2026 Winners
MWPA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 Maine Literary Awards. Thank you to the 300+ writers and publishers who sent in their work for consideration and thank you to this year’s 30+ jurors for all of their reading and deliberating. You can find the list of finalists here.
Book Award for Crime Fiction
Sara Sligar, Vantage Point
Book Award for Fiction
Jud Widing, Bud’s Dead.
Book Award for Nonfiction
Alix Morris, A Year with the Seals: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sea's Most Charismatic and Controversial Creatures
Book Award for Memoir
Michelle Lewis, Spare
Book Award for Poetry
Lily Brown, Blade Work
Book Award for Young People's Literature
Robin Elsbeth Jenkins, The Secret of the Catapus
Book Award for Children’s
Joyce Sidman and Melissa Sweet (Illustrator), Dear Acorn (Love, Oak): Letter Poems to Friends
Book Award for Speculative Fiction
Miriam I. Rimkunas, Survivor Concentrate
Book Award for Excellence in Publishing
Rylan Hynes (Editor), It Rains Diamonds on Neptune, The Telling Room
Book Award for Anthology
Mira Ptacin (Editor), All Along You Were Blooming: Collected Writings by Incarcerated Women at the Maine Correctional Center and Their Allies
John N. Cole Award for Maine Nonfiction (co-winners)
Alix Morris, A Year with the Seals: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sea's Most Charismatic and Controversial Creatures
Michelle Lewis, Spare
Drama Award
No winner selected by the judges this year.
Short Works Competition in Fiction
Madison Ellingsworth, “At the Auction House”
Short Works Competition in Nonfiction
Stephanie Cotsirilos, “The Gift”
Short Works Competition in Poetry
t love smith, “from the barrens”
Youth Competition in Fiction
Nela Parker, “Have You Seen Sofia?”
Youth Competition in Nonfiction
Caroline Chong, “At Halmonie’s Table”
Youth Competition in Poetry
Albertina Dos Santos, “To Love a Country”
SPECIAL AWARDS
2026 BOOK DONATION RECIPIENTS
As in years past, the MWPA will donate a copy of every book nominated to this year’s awards (165 books in all) to a Maine library in need. We will announce the library that will receive this year’s books in the coming weeks.
2026 MWPA DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Robert Farnsworth, for exceptional and steadfast contributions to Maine literary arts through his poetry and teaching at Bates College for almost three decades.
AND
Jan Coates, for exceptional and steadfast contributions to Maine literary arts as the founder and longtime director of Island Readers & Writers.
