Nominate Your “Great Read” from Ohio!

Nominations are now closed! Thank you for all your suggestions. Stay tune for an announcement of the selected works in Spring 2024!

Every year since 2002, a list of books representing the literary heritage of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands is distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book during the National Book Festival. Each book is selected by a local Center for the Book to reflect its literary heritage, and all the books are included in the growing Great Reads from Great Places booklist.

Some recent Ohio Great Reads selections

For 2024, the Ohio Center for the Book is asking for nominations from all of you as part of the process of choosing Ohio’s Great Reads selections! We need nominations for both a book for younger readers and a book for adults. Nominations for younger readers can include everything from picture books to novels for teens.

We’ve created an online form for you to use, and nominations will be open through February 14, 2024! So, nominate a book you love!

When considering your nomination, keep in mind the following criteria:

  • The author MUST have an Ohio connection!
    • They must have been born in Ohio, be residing in Ohio currently, or have resided in Ohio for five or more years during their life.
  • The author must be living! We will be conducting podcast interviews with the authors.
  • Youth selections can be picture books, chapter books for young readers, or books for teen readers.
    • If you want to nominate a picture book, the illustrator can be the representative for Ohio as long as the illustrations are integral to the story!
  • Nominations must be individual books.
    • The Great Reads selections recognize a specific title, not an author’s body of work.

The works themselves can be fiction or nonfiction, in prose or in comics form. We like to keep the options open!

We look forward to seeing your suggestions! The official announcements will be made in Spring 2024.