2021 Winners
MWPA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 Maine Literary Awards. Thank you to all of the writers who sent in their work for consideration, to the finalists, and to the jurors for all of their reading and deliberating.
The links below will either take you to bookshop.org or a Maine publisher for easy ordering, or you can order from your favorite local independent bookseller.
Book Award for Crime Fiction
Bruce Robert Coffin, Within Plain Sight
Book Award for Fiction
Jim Nichols, Blue Summer
Book Award for Nonfiction
Kerri Arsenault, Mill Town
Book Award for Memoir
Phuc Tran, Sigh, Gone
Book Award for Poetry
Éireann Lorsung, The Century
John N. Cole Award for Maine Nonfiction (co-winners)
Michael K. Komanecky, Jane Bianco, and Angela Waldron, Maine and American Art: The Farnsworth Art Museum
Peter Taylor (editor) and Kara Douglas, From the Mountains to the Sea: The Historic Restoration of the Penobscot River
Book Award for Young People's Literature
Betty Culley, Three Things I Know Are True
Book Award for Children's
Anica Mrose Rissi, Love, Sophia on the Moon
Book Award for Speculative Fiction
Emma J. Gibbon, Dark Blood Comes from the Feet
Book Award for Excellence in Publishing
Joshua Klein, Another Work is Possible, Mortise & Tenon
Book Award for Anthology
Claire Millikin and Agnes Bushell, ENOUGH! Poems of Resistance
Drama Award
Travis Baker, “Hockey Mom”
Short Works Competition in Fiction
Morgan Talty, “The Blessing Tobacco”
Short Works Competition in Nonfiction (co-winners)
Parker Blaney, “Detox”
Sarah Twombly, “What We Want is Simple”
Short Works Competition in Poetry
Suzanne Langlois, “What Lasts”
Award for a Secondary School Literary Magazine
Honorable Mentions:
Legenda, Harrison Middle School
Collage, Lewiston High School
GORP, Falmouth High School
EPOCH: A Creative Magazine for Teens by Teens, Skidompha Library
Young Writers 2020, Androscoggin Valley Educational Collaborative Young Writers Program
Youth Competition in Fiction
Alexa Barstow, “Windswept”
Youth Competition in Nonfiction
Nina Chase, “Forest Journal”
Youth Competition in Poetry
Clara Bossi, “Cedars Still Growing”
SPECIAL AWARDS
2021 BOOK DONATION RECIPIENTS
The Lubec Memorial LIbrary will receive a copy of every book nominated to this year’s awards.
2021 MWPA DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Carolyn Chute for exceptional and steadfast contributions to the Maine literary arts as a fiction writer.
Presented by Ron Currie, Jr.