English professor Heather Bouwman was named a Minnesota Book Award finalist in January for her book, “A Crack in the Sea.”

Bouwman is one of four finalists chosen in the Middle Grade Literature category. ‘Middle Grade’ denotes books intended for 8- to 12-year-olds. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Minnesota Book Awards.

“A Crack in the Sea” is about a character called the Raft King who is trying to find the portal to exit a second world that he and his people have accidentally entered so that they may return back home to Raftworld.

While “A Crack in the Sea” is a fictional book, her writing holds historical elements through inspiration from her studies of the Zong slave ship.

The Zong slave ship traveled from Africa to Jamaica in 1781, carrying an amount of slaves far past the capacity, providing terrible living conditions. Bouwman felt the story of the Zong slave ship was one that not many of her readers would be familiar with, but that they should be.

Bouwman writes of three different sets of siblings, whose stories intertwine; one set considered to be islanders, another being an enslaved set of twins on a ship towards Jamaica, and the last, a brother and sister duo aiming to escape war-torn Vietnam.

Bouwman began writing “A Crack in the Sea,” her second book, in 2012 and sent it to her agent at the end of 2014. The book received interest from editors after only a week and was sold in May of 2015. Her story was published a year and a half later.

“It sold really quickly, which has never happened to me before – and probably will never happen again,” Bouwman said.

Bouwman has taught at St. Thomas since 2001. Sophomore Cassie Froese, a student of Bouwman, said that the award nomination comes as no surprise.

“What struck me about Dr. B when I first met her, and still stands out today, was how genuine she was about everything, from the way she taught her courses to how she interacted with students outside of class,” Froese said. “I would recommend her for any award, book related or not.”

Nominations for the Minnesota Book Award come from an author’s publisher. To nominate an author, the publisher must send copies of the books to the awards committee, where judges then read all of the books from each category and chose four finalists. Another committee of judges will read the books from the four finalists and choose a winner from each category.

For Bouwman, being a finalist is just as exciting as winning the award would be.

“The other finalists are people I really admire as writers,” Bouwman said. “I enjoy being in a group with them.”

Winners of the Minnesota Book Award will be announced on April 21.

Taylor Shupe can be contacted at shup9397@stthomas.edu