | John Upton Terrel | Californiana | Silver | |
| First Woman Ambulance Surgeon: Emily Barringer | Iris Noble | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1963 | The House That Tai Ming Built | Virginia Lee | Fiction | Silver |
| The Hemlock and the Cross: Humanism, Socrates, and Christ | Geddes MacGregor | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| A History of Russia | Nicholas Riasanovsky | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| James Gibbons Huneker: Critic of the Seven Arts | Arnold Schwab | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Ah, Julian! A Memoir of Julian Brodetsky | Leonard Wibberley | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| South From San Francisco - San Mateo County, CA | Frank Stanger | Californiana | Silver | |
| The Keys and the Candle | Maryhale Woolsey | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1964 | Armageddon | Leon Uris | Fiction | Silver |
| Andreas Vesalius of Brussels | C.D. O'Malley | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Gathering of Zion | Wallace Stegner | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Man | Irving Wallace | Fiction | Silver | |
| Sarah and the Senator | Robert Kroninger | Californiana | Silver | |
| A Spell is Cast | Eleanor Cameron | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Girl with Ocelot | Julia Altrocchi | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1965 | Final Challenge: The American Frontier 1804-1845 | Dale Van Every | Nonfiction | SIlver |
| The Search for Meriwether Lewis: From Tillamook to Grinder's Stand | Richard Dillon | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Blue Hen's Chick: A Life in Context | A.B. Guthrie | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Oil, Land, and Politics: The California Career of Thomas Robert Bard | W.H. Hutchinson | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Year of the Death | Reuben Merliss | Fiction | Silver | |
| Cellist | Gregor Piatigorsky | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Campion Towers | John Beatty | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The Selected Poems | Louis Simpson | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1966 | All the Little Heroes | Herbert Wilner | Fiction | Silver |
| The Cave and the Mountain: A Study of EM Forster | Winfred Stone | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Stone Mason of Tor House: The Life and Works of Robinson Jeffers | Melba Bennett | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Crow Flies Crooked | Jack Kisling | Fiction | Silver | |
| Leonard Pitt Decline of the Californios A Social History of the Spanish-Speaking Californians, 1846-1890 | Leonard Pitt | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Ordeal of the Constitution | Robert Rutland | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Chancy and the Grand Rascal | Sid Flesischmen | Californiana | Silver | |
| 1967 | All the Little Live Things | Wallace Stegner | Fiction | Silver |
| Robert Lee. A Complete Man: A Portrait | Margaret Sanborn | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| A Night of Watching | Elliott Arnold | Fiction | Gold | |
| Fathers | Herbert Gold | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Young Stalin: The Early Years of an Elusive Revolutionary | Edward Ellis Smith | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Fool's Gold: The Decline and Fall of Captain John Sutter of California | Richard Dillon | Californiana | Silver | |
| Silent Ship, Silent Sea | Robb White | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The Rose of Solitude | Brother Antoninus | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1968 | Airport | Arthur Hailey | Fiction | Silver |
| Heroic Mexico: The Violent Emergence of a Modern Nation | William Weber Johnson | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Sane Positivist: Biography of Edward Thorndike | Geraldine Joncich | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Immigrant Upraised | Andrew Rolle | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Everyman's Eden | Ralph Roske | Californiana | Silver | |
| Quest for Freedom | Paul Rink | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1969 | German: Illusions and Dilemmas | Carl Landauer | Nonfiction | Silver |
| With Bold Knife and Fork | MFK Fisher | Contribution Publishing | Gold | |
| Business at Bay: Critics and Heretics of American Business | Irving Michelman | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Great Betrayal | Audrie Girdner | Californiana | Silver | |
| The Green and Burning Tree | Eleanor Cameron | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The Cay | Theodore Taylor | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Short History of the Fur Trade | Andrian Stoutenburg | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1970 | Interpretations of Life | Will Durant | Nonfiction | Silver |
| Asian Ideas of the East and West | Stephen N. Hay | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Rise of Modern China | Immanuel Hsu | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Crimson Ramblers of the World, Farewell | Jessamyn West | Fiction | Silver | |
| The El Dorado Trail | Ferol Egan | Californiana | Silver | |
| Jonah and the Great Fish | Clyde Bulla | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Testament for My Students | Kay Boyle | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1971 | Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman | Ernest Gaines | Nonfiction | Silver |
| The Exorcist | William Peter Blatty | Fiction | Gold | |
| Textile Art in the Church | Marion Ireland | Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| Monarchy in the Emporer's Eyes | Harold L. Kahn | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Indispensable Enemy | Alexander Saxaton | Californiana | Silver | |
| Annie and the Old One | Miska Miles | Juvenile | Silver | |
| More Under Saturn | William Dickey | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1972 | Mao's Way | Edward E. Rice | Nonfiction | Silver |
| Contour in Time | Travis Bogard | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Sand in a Whirlwind | Ferol Egan | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Pound Era | Hugh Kenner | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Monterey: The Presence of the Past | Augusta Fink | Californiana | Silver | |
| Samurai of Gold Hill | Yoshiko Uchida | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1973 | The Cowboy and the Crossack | Clair Huffaker | Fiction | Silver |
| Americans and the California Dream | Kevin Starr | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Steinbeck Country | Steve Crouch | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Gideon Welles | John Niven | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Yours and Mine | Judith Rascoe | Fiction | Silver | |
| A Sense of Place | Celeste T. Wright | Poetry | Silver | |
| Chile, Peru & the California Gold Rush of 1849 | Jay Monaghan | Californiana | Silver | |
| Living Together | Edgar Bowers | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1974 | Love Out of Season | Ella Leffland | Fiction | Silver |
| Ascent of Man | Jacob Bronowski | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| An Everyday History of Somewhere | Ray Raphael | Californiana | Gold | |
| The Connoisseur | Evan Connell Jr. | Fiction | Silver | |
| A Time for Titans | Vina Delmar | Fiction | Silver | |
| Against the Law | Leonard Levy | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Paper Party | Don Freemand | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1975 | The Great Train Robbery | Michael Crichton | Fiction | Silver |
| Rape of the Nile | Brian Fagan | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Nothing Seemed Impossible | David Lavender | Californiana | Gold | |
| Coyotes: Last Animals On Earth | Harold E. Thomas | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Returning Your Call | Leonard Nathan | Poetry | Silver | |
| Age of Napoleon | Will and Ariel Durant | NonFiction | Silver | |
| The Opium War | Peter Ward Fay | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Romantic Revolutionary | Robert Rosenstone | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| 1976 | The Spectator Bird | Wallace Stegner | Fiction | Silver |
| A New Age Now Begins | Page Smith | Fiction | Silver | |
| Jack Straw's Castle | Thom Gunn | Poetry | Gold | |
| Adult Bookstore | Karl Shapiro | Poetry | Silver | |
| Small Moments | Nancy H. Packer | Fiction | Silver | |
| Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914 | Eugen Weber | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| 1977 | Fremont: Explorer for a Restless Nation | Ferol Egan | Nonfiction | Silver |
| The Wanderers | Ingrid Rimland | First Novel | Gold | |
| Shepherd Watches. Shepherd Sings | Louis Irigaray | Juvenile | Silver | |
| In Mediterranean Air | Ann Stanford | Poetry | Silver | |
| Botanical Prints | Henry Evans | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Haywire | Brooke Hayward | Fiction | Silver | |
| 1978 | Germany 1866-1945 | Gordon Craig | Nonfiction | Silver |
| Max Perkins: Editor of Genius | A. Scott Berg | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Dark Range | David R. Wallace | Californiana | Silver | |
| A Woman of Independent Means | Elizabeth F. Halley | First Novel | Silver | |
| North of Danger | Dale Fife | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Songs for Wanderers | Sheila Moon | Poetry | Silver | |
| St. Nicholas of Myra, Bari, Manhattan | Charles W. Jones | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| 1979 | Been in the Storm so Long | Leon Litwack | Nonfiction | Silver |
| Years of the French | Thomas Flanagan | First Novel | Gold | |
| Fool and the Dancing Bear | Pamela Stearns | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Dear Blood | Leonard Nathan | Poetry | SIlver | |
| The Morning Star | Kenneth Rexroth | Poetry | Silver | |
| Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution | Gary B. Nash | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Symbols of Eternity: Art of Landscape Painting in China | Michael Sullivan | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Sea Glass | Laurence Yepp | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| 1980 | Impossible Appetites: Nine Stories | James Fetler | Fiction | Silver |
| Translating Neruda: Way to Macchu Picchu | John Felstiner | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Fight of the Sparrow | Julia Cunningham | Juvenile | Gold | |
| The Half-A-Moon Inn | Paul Fleischman | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Imperiled Union: Essays on the Civil War | Kenneth Stampp | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775-1783 | Charles Royster | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| 1981 | Family: Novel in Form of a Memoir | Herbert Gold | Fiction | Silver |
| Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez | Richard Rodriguez | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| World Rushed in: The California Gold Rush | J.S. Holliday | Californiana | Gold | |
| A Jar of Dreams | Yoshiko Uchida | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Poems Old and New, 1918-1978 | Janet Lewis | Poetry | Silver | |
| Pursuit of a Dream | Janet S. Hermann | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Will's Boy | Wright Morris | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| 1982 | Infinite Passion of Expectation: 25 Stories | Gina Berriault | Fiction | Silver |
| Glorious Cause: American Revolution | Robert Middlekauff | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Winemaking in California | Ruth Teiser | Californiana | Gold | |
| Story for a Black Night | Clayton Bess | First Novel | Silver | |
| Spacks Street: New and Selected Poems | Barry Spacks | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1983 | Gathering of Old Men | Ernest Gaines | Fiction | Silver |
| French Gothic Architecture 12th-13th Century | Jean Bony | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The First Elizabeth | Carolly Erickson | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Klamath Knot | David R. Wallace | Californiana | Silver | |
| Dear Mr. Henshaw | Beverly Cleary | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Cry of Kalahari | Delia Owens | Juvenile | Silver | |
| A Dime to Dance By | Walter Walker | First Novel | Silver | |
| Collected Poems, 1930-83 | Josephine Miles | Poetry | Silver | |
| Mountains of the Middle Kingdom: Exploring the High Peaks of China and Tibet | Galen Rowell | Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| 1984 | Stones for Ibarra | Harriet Doerr | Fiction | Silver |
| The University of California Southeby Book of California | Doris Muscatine | Californiana | Gold | |
| Monkey Puzzle and Other Poems | Myra C. Livingston | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Tapping the Source | Kem Nunn | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Over All the Obscene Boundaries | Lawrence Ferlinghetti | Poetry | Silver | |
| Above Paris | Robert Cameron | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Hill Towns of Italy | Carole Field | Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| Celebrating Italy | Carole Field | Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| 1985 | Face | Cecile Pineda | Fiction | Silver |
| A History of Architecture Settings | Spiro Kostof | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Art in San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-1980 | Thomas Albright | Californiana | Gold | |
| Greasy Lake & Other Stories | T. Coraghessan Boyle | Fiction | Silver | |
| Reasons to Live | Amy Hemple | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Willow Maiden | Meghan Collins | Juvenile | Silver | |
| John O'shea, 1876-1956 | Walter Nelson-Rees | Notable | Silver | |
| Early Light | W.S. Di Piero | Poetry | Silver | |
| The Countess of Forli | Ann Stanford | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1986 | Birds Landing | Ernest Finney | Fiction | Silver |
| France: Fin De Siecle | Eugen Weber | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Golden Gate: A Novel in Verse | Vikram Seth | Californiana | Gold | |
| Small Business: A Novel | Tom Parker | First Novel | Silver | |
| The Secret of the Mountain | Esther Linfield | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence | Gene Brucker | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape | Galen Rowell | Notable | Silver | |
| Left Out in the Rain | Gary Snyder | Poetry | Silver | |
| Sapphics Against Anger and Other Poems | Timothy Steele | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1987 | World's End: A Novel | T. Coraghessan Boyle | Fiction | Silver |
| Chaucer: His Life, His Works, His World | Donald R. Howard | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Bitter Melon: Stories from the Last Rural Chinese Town in America | Jeff Gillenkirk | Californiana | Gold | |
| Nell's Quilt | Susan Terris | Juvenile | Silver | |
| And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic | Randy Shilts | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Voyage of Discovery: Captain Crook and the Exploration of the Pacific | Lynne Withey | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Dryland: Desert of North America | Phillip Hyde | Notable | Silver | |
| Unremembered Country Poems | Susan Griffin | First Novel | Silver | |
| Imagining Argentina | Lawrence Thornton | First Novel | Silver | |
| 1988 | Picasso's Guernica, hist | Herschel Chipp | Nonfiction | Silver |
| Julia Morgan, Architect | Sara Boutelle | Californiana | Gold | |
| Step into the Night | Joan Ryder | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Of Gravity and Angels | Jane Hirshfield | Poetry | Silver | |
| Collected Poems, 1931-83 | Czeslaw Milosz | Poetry | Silver | |
| What is it then Between Us?: Stories | Ehud Havazelet | Unclassified | Silver | |
| The Way to the Western Sea: Lewis & Clark Across the Continent | David Lavender | NonFiction | Silver | |
| Green Architecture & The Agrarian Garden | Barbara S. Solomon | NonFiction | Silver | |
| 1989 | The Joy Luck Club | Amy Tan | Fiction | Silver |
| Strangers From a Different Shore | Ronald Takaki | NonFiction | Gold | |
| Denial of Disaster: The Untold Story and Photographs of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906 | Gladys S. Hansen | Californiana | Gold | |
| Human Wishes | Robert Hass | Poetry | Silver | |
| Fortress | Brenda Hillman | Poetry | Silver | |
| Dead Languages | David Shields | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1990 | Even Now | Michelle Latiolais | Fiction | Silver |
| Sacred Mountains of the World | Edwin Bernbaum | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Bay Area Figurative Art 1950-65 | Caroline A. Jones | Californiana | Gold | |
| Limbo River | Rick Hillis | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Fabulous Fifty | Morton Grosser | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Babushka's Doll | Patricia Polacco | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The Knight, Death, and the Devil | Ella Leffland | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| America in 1857: Nation on the Brink | Kenneth Stampp | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| O California | Steven Vincent | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| 1991 | Mariette in Ecstasy | Ron Hansen | Fiction | Silver |
| Anne Sexton: A Biography | Diane Middlebrook | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Farming on the Edge: Saving Family Farms in Marin County, California | John Hart | Californiana | Gold | |
| Tradition and Innovation: A Basket History of the Indians of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Area | Yosemite Association | Californiana | Silver | |
| Jayhawker | Patricia Beatty | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Fly Away Home | Eve Bunting | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women | Susan Faludi | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Sarah Canary | Karen Fowler | Novel | Silver | |
| What Work Is | Philip Levine | Poetry | Silver | |
| Provinces: Poems 1987-91 | Czeslaw Milosz | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1992 | When Nietzsche Wept | Irvin Yalom | Fiction | Gold |
| Triumph and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People | Ramon Eduardo Ruiz | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Josiah Royce: From Grass Valley to Harvard | Robert V. Hine | Californiana | Gold | |
| Red Square | Martin Cruz Smith | Fiction | Silver | |
| Cantora | Sylvia Lopez-Medina | First Novel | Silver | |
| Earthquake at Dawn | Kristiana Gregory | Juvenile | Silver | |
| A Bowl of Mischief | Kristiana Gregory | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Chicken Sunday | Patricia Polacco | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father | Richard Rodriguez | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Napoleon | Proctor Jones | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| 1993 | Opera in America: A Cultural History | John Dizikes | Nonfiction | Gold |
| The Great Central Valley | Robert Dawson, Gerald Haslam, Stephen Johnson | Californiana | Silver | |
| Tuscaloosa | W. Glasgow Philips | First Novel | Silver | |
| Bull Run | Paul Fleischman | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Grandfather's Journey | Allen Say | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Dragon's Gate | Laurence Yepp | Juvenile | Silver | |
| No Way to Build a Ballpark and Other Irreverent Essays in Architecture | Allan Temko | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Arts and Crafts Movement in California: Living the Good Life | Kenneth Trapp | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| Lost Body | Terry Ehret | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1994 | The Palace Thief | Ethan Canin | Fiction | Silver |
| The Unseen Peninsula | Robert Buelteman, Robert McDonald | Californiana | Gold | |
| The Zoo Where You're Fed to God | Michael Ventura | Fiction | Silver | |
| Smoky Night | Eve Bunting | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Catherine, Called Birdy | Karen Cushman | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Smoky Night | David Diaz | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War | Peter Carroll | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| School Girls | Peggy Orenstein | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Two Eagles/Dos Aguiles | Tupper Blake, Peter Steinhart | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| The Philosopher's Club | Kim Addonizio | Poetry | Silver | |
| The October Palace | Jane Hirshfield | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1995 | Naming the Spirits | Lawrence Thornton | Fiction | Silver |
| Jackson Street and other Soldier Stories | John Miller | First Work | Gold | |
| Reckless Driver | Lisa Vice | First Work | Silver | |
| A Time for Dancing | Davida Hurwin | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The Faithful Friend | Robert San Souci | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Canto Familiar | Gary Soto | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Possible Lives | Mike Rose | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Poles Apart | Galen Rowell | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Lights & Mysteries | Thomas Centolella | Poetry | Silver | |
| Red Sauce, Whiskey & Snow | August Kleinzahler | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1996 | Women in Their Beds | Gina Berriault | Fiction | Silver |
| Holy Land | D.J. Waldie | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Storm Over Mono | John Hart | Californiana | Gold | |
| Flights in the Heavenlies | Ernest J. Finney | Fiction | Silver | |
| Sacred Dust | David Hill | First Fiction | Silver | |
| A Girl Named Disaster | Nancy Farmer | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Minty | Alan Schroeder | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Lisa Meitner | Ruth Sime | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Sun Under Wood | Robert Hass | Poetry | Silver | |
| Harping On | Carolyn Kizer | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1997 | Le Divorce | Diane Johnson | Fiction | Gold |
| Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies | Jared Diamond | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Creek Walk and Other Stories | Miles Giles | Fiction | Silver | |
| Circumnavigation | Steve Lattimore | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature | Harry W. Greene | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| A Far Rockaway of the Heart | Lawerence Ferhinghetti | Poetry | Silver | |
| Glen Gould: The Ecstasy and Tragedy of Genius | Peter Oswald | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Dream Endures: California Enters the 1940s | Kevin Starr | Californiana | Silver | |
| The Hired Hand: An African-American Folktale | Robert San Souci | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 1998 | King Leopold's Ghost | Adam Hochschild | Nonfiction | Gold |
| All on Fire | Henry Mayer | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Hunger | Samantha Chang | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Harvest Son: Planting Roots in American Soil | David Mas Masumoto | Californiana | Silver | |
| I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade | Diane Lee Wilson | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Mrs. Dumpty | Chana Bloch | Poetry | Silver | |
| Lost Lake | Mark Slouka | Fiction | Silver | |
| Sitting Ducks | Michael Bedeard | Juvenile | Silver | |
| Goodnight, Nebraska | Tom McNeal | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Art of the Lathe | B.H. Fairchild | Poetry | Silver | |
| 1999 | Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 | David Kennedy | NonFiction | Gold |
| Oxygen Man | Steve Yarbrough | First Fiction | Gold | |
| The Artist of the Missing | Paul LaFarge | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Leaving Pico | Frank Gaspar | Fiction | Silver | |
| Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California | J.S. Holliday | Californiana | Silver | |
| The Mercy | Philip Levine | Poetry | Silver | |
| The Potato Eaters | Leonard Nathan | Poetry | Silver | |
| Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe | Brad Gregory | NonFiction | Silver | |
| Crooked | Laura & Tom McNeal | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Little Bo | Julie Andrews Edward | Young Adult | Silver | |
| 2000 | The Amazing Adventures of Kavaliar and Clay | Michael Chabon | Fiction | Gold |
| Our Vietnam | A.J. Langguth | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Selected Poems | Fanny Howe | Poetry | Gold | |
| California Calls You | KD & Gary Kurutz | Publishing | Silver | |
| Rope Burns | F.X. Toole | First Fiction | Silver | |
| At the Sign of the Star | Katharine Sturtevant | Young Adult | Silver | |
| The Ice Harvest | Scott Phillips | First Fiction | Silver | |
| The Royal Family | William T. Vollmann | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Literature of California Volume 1: Native American Beginnings to 1945 | Jack Hicks | Californiana | Silver | |
| Jubal's Wish | Don & Audrey Wood | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 2001 | Highwire Moon | Susan Straight | Fiction | Gold |
| American Colonies | Alan Taylor | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| New and Collected Poems 1931-2001 | Czeslaw Milosz | Poetry | Gold | |
| Haussman, or The Distinction | Paul LaFarge | Fiction | Silver | |
| Edgewater Angels | Sandro Meallot | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Cool, Calm & Collected: Poems 1960-2001 | Carolyn Kizer | Poetry | Silver | |
| Notes from a Liar & Her Dog | Gennifer Choldenko | Young Adult | Silver | |
| Capturing Light: Masterpieces of California Photography, 1850-2000 | Drew Heath Johnson | Californiana | Silver | |
| Splendide Californie! Selections by French Artists of California History 1786-1900 | Claudine Chalmers | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| 2002 | The Miracle | John L'Heureux | Fiction | Gold |
| Brown: The Last Discovery of America | Richard Rodriguez | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest | B.H. Fairchild | Poetry | Gold | |
| The Last Good Chance | Tom Barbash | First Fiction | Silver | |
| The Lovely Bones | Alice Sebold | First Fiction | Silver | |
| American Law in the 20th Century | Lawerance Friedman | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology | David Ulin | Californiana | Silver | |
| This Land was Made for You and Me: Woody Guthrie | Elizabeth Patridge | Young Adult | Silver | |
| When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marion Anderson | Brian Selznick, Pam Munoz | Juvenile | Silver | |
| High Sierra of California | Gary Snyder | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| 2003 | Evidence of Things Unseen | Marianne Wiggins | Fiction | Gold |
| River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West | Rebecca Solnit | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Strange Hours Travelers Keep | August Kleinzahler | Poetry | Gold | |
| Old School | Tobias Wolff | Fiction | Silver | |
| Parasites like Us | Adam Johnson | Fiction | Silver | |
| Drinking Coffee Elsewhere | ZZ Packer | First Fiction | Silver | |
| American Expressionism: Art and Social Change | Bram Dijkstra | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The City of Ember | Jeanne DuPrau | Young Adult | Silver | |
| Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book | Yuyi Morales | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The King of California | Rick Wartzman, Mark Arax | Californiana | Silver | |
| Rising Up and Rising Down | William Vollmann | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| Where I Was From | Joan Didion | Special Acknowledgement | Silver | |
| 2004 | The Confessions of Max Tivoli | Andrew Sean Greer | Fiction | Gold |
| Sorrow of Empire | Chalmers Johnson | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| School Among the Ruins | Adrienne Rich | Poetry | Gold | |
| Every Night is Ladies' Night | Michael Jamie-Becerra | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Graceland | Chris Abani | Fiction | Silver | |
| Happy Baby | Stephen Elliott | Fiction | Silver | |
| Worth | A. LaFaye | Young Adult | Silver | |
| Beasts of Field: California Migrant Farm Workers 1865-1913 | Richard Steven Street | Californiana | Silver | |
| Walt Whitman: Words for America | Barbara Kerley | Juvenile | Silver | |
| 2005 | Europe Central | William T. Vollmann | Fiction | Gold |
| Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire Slaves | Adam Hochschild | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Niagara River | Kay Ryan | Poetry | Gold | |
| A Thousand Years of Good Prayer | Yiyun Li | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Snow Flower and the Secret Fan | Lisa See | Fiction | Silver | |
| Nice Big American Baby | Judy Budnitz | Fiction | Silver | |
| Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed | Jared Diamond | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Cloud Chamber | Joyce Maynard | Young Adult | Silver | |
| Terrific | John Agee | Juvenile | Silver | |
| The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself | Philip Fradkin | Californiana | Silver | |
| 2006 | The Wizard of the Crow | Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o | Fiction | Gold |
| The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals | Michael Pollan | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| New and Collected Poems, 1964-2006 | Ishmael Reed | Poetry | Gold | |
| Artificial Light | James Greer | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Talk, Talk | T.C. Boyle | Fiction | Silver | |
| Landed | Milly Lee | Juvenile | Silver | |
| A True and Faithful Narrative | Katherine Sturtevant | Young Adult | Silver | |
| Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother | Sonia Nazario | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| 2007 | Chinese Apples | W.S. Di Piero | Poetry | Gold |
| Ralph Ellison: A Biography | Arnold Rampersad | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America | David Walker Howe | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Yiddish Policeman's Union | Michael Chabon | Fiction | Gold | |
| A Thousand Splendid Suns | Khaled Hosseini | Fiction | Silver | |
| Sons & Other Flammable Objects | Porochista Khakpour | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Reinventing Los Angeles | Robert Gottlieb | Californiana | Silver | |
| Thirteen Reasons Why | Jay Asher | Young Adult | Silver | |
| Revolution is Not a Dinner Party | Yin Chang Compestine | Young Adult | Silver | |
| Impressions of the East | Deborah Rudolph | Contribution to Publishing | Silver | |
| The Book of Psalms Translated | Robert Alter | Special Recognition | ||
| 2008 | Sleeping it Off in Rapid City: Poems, New & Selected | August Kleinzahler | Poetry | Gold |
| Practice | Dan Bellm | Poetry | Silver | |
| The End of the Jews | Adam Mansbach | Fiction | Gold | |
| Telex From Cuba | Rachel Kushner | First Fiction | Gold | |
| The Legend of a Suicide | David Vann | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life | John Adams | NonFiction | Gold | |
| Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West | Deanne Stillman | NonFiction | Silver | |
| The Los Angeles Plaza: Sacred and Contested Space | William David Estrada | Californiana | Gold | |
| White Sands, Red Menace | Ellen Klages | Young Adult | Gold | |
| We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball | Kadir Nelson | Juvenile | Gold | |
| Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970 | Stanford University Press | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| 2009 | Chronic | D.A. Powell | Poetry | Gold |
| A Paradise Built in Hell | Rebecca Solnit | NonFiction | Gold | |
| Imperial | William T. Vollmann | NonFiction | Silver | |
| Leaving India | Minal Hajratwala | NonFiction | Silver | |
| The Bigness of the World | Lori Ostlund | First Fiction | Gold | |
| The Vagrants | Yiyun Li | Fiction | Gold | |
| Both Ways is the Only Way I Want it | Maile Meloy | Fiction | Silver | |
| Lucky Breaks | Susan Patron | Juvenile | Gold | |
| Flygirl | Sherri Smith | Young Adult | Gold | |
| The Zohar Pritzker Edition, Volume Five | Stanford University Press | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| Wherever There's A Fight | Elaine Ellinson, Stan Yogi | Californiana | Gold | |
| 2010 | Mortal Geography | Alexandra Teague | Poetry | Gold |
| Suck on the Marrow | Camille T. Dungy | Poetry | Silver | |
| Charlie Chan | Yunte Huang | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Harvard Psychedelic Club | Don Lattin | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Lost Books of the Odyssey: A Novel | Zachary Mason | First Fiction | Gold | |
| I Hotel | Karen Tei Yamashita | Fiction | Gold | |
| Model Home | Eric Puchner | Fiction | Silver | |
| Grandma's Gloves | Cecil Castellucci | Juvenile | Gold | |
| The Things a Brother Knows | Dana Reinhardt | Young Adult | Gold | |
| Autobiography of Mark Twain Volume 1 | University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California | Laura Cunningham | Californiana | Gold | |
| 2011 | Ascension | Giovanni Singleton | Poetry | Gold |
| Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum | Jason Felch, Ralph Frammolino | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfiction, Etc. | Jonathan Lethem | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Turn of Mind | Alice LaPlante | First Fiction | Gold | |
| The Barbarian Nurseries | Héctor Tobar | Fiction | Gold | |
| Love and Shame and Love | Peter Orner | Fiction | Gold | |
| One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street | Jonanne Rocklin | Juvenile | Gold | |
| The Apothecary | Maile Meloy | Young Adult | Gold | |
| Ten Years that Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978 | City Lights Publishers | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| Chuckwalla Land: The Riddle of California's Desert | David Rains Wallace | Californiana | Gold | |
| 2012 | The Orphan Master's Son | Adam Johnson | Fiction | Gold |
| A Partial History of Lost Causes | Jennifer DuBois | First Fiction | Gold | |
| Masha'allah and Other Stories | Mariah K Young | First Fiction | Silver | |
| God's Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine | Victoria Sweet | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele-Bloch Bauer | Anne-Marie O'Connor | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Sea and Fog | Etel Adnan | Poetry | Gold | |
| The One and Only Ivan | Katherine Applegate | Juvenile | Gold | |
| Valley of Shadows and Dreams | Ken and Melanie Light | Notable Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| Second Chance Summer | Morgan Matson | Young Adult | Gold | |
| A Soldier's Secret: The Incredible True Story of Sarah Edmonds, A Civil War Hero | Marissa Moss | Young Adult | Silver | |
| Sunshine Was Never Enough | John Laslett | Californiana | Gold | |
| 2013 | We Are Completely Beside Ourselves | Karen Fowler | Fiction | Gold |
| A Constellation of Vital Phenomena | Anthony Marra | First Fiction | Gold | |
| Command and Control | Eric Schlosser | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Seasonal Works with Letter on Fire | Brenda Hillman | Poetry | Gold | |
| Barbed Wire Baseball | Marissa Moss | Juvenile | Gold | |
| Far Far Away | Tom McNeal | Young Adult | Gold | |
| Scrape the Willow Until it Sings | Debora Valoma | Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| Chief: The Quest for Justice in California | Ronald M. George | Californiana | Gold | |
| Farewell Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti | Amy Wilentz | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Boss (McSweeney's Poetry Series) | Victoria Chang | Poetry | Silver | |
| 2014 | An Unnecessary Woman | Rabih Alameddine | Fiction | Gold |
| Waiting for the Electricity | Christina Nichol | First Fiction | Gold | |
| The Crusades of Cesar Chavez | Miriam Pawel | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| The Feel Trio | Fred Moten | Poetry | Gold | |
| The Fourteenth Goldfish | Jennifer L. Holm | Juvenile | Gold | |
| Gabi, A Girl in Pieces | Isabel Quintero | Young Adult | Gold | |
| The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin | Kim Bancroft | Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| San Francisco's Jewel City | Laura A. Ackley | Californiana | Gold | |
| Orfeo | Richard Powers | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Un-Americans | Molly Antopol | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Deep Down Dark | Hector Tobar | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| 2015 | A Manual for Cleaning Women | Lucia Berlin | Fiction | Gold |
| Elevation: 6,040 | Ernest J. Finney | Fiction | Silver | |
| The Sympathizer | Viet Thanh Nguyen | First Fiction | Gold | |
| Ghettoside | Jill Leovy | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| NeuroTribes | Steve Silberman | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| George | Alex Gino | Juvenile | Gold | |
| Challenger Deep | Neal Shusterman | Young Adult | Gold | |
| The Alex Crow | Andrew Smith | Young Adult | Silver | |
| Cancer Angel | Beth Murray | Poetry | Gold | |
| California's Wild Edge | Tom Killion | Californiana | Gold | |
| Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers | James Karman, Stanford University Press | Contribution to Publishing | Gold [8] | |
| 2016 | Moonglow | Michael Chabon | Fiction | Gold |
| Dog Years | Melissa Yancy | First Fiction | Gold | |
| The Other Slavery | Andres Resende | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Cloud and Wallfish | Anne Nesbet | Juvenile | Gold | |
| The Sun is Also a Star | Nicola Yoon | Young Adult | Gold | |
| Restless Continent | Aja Couchois Duncan | Poetry | Gold | |
| An American Genocide | Benjamin Madley | Californiana | Gold | |
| Ecosystems of California | Mooney and Zavaleta, Yale University Press | Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| The Portable Veblen | Elizabeth McKenzie | Fiction | Silver | |
| Engineering Eden | Jordan Fisher Smith | NonFiction | Silver | |
| Buck Studies | Douglas Kearney | Poetry | Silver | |
| 2017 | The Age of Perpetual Light | Josh Weil | Fiction | Gold |
| So Much Blue | Percival Everett | Fiction | Silver | |
| Goodbye, Vitamin | Rachel Khong | First Fiction | Gold | |
| The Color of Law | Richard Rothstein | NonFiction | Gold | |
| The Far Away Brothers | Lauren Markham | NonFiction | Silver | |
| Maya Lin: Thinking With Her Hands | Susan Goldman Rubin | Juvenile | Gold | |
| The 57 Bus | Dashka Slater | Young Adult | Gold | |
| Heaven is All Goodbyes | Tongo Eisen-Martin | Poetry | Gold | |
| The Modoc War | Robert Aquinas McNally | Californiana | Gold | |
| The California Field Atlas | Obi Kaufmann | Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| 2018 | The Mars Room | Rachel Kushner | Fiction | Gold |
| Winter Kept Us Warm | Anne Raeff | Fiction | Silver | |
| There There | Tommy Orange | First Fiction | Gold | |
| Fruit of the Drunken Tree | Ingrid Rojas Contreras | First Fiction | Silver | |
| The Library Book | Susan Orlean | NonFiction | Gold | |
| American Prison | Shane Bauer | NonFiction | Silver | |
| The Language of Spells | Garret Weyr | Juvenile | Gold | |
| Picture Us in the Light | Kelly Loy Gilbert | Young Adult | Gold | |
| Total Recall | Samantha Giles | Poetry | Gold | |
| The Browns of California | Miriam Pawel | Californiana | Gold | |
| Carleton Watkins | Tyler Green | Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| 2019 | Your House Will Pay | Steph Cha | Fiction | Gold |
| Home Remedies | Xuan Wang | First Fiction | Gold | |
| The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee | David Treuer | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| A Place to Belong | Cynthia Kadohata | Juvenile | Gold | |
| Frankly in Love | David Yoon | Young Adult | Gold | |
| Magical Negro | Morgan Parker | Poetry | Gold | |
| Last of Her Name | Mimi Lok | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Know My Name | Chanel Miller | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Jazz Funeral for Uncle Tom | Harmony Holiday | Poetry | Silver | |
| The Dreamt Land | Mark Arax | Californiana | Gold | |
| Jim Marshall: Show Me the Picture | Amelia Davis | Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| 2021 | A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth | Daniel Mason | Fiction | Gold |
| Interior Chinatown | Charles Yu | Fiction | Silver | |
| How Much of These is God | C Pam Zhang | First Fiction | Gold | |
| South to Freedom | Alice L. Baumgartner | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Golden Gates | Conor Dougherty | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Efrén Divided | Ernesto Cisneros | Juvenile | Gold | |
| Private Lessons | Cynthia Salaysay | Young Adult | Gold | |
| The Black Kids | Christina Hammonds Reed | Young Adult | Silver | |
| Quiet Orient Riot | Nathalie Khankan | Poetry | Gold | |
| California Exposures | Richard & Jesse White | Californiana | Gold | |
| A Natural History of the Anza-Borrego Region | Marie Simovich | Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| 2022 | The Archer | Shruti Swamy | Fiction | Gold |
| The Committed | Viet Thanh Nguyen | Fiction | Silver | |
| Skinship | Yoon Choi | First Fiction | Gold | |
| City of a Thousand Gates | Rebecca Sacks | First Fiction | Silver | |
| Paraside | Lizzie Johnson | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Light on Fire | Gabrielle Selz | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Refractive Africa | Will Alexander | Poetry | Gold | |
| Home is Not a Country | Safia Elhillo | Young Adult | Gold | |
| Wishes | Muron Thi Van | Juvenile | Gold | |
| Everything Now | Rosecrans Baldwin | Californiana | Gold | |
| A Rebel's Outcry | Jeffrey Gee Chin | Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| 2023 | Heartbroke | Chelsea Bieker | Fiction | Gold |
| Nightcrawling | Leila Mottley | First Fiction | Gold | |
| The Red Arrow | William Brewer | First Fiction | Silver | |
| American Midnight | Adam Hochschild | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Bad Mexicans | Kelly Lylte Hernandez | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| The Man Who Could Move Clouds | Ingrid Rojas Contreras | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Time Regime | Jhani Randhawa | Poetry | Gold | |
| Ophelia After All | Racquel Marie | Young Adult | Gold | |
| Seen and Unseen | Elizabeth Partridge | Juvenile | Gold | |
| The High Sierra | Kim Stanley Robinson | Californiana | Gold | |
| The Klamath Mountains | Michael Kauffman | Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| 2024 | Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed | Dashka Slater | Young Adult | Gold |
| The Blood Years | Elana K. Arnold | Young Adult | Silver | |
| All-Night Pharmacy | Ruth Madievsky | First Fiction | Gold | |
| Blackouts | Justin Torres | Fiction | Gold | |
| Orphan Bachelors | Fae Myenne Ng | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline | Rosanna Xia | Californiana | Gold | |
| Mass for Shut-Ins (Volume 177) (Yale Series of Younger Poets) | Mary-Alice Daniels | Poetry | Gold | |
| The Honey Jar: An Armenian's Escape to Freedom | Joan Schoettler | Juvenile | Gold | |
| KAOS Theory: The Afrokosmic Ark of Ben Caldwell | Robeson Taj Frazier | Contribution to Publishing | Gold | |
| 2025 | James | Percival Everett | Fiction | Gold |
| Creation Lake | Rachel Kushner | Fiction | Silver | |
| Your Presence is Mandatory | Sasha Vasilyuk | First Fiction | Gold | |
| Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves | Nicola Twilley | Nonfiction | Gold | |
| Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future | Daniel Lewis | Nonfiction | Silver | |
| Theophanies | Sarah Ghazal Ali | Poetry | Gold | |
| Ward Toward | Cindy Juyoung Ok | Poetry | Silver | |
| Everything We Never Had | Randy Ribay | Young Adult | Gold | |
| A Map for Falasteen: A Palestinian Child's Search for Home | Maysa Odeh and Aliaa Betawi | Juvenile | Gold | |
| A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth | James Tejani | Californiana | Gold | |
| Terminal Island: Lost Communities on America's Edge | Geraldine Knatz and Naomi Hirahara, Angel City Press | Contribution to Publishing | Gold |
The California Book awards sparked controversy after awarding John Steinbeck his third Gold Medal for The Grapes of Wrath , which triggered a series of protests throughout the state. [9] The Club was criticized for acknowledging a book that portrayed California in a poor light. It didn't take long, however, for The Grapes of Wrath to become an American classic. [10]