Whenever I hear about the Massachusetts Must-Reads – the short-listed titles in the Massachusetts Book Awards in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Children’s/Young Adult – I always want to read all of them, because they all sound wonderful.
The 2014 Massachusetts Book Awards are given for books published in 2013. Librarian judges serve for one year on a panel of three librarians plus a convener; they read, read, read all year to decide on the best, most discussable books by a Massachusetts author or with a Massachusetts theme. Winners in each category were announced last night as part of the gala event that closed out the first day of the Massachusetts Library Association conference.
The 2014 Winners
Fiction
Winner: News from Heaven by Jennifer Haigh
Must-Reads
Along the Watchtower by David Litwack
The Celestials by Karen Shepard
The Hanging Judge by Michael Ponsor
Together Tea by Marjan Kamali
Vatican Waltz by Roland Merullo
*
Nonfiction
Winner: Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall
Must-Reads
Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Lepore
Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country by Andrew Bacevich
A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar
The Last Train to Zona Verde by Paul Theroux
Miss Anne of Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance by Carla Kaplan
*
Poetry
Winner: Grass Whistle by Amy Dryansky
Must-Reads
Strange Borderlands by Ben Berman
Belmont by Stephen Burt
Inside the Splintered Wood by Myles Gordon
Boy Singing to Cattle by Mark D. Hart
Frost in the Low Areas by Karen Skofield
*
Children’s/YA
Winner: The First Drawing by Mordecai Gerstein
Must-Reads
The Extra by Kathryn Lasky
Garden Princess by Kristin Kladstrup
Journey by Aaron Becker
A Place for Turtles by Melissa Stewart
White Fur Flying by Patricia MacLachlan
*
I found out last night that Massachusetts has the third oldest – but the largest – book awards program in the country. We pride ourselves on being a literary kind of state here, so there are a lot of authors even though we’re small! (The state with the longest-running state book awards program is Oklahoma, and second is Nebraska.)
Lists of previous Massachusetts Book Award winners and finalists may be found online at the Massachusetts Center for the Book.
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I love state book award lists. Minnesota does one and it’s fun to skim through the titles. I have the Margaret Fuller book on my shelves and I’m looking forward to reading it, eventually… so many books!