2022 Winners
MWPA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Maine Literary Awards. Thank you to the nearly 400 writers who sent in their work for consideration and to the judges for all of their reading and deliberating.
Book Award for Crime Fiction
Paul Doiron, Dead by Dawn
Book Award for Fiction
Eleanor Morse, Margreete’s Harbor
Book Award for Nonfiction
Robin Clifford Wood, The Field House: A Writer's Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine
Book Award for Memoir
Rachael Cerrotti, We Share the Same Sky: A Memoir of Memory & Migration
Book Award for Poetry (Co-Winners)
W.J. Herbert, Dear Specimen
Jefferson Navicky, Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments in Short Prose
Book Award for Young People's Literature
Ellen Booraem, River Magic
Book Award for Children's
Suzanne Greenlaw and Gabriel Frey, Illustrated by Nancy Baker, The First Blade of Sweetgrass
Book Award for Speculative Fiction
James M. Wright, Rhizome
Book Award for Excellence in Publishing
John Rosenwald (translator), The Sonnets to Orpheus, Rainer Maria Rilke, Covered Bridge Press
Book Award for Anthology
Wayne A. Newell (editor) and Robert M. Leavitt (editor), Kuhkomossonuk Akonutomuwinokot: Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us
John N. Cole Award for Maine Nonfiction (Co-Winners)
Robin Clifford Wood, The Field House: A Writer's Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine
Wayne A. Newell (editor) and Robert M. Leavitt (editor), Kuhkomossonuk Akonutomuwinokot: Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us
Drama Award
Andrea Lepcio, “Human”
Short Works Competition in Fiction
Billie Watson, “Egg Shell”
Short Works Competition in Nonfiction
Jennifer Dupree, “Care & Keeping”
Short Works Competition in Poetry
Carolyn Locke “Thoughts on Migration”
Honorable Mention for a Secondary School Literary Magazine: Gardiner Area High School for Unrest: Creation in Isolation
Youth Competition in Fiction
Maeve Tholen, “Chocolate Hope”
Mackenzie VerLee, “The Lighthouse Keeper”
Youth Competition in Nonfiction
Linh Nguyen “Our Shared Language”
Youth Competition in Poetry
Leigh Ellis, “Squid Season”
SPECIAL AWARDS
2022 BOOK DONATION RECIPIENTS
The Brewer Public Library will receive a copy of every book nominated to this year’s awards.
2022 MWPA DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Daniel Minter, for exceptional and steadfast contributions to the Maine literary arts as an award-winning artist and illustrator, and co-founder of the Indigo Arts Alliance.