For the third time an Eastern Washington University English professor has been awarded a Washington State Book Award. Paul Lindholdt was recently named the 2012 winner in the Biography/Memoir category for his literary nonfiction book In Earshot of Water, Notes from the Columbia Plateau.
Previous EWU creative writers who have won the award include Greg Spatz in the 2003 Fiction category for his stories entitled Wonderful Tricks and Christopher Howell for his book of poems, Light’s Ladder, in 2005. “That record in the past decade is a hat trick for EWU, especially notable because it’s in three different literary categories and because so very few people from the east side of the Cascades place in this competition at all,” said Lindholdt.
In addition to the trio of professors, EWU alumni Jess Walter was a finalist in the 2006 Fiction category for his novel Citizen Vince.
The Washington State Book Awards were established in 1967 as a way to recognize Washington writers. Administered by the Seattle Public Library, award winners are established in six categories: History/General Nonfiction, Biography/Memoir, Fiction, Poetry and two Scandiuzzi Children’s Books.