The Maine Literary Awards take place every year in spring to honor the writing of Mainers from the previous year, with nominations open to all residents. The awards recognize published works, drama, short works, and student writing across various categories and offer a chance to celebrate the best of Maine writing while often bringing lesser known creators to light. The annual competition is held by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Are you a writer? You can even self-nominate, so let that idea inspire you as you take pen to paper!
Follow the links below to learn more about the 2022 winners of published works and request them from our catalog.
Crime Fiction
Dead by Dawn, Paul Doiron
Fiction
Margreete’s Harbor, Eleanor Morse
Nonfiction and Co-Winner for John N. Cole Award for Maine Nonfiction
The Field House: A Writer's Life Lost and Found on an Island in Maine, Robin Clifford Wood
Memoir
We Share the Same Sky: A Memoir of Memory & Migration, Rachael Cerrotti
Poetry (Co-Winners)
Dear Specimen, W.J. Herbert
Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments in Short Prose, Jefferson Navicky
Young People's Literature
River Magic, Ellen Booraem
Children's
The First Blade of Sweetgrass, Suzanne Greenlaw & Gabriel Frey, illus. Nancy Baker
Speculative Fiction
Rhizome, James. M. Wright
Excellence in Publishing
The Sonnets to Orpheus, Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. John Rosenwald (Covered Bridge Press)
Anthology and Co-Winner for John N. Cole Award for Maine Nonfiction
Kuhkomossonuk Akonutomuwinokot: Stories Our Grandmothers Told Us, ed. Wayne A. Newell & Robert M. Leavitt