2023 Finalists

MWPA is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2023 Maine Literary Awards. Thank you to the more than 300 writers who sent in their work for consideration and to this year’s judges for all of their reading and deliberating.

Book Award for Crime Fiction
Richard Cass, The Last Altruist
Geoffrey M. Cooper, Perilous Obsession: A Medical Thriller
Kathryn Lasky, Light on Bone

Book Award for Fiction
Gillian Burnes, Soft Features
Meghan Gilliss, Lungfish
Morgan Talty, Night of the Living Rez

Book Award for Nonfiction
Margot Anne Kelley, Foodtopia: Communities in Pursuit of Peace, Love, & Homegrown Food
Kathryn Miles, Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders
Susan Shetterly, Notes on the Landscape of Home

Book Award for Memoir
Marpheen Chann, Moon In Full: A Modern Day Coming of Age Story
Elizabeth Garber, Sailing At The Edge of Disaster
Robert Klose, Adopting Anton
Gretchen Legler, Woodsqueer

Book Award for Poetry
Dawn Potter, Accidental Hymn
Lauren Saxon, You’re My Favorite
Maureen Thorson, Share the Wealth

John N. Cole Award for Maine Nonfiction
To be announced at the awards ceremony.

Book Award for Young People's Literature
Betty Culley, The Name She Gave Me
Sashi Kaufman, Sardines
Erica Marcus, Attention Hijacked

Book Award for Children’s
Margaret Aitken, Old Friends
Maryann Cocca-Leffler, Fighting for Yes! The Story of Disability Rights Activist Judith Heumann
Fran Hodgkins, Do Moose Ever…?
Penny West, Once Upon a Time Nobody Could Read

Book Award for Speculative Fiction
E.L. Bates, Death by Disguise
W.V. Fitz-Simon, The Third Secret
Jud Widing, Doragha

Book Award for Excellence in Publishing
Linda Buckmaster (text), Lori Harley (design), Elemental: A Miscellany of Salt Cod and Islands, Huntress Press
Margaret Hathaway (Author), Karl Schatz (Author), Don Lindgren (Introduction), Maine Community Cookbook Volume 2: 200 More Recipes Celebrating Home Cooking in the Pine Tree State, Islandport Press
Amelia Garretson-Persans, Where the Avonley Seed Falls, Maine Authors Publishing

Book Award for Anthology
The winner will be announced at the ceremony.

Drama Award 
Jayne Decker, All the Good They Gave Us
Jude Maloney, Motherclucker

Short Works Competition in Fiction
Parker Blaney, “Haole Boys”
Shannon Bowring, “New Mercies”
Aimee Newsom, “Silver Bullet”

Short Works Competition in Nonfiction
Gaye Brown, “The Rearview”
Jacquelyn Gill, “Grief Almanac for an Apocalypse”
Peter Smith, “The Unwavering Wolf Truther Who Would Be Maine’s Next Governor”

Short Works Competition in Poetry
Linda Aldrich, 5 Poems
Mike Bove, 5 Poems
Wendy Cannella, 4 Poems

Youth Competition in Fiction
Molly Gerding, “Fire, Sea, and Stars”
Felicity Record, “A Happier Childhood”
Charlotte Schatz, “To Lend a Hand”

Youth Competition in Nonfiction
Nazik Adam, “I Built a Home of Poems”
Fabio Caciel-Reyes, “Oh, What Special Memories”
Leela Marie Hidier, “Weaving Home”
Mayinga Mukinayi, “No Food, No Water, Thirteen Days in the Jungle”

Youth Competition in Poetry
Antoanieta Nsimba “What Does the Mouth Do When It Loses Its Ability to Speak?”
Carolyne Sauda, “Off-shore, You Can Stay”
Katharine Schulz, “Cat”