2020 Maine Literary Award Winners
During an awards ceremony on Thursday, May 28 hosted online with over two hundred people in attendance, the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance (MWPA) revealed live the winners of the 2020 Maine Literary Awards.
This year, 154 books were entered across the award’s categories, more than 136 manuscripts were submitted into the award’s Short Works Competition including the Youth Competition.
The Maine Literary Awards is an annual competition sponsored and coordinated by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Nominations were open to all Maine residents, including seasonal residents. The statewide competition is for published books, as well as drama, short works (either published or unpublished), and student writing.
And the winners are…
Book Award for Crime Fiction
Gerry Boyle, Random Act
Book Award for Fiction
Jason Brown, A Faithful but Melancholy Account of Several Barbarities Lately Committed
Book Award for Nonfiction
Jane Brox, Silence
Book Award for Memoir
Maureen Stanton, Body Leaping Backward
Book Award for Poetry
Kristen Case, Principles of Economics
John N. Cole Award for Maine Nonfiction
Michael Norton, Chasing Maine's Second
Book Award for Young People's Literature
Arisa White, Biddy Mason Speaks Up
Book Award for Children's
Charlotte Agell, Maybe Tomorrow?
Book Award for Excellence in Publishing
Scott T. Hanson, Restoring Your Historic House (Tilbury House)
Alan Silken & Cory Silken, Setting Sail in America (Seapoint Books)
Book Award for Anthology
Martha White, ed., E.B. White, On Democracy
Drama Award
Linda Britt, "I Smile, Of Course, And Go On Drinking Tea"
Short Works Competition in Fiction
Rebecca Turkewitz, "At This Late Hour"
Short Works Competition in Nonfiction
Jennifer Lunden, "Fugitive Justice"
Short Works Competition in Poetry
Jefferson Navicky, "Other Fathers" and other poems
Youth Competition in Fiction
Catherine Morrissette, "Growing Pains”
Youth Competition in Nonfiction
Gabby Bekoka, "Lemme Tell You"
Youth Competition in Poetry
Lulu Rasor, "Grendel's Mother Takes the Mic"
SPECIAL AWARDS
2020 BOOK DONATION RECIPIENTS
The Maine Correctional Center will receive a copy of every book nominated to this year’s awards.
2020 MWPA DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Betsy Sholl for exceptional and steadfast contributions to the Maine literary arts as a poet and teacher.
FELLOWSHIPS
2020 MACKLIN FELLOWS
To honor Michael Macklin’s legacy and to encourage the next generation of young writers, MWPA established the Macklin Fellowship. Each year, in concert with the Telling Room, MWPA selects at least two students who are aging out of Telling Room programs and ready to step into adult workshops and events. The Macklin Fellows will receive free memberships to MWPA as well as free workshops.
This year’s Macklin Fellows are Ladislas Nzeyimana and Siri Pierce.
Siri Pierce has been attending Telling Room workshops and programs since she was nine years old, most recently Publishing Workshop, where she has become a fantastic editor. Siri is a senior at Casco Bay High School, and will attend Brown University this fall.
Ladislas Nzeyimana is a senior and the student body president of Deering High School. He is an alumnus of The Telling Room’s Young Writers & Leaders program and is Rwandan, via Burundi, and has lived here in the States since 2016. Ladi will attend Bowdoin College this fall.
More about the Macklin Fellows: https://www.mainewriters.org/macklin-scholarship
2020-2021 BODWELL FELLOWS
To honor previous director Joshua Bodwell’s service and stewardship, the MWPA Board of Directors, in association with Hewnoaks Artist Colony, established the Bodwell Fellowship, which grants an emerging Maine writer time, space, and support for their work. Each Bodwell Fellow receives a $500 cash award in addition to their residency at Hewnoaks.
The inaugural Bodwell Fellows are Alexandre Mas and Sam Collier.
Alexandre Mas’ short stories have been published in The Georgia Review, The Antioch Review, Southwest Review, and The San Francisco Bay Guardian. He has also worked for more than twenty-five years on land and water conservation, and is currently the Associate State Director for The Nature Conservancy in Maine. Alex has a master’s degree in Ecological Management from the University of Michigan and undergraduate degrees in Environmental Studies and English from Tufts University. He lives in Portland with his wife and three children.
Sam Collier is a playwright and poet. Her play DAISY VIOLET THE BITCH BEAST KING, which explores the joys and rages of girlhood, was the winner of the 2019 Modern Works Festival at Urbanite Theatre. Her plays have also been developed and presented by Flexible Grey Theatre Company, New College of Florida, the UC Davis Ground and Field Festival, the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, the Chicago Theatre Marathon, PTP/NYC, and Theater Nyx. Collier’s poems have appeared in Claw & Blossom, What Rough Beast, Iron Horse Literary Review, Mortar Magazine, Sixfold, The Puritan, Guernica, and elsewhere.
More about the Bodwell Fellows:https://www.mainewriters.org/bodwell-fellowship
WINNERS on MWPA SITE
https://www.mainewriters.org/events/2020-mla-winners
FINALISTS on MWPA SITE
https://www.mainewriters.org/events/2019-finalists-cswdy
For more information or questions about the awards, or to contact a winner for an interview, please contact MWPA executive director Gibson Fay-LeBlanc at director@mainewriters.org or 207-228-8263.
AWARD CEREMONY PHOTOS
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nY4KQZKcjHHWg3Sg6