Boling, Stein, Day among winners of Pacific Northwest Book Awards

Three Western Washington authors are among the winners of this year's Pacific Northwest Book Awards, given by independent booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana and Idaho for the best books by regional authors published in 2008. Here are the judges' picks:

"Guernica" by Dave Boling (Bloomsbury). Boling, a sports writer for the Tacoma News Tribune, authored this novel based on the bombing of the Spanish village of the same name during the Spanish Civil War. The judges said Boling "has written the kind of rich, compelling and utterly unforgettable novel all too rarely attempted and even more rarely realized."

"The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein (Harper). Stein's Seattle-based novel is narrated by a dog, Enzo, "an aging and surprisingly wise mutt, who is perhaps the most memorable narrator of the year," said the judge. This book by a Seattle author was also a Starbuck's book pick.

"Selected Poems 1970-2005" by Floyd Skloot (Tupelo Press). This career collection of a well-known Portland poet and author won the William Stafford memorial poetry award. "Across a wide range of moods, Skloot offers us his deeply moving and — ultimately — celebratory enthusiasm for the common moment," said the judges.

"American Buffalo" by Steven Rinella (Spiegel & Grau). Alaskan author Steven Rinella "brings a contemporary sensibility and a breathtaking grasp of the history of the buffalo in America" to his nonfiction account of hunting a buffalo in an Alaskan national park.

"Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge 1867-1957" by John Laursen and Terry Toedtemeier (Northwest Photography Archive and Oregon State University Press). The Portland writing/editing team selected "some 130 images from dozens of photographers, covering 90 years of natural and man-made history, and, in so doing, have recreated an otherwise lost history" of the Columbia Gorge, said the judges.

The judges gave a lifetime achievement award to Seattle-based Alexandra Day, creator of the hugely popular "Good Dog, Carl" children's books, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The awards will be presented in Portland in March — for more information go to www.pnba.org.