Jenny Tinghui Zhang
Lawrence Matsuda
“Four Treasures of the Sky,” by Jenny Tinghui Zhang, is the winner of the 2022 Idaho Book of the year award.
Set in the late 1800s, it’s about a Chinese girl who is kidnapped and brought to the U.S. It’s historical fiction that lays bare the human tragedy behind the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
And “Shape Shifter: A Minidoka Concentration Camp Legacy,” by Lawrence Matsuda, won the honorable mention. The collection of poems expresses the reverberating trauma of the Matsuda family’s imprisonment in the Minidoka Concentration Camp during World War II.
Congratulations to the winners.
Congratulations to Larry Matsuda for his Idaho Book Award! He has written award-winning poetry for many years to help convey the lives and feelings of those who endured incarceration in the camps.