Great news for Pulley Press!

Ricardo Ruiz’s We Had Our Reasons has just won the 2023 Washington State Book Award.

The announcement came from the Washington Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book, administered by Washington State Library (a division of the Office of the Secretary of State). The Washington State Book Awards honor works of outstanding literary merit by Washington authors. The award is given based on the strength of the publication’s literary merit, lasting importance, and overall quality. 

Here’s what Ricardo says about winning this prestigious validation of his poetry:

“It's such an honor to receive this award. Not only for me as an author, but for my community. The purpose of this book was to record the history of my community and elevate the voices within it. The recognition of this award feels like another layer of invisibility being shed.

While teaching a workshop in Quincy {Washington} this last week I was told a story about how We Had Our Reasons was given to a father, who recently retired after years of working in the fields and later driving a semi, was heading on a trip to California by bus. His daughter received a call the next morning as her dad was drinking coffee with the book beside him. He read his daughter a poem and began to speak about his own experiences. His daughter mentioned that her father was not a reader and he had never read poetry. Yet through the collection, he saw a part of himself represented, conversations were started, and poetry was shared. It is exciting to know how this award will further the reach of this collection.”

We couldn’t have said it better, or with more love. Congratulations, Ricardo. 

We Had Our Reasons is one of the first three books published by Pulley Press. The other two are The Lost Poems of Wilma Mankiller and Ted Kooser’s A Man With a Rake.