Timothy Egan, Cherie Priest winners of Pacific Northwest Booksellers awards

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association has announced its 2010 Book Award winners, chosen by independent booksellers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. The winners were selected from more than 200 nominated titles, each written by a Northwest author and published in 2009.

The winners are:

"The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt & the Fire that Saved America" by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Seattle author Egan tells the dramatic true-life tale of a a devastating 1910 wildfire that burned millions of acres in the Northwest. The fire's tragic consequences changed public policy towards our national forest lands.

"The Collector: David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest" by Jack Nisbet (Sasquatch). Spokane author Nisbet writes a life of David Douglas, who explored the Northwest and cataloged hundreds of western plants — including the Douglas fir.

"Boneshaker" by Cherie Priest (Tor). Priest, a Seattle author writing in the "steampunk" genre, tells a fantastic 19th-century story of a drill, designed to tunnel through Alaskan ice to get through to the gold underneath, that goes fantastically awry.

"The Crying Tree" by Naseem Rakha (Broadway Books). Novelist Rakha, of Silverton, Ore., wrote this story of a family that moves from Illinois to Oregon to start a new life, only to have tragedy strike as they adjust to their new home in the high desert.

"All in a Day" by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Nikki McClure (Abrams Books for Young Readers). Rylant, of Lake Oswego, Ore., wrote this gentle children's story of the possibilities that unfold in a single day. Illustrated by the precise, eloquent woodcuts of Olympia artist McClure.

Mary Ann Gwinn: 206-464-2357 or mgwinn@seattletimes.com.