Each year, juried awards are given to books in six categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, About Ohio/an Ohioan, Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature, and Juvenile Literature, with a special prize for emerging writers, the Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant.

First given in 1942, the Ohio Book Awards presented by the Ohioana Library Association are the second oldest, and among the most prestigious, state literary prizes in the nation. Nearly every major writer from Ohio in the past 80 years has been honored, including James Thurber, Robert McCloskey, Toni Morrison, Mary Oliver, Rita Dove, Anthony Doerr, Celeste Ng, and many more.

Listed below are the 2024 Ohio Book Award winners:

Nonfiction: Sarah Lohman, Endangered Eating: America's Vanishing Foods
Fiction: James McBride, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
Poetry: Taylor Byas, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times: Poems
Book About Ohio or an Ohioan: Laura Meckler, Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity
Middle Grade/Young Adult: Illus. by Joe Sutphin, Watership Down: The Graphic Novel
Juvenile: Will Hillenbrand, The Voice in the Hollow
Readers' Choice: Sarah Lohman, Endangered Eating: America's Vanishing Foods