Massachusetts Center for the Book (MCB) is pleased to announce the “Must Read” longlists in the 20th annual Massachusetts Book Awards. The awards recognize significant works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for adults and young readers written by Massachusetts authors and published during the preceding calendar year.
This year’s longlist for Fiction includes Bunny (Viking), by South Boston resident Mona Awad, a dark academic satire and creepy horror novel following a group of mean girls in an MFA program; it makes the reader simultaneously laugh and cringe. “It’s beautiful to check in with what’s being done around the state – and to give a boost to fiction that deserves to be widely read,” stated William Pierce, Coeditor of AGNI Magazine and lead fiction judge for this year’s Mass Book Awards.
In August, the Center will announce the award winner and two honors titles in each of the five award categories with the hope of celebrating all titles in the program at a 20th anniversary reception in the Fall. The complete list follows:
Must-Read Fiction:
The
Age of Light by Whitney Scharer; Big Giant Floating Head by
Christopher Boucher; Blue Hours by Daphne Kalotay; Bunny by Mona
Awad; A Kind of Solitude by Dariel Suarez; Leading Men by
Christopher Castellani; The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull; The Limits of
the World by Jennifer Acker; On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by
Ocean Vuong; Repentance by Andrew Lam; This Is Not a Love Song by
Brendan Mathews; Wake Siren by Nina MacLaughlin
Must-Read Nonfiction:
American
Radicals by Holly Jackson; Black Radical by Kerri K.
Greenidge; The Body Papers by Grace Talusan; City on a Hill by
Alex Krieger; Once More to the Rodeo by Calvin Hennick; The
Optimist’s Telescope by Bina Venkataraman; Some of My Friends Are by
Deborah L. Plummer; The Soul of Care by Arthur Kleinman; Stony The
Road by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Walk this Way by Geoff Edgers; What
We Will Become by Mimi Lemay; Womanish by Kim McLarin
Must-Read Poetry:
Battle
Dress by Karen Skolfield; The Boy in the Labyrinth by
Oliver de la Paz; Here All Night by Jill McDonough; Little-Known
Operas by Patrick Donnelly; The Lord of Everywhere by John Hodgen; Love
and I by Fanny Howe; Memento Mori by Charles Coe; Nightshade by Andrea Cohen; Soft
Science by Franny Choi; Ugly Music by Diannely Antigua; Voices of
Dogtown by James R. Scrimgeour; Wonder Tissue by Hannah Larrabee
Must-Read Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature:
1919 The Year That Changed America by
Martin W. Sandler; Cilla Lee-Jenkins: The Epic Story by Susan Tan; Diary
of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney; Every Moment After by
Joseph Moldover; Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca; The Next Great
Paulie Fink by Ali Benjamin; Revenge of the Red Club by Kim
Harrington; Shouting at the Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt; The Waning
Age by S.E. Grove; What Every Girl Should Know by J. Albert Mann; White
Rose by Kip Wilson; XL by Scott Brown
Must-Read Picture Books/Early Readers:
Because by Mo Willems; Daniel’s Good Day by Micha Archer; Eek,
You Reek! by Jane Yolen and Heidi E. Y. Stemple; Follow Chester! by
Gloria Respress-Churchwell; Gittel’s Journey by Lesléa Newman; Here
and Now by Julia Denos; The Hundred-Year Barn by Patricia
MacLachlan; Linus the Little Yellow Pencil by Scott Magoon; Monument
Maker by Linda Booth Sweeney; Tiny Feet Between the Mountains by
Hanna Cha; ¡Vamos! Let’s Go to the
Market by Raúl the Third; What Miss Mitchell Saw by Hayley
Barrett
“In the midst of a public health crisis, we take heart that we can announce another exciting year for Massachusetts writing,” said Sharon Shaloo, Executive Director of MCB. “These awards confirm the strength and vitality of our extensive community of authors and illustrators working in our academic and literary economies. We look forward to promoting the long lists in every way we can throughout the spring and summer.”
The Massachusetts Center for the Book is a public-private partnership, chartered as the Commonwealth affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, and charged with developing, supporting and promoting cultural programming to advance the cause of books and reading. For more information, please visit massbook.org or call 617-872-3718.
