By DEBORAH MARTINEZ MARTINEZ
The Colorado Humanities is getting ready for judges to review hundreds of Colorado Books, written in 2024, in 14 categories for the awards. However, how many books will represent the Chicano culture?
The Director of the Humanities Center for the Book Josephine Jones said, “We know how important it is to connect Colorado readers with Colorado writers, illustrators, editors, photographers because we believe local stories should be told by local storytellers.”
In 2024, Southern Colorado musicians Herman and Patricia Martinez were selected as finalists for Hilos Culturales: Cultural Threads of the San Luis Valley, published by History Colorado in late 2023.
Enrique R. Lamadrid, long-time author and professor in New Mexico wrote the extensive introduction highlighting traditions from centuries past to the present day, all of them contributing to the music, dance, storytelling, literary heritage, and folklore of the Upper Río Grande region which includes Southern Colorado.
Founded in Alamosa in 2000, Hilos Culturales, the organization, has shone a spotlight on the traditional arts of the Indio-Hispano communities of Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico. These cultural arts of the San Luis Valley have roots that span the history of the Americas and beyond, taking on their own local characteristics in every region.
Hilos Culturales offers the profiles of 40 honorees of the Premio Hilos Culturales—the musicians, dancers, and other living treasures who embody and preserve the continued vitality of this cultural tapestry.
Among the book award winners for 2023 was African American Camille T. Dungy for Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History.The children’s book award finalist for 2025 is Lia & Luis: Who has more?, written by Ana Crespo and Giovana Medeiros featuring Brazilian American characters and a glossary of Brazilian Portuguese words. The Publisher is Charlesbridge. A Native American finalist is Rez Ball by Byron Graves, published by HarperCollins.
Although the deadline has passed to submit to the 2025 Book Awards, they will be announced in July for the best Colorado literature published in 2024. Deadline for 2026 will be between September 2025 and Jan. 3, 2026.
For more information on awards and submissions, go to https://coloradohumanities.org/programs/colorado-book-awards/ The cost for submissions is $60 and seven copies of the book.
