Vermont Humanities is proud to present the Vermont Book Awards, an annual celebration of outstanding literature by Vermont authors.
2025
POETRY
- Westminster West by Chard deNiord
- Dissonance by Kristin Dykstra
- Strange Hymn by Carlene Kucharczyk – Winner
- The Kingdom Where No One Dies by Jeff McRae
CREATIVE NONFICTION
- If I Can Get Home This Fall by Tyler Alexander
- Putting Myself Together by Jamaica Kincaid
- The Salt Stones by Helen Whybrow – Winner
FICTION
- Good Girl by Aria Aber
- Spent by Alison Bechdel
- Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman
- Sidework by Sasha Hom – Winner
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
- The Ghost of Wreckers Cove by Angelica Del Campo and Liniers
- Night Swimming by Aaron Starmer
- Kat’s Greek Summer by Mima Tipper – Winner
2024
POETRY
- Some Dark Familiar by Julia C. Alter
- In the Cathedral of My Undoing by Kellam Ayres
- Nowhere Was a Lake by Margaret Draft – Winner
- Loss and Its Antonym by Alison Prine
CREATIVE NONFICTION
- Not Till We Are Lost: Thoreau, Education, and Climate Crisis by William Homestead
- An Image of My Name Enters America by Lucy Ives – Winner
- The Trauma Mantras: A Memoir in Prose Poems by Adrie Kusserow
- How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World by Ethan Tapper
FICTION
- Nicked by M.T. Anderson
- Goldenseal by Maria Hummel
- Liquid, Fragile, Perishable by Carolyn Kuebler
- Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart by GennaRose Nethercott – Winner
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
- How it All Ends (Middle grade graphic novel) by Emma Hunsinger – Winner
- The Secret Library (Middle grade novel) by Kekla Magoon
- Remembering Rosalind Franklin (Picture book) by Tanya Lee Stone
2023
POETRY
- Creature by Michael Dumanis
- The Shared World by Vievee Francis – Winner
- Have You Been Long Enough at Table by Leslie Saintz
- Collected Poems by Ellen Bryant Voigt
CREATIVE NONFICTION
- Deep North: Stories of Somali Resettlement in Vermont by Brad Kessler
- The Book by Mary Ruefle – Winner
- The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War by Jeff Sharlet
FICTION
- Lush Lives by J. Vanessa Lyon
- In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel by Genevieve Plunkett
- Assia by Sandra Simonds – Winner
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
- Elf Dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson (middle grade novel)
- Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow (young adult novel)
- The Minus-One Club by Kekla Magoon (young adult novel)
- Hidden Systems by Dan Nott (graphic literature) – Winner
2022
POETRY
- Yearn by Rage Hezekiah
- What Happens Next Is Anyone’s Guess by Carol Potter
- What Is Otherwise Infinite by Bianca Stone – Winner
CREATIVE NONFICTION
- Looking for the Hidden Folk: How Iceland’s Elves Can Save the Earth by Nancy Marie Brown
- Aurelia, Aurélia by Kathryn Davis – Winner
- Still No Word from You: Notes in the Margin by Peter Orner
FICTION
- Revenge of the Scapegoat by Caren Beilin – Winner
- The Storyteller’s Death by Ann Dávila Cardinal
- Marigold and Rose by Louise Glück
- Keen by Erin Stalcup
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
- We Made it All Up by Margot Harrison (Young Adult)
- Meant to Be by Jo Knowles (middle grade)
- The Night Wild by Zoë Tilley Poster (picture book) – Winner
- Firsts and Lasts: The Changing Seasons by Leda Schubert (picture book)
2021
POETRY
- Disintegration Loops by Stephen Cramer
- GHETTOCLAUSTROPHOBIA: Dreamin of Mama While Trying to Speak Woman in Woke Tongues by Shanta Lee Gander – Winner
- American Wake by Kerrin McCadden
CREATIVE NONFICTION
- The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel – Winner
- But You Seemed So Happy: A Marriage, in Pieces and Bits by Kimberly Harrington
- Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People by Kekla Magoon
- Endpapers: A Family Story of Books, War, Escape, and Home by Alexander Wolff
FICTION
- The Hare by Melanie Finn – Winner
- North by Brad Kessler
- The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller
- An Apparent Horizon and Other Stories by Ricardo Wilson
2019
- Box, Sue Burton (Poetry)
- My Bishop and Other Poems, Michael Collier (Poetry)
- Age of Glass, Anna Maria Hong (Poetry)
- H&G, Anna Maria Hong (Fiction)
- A Stitch in Time, Daphne Kalmar (Children’s Literature)
- Berlin, Jason Lutes (Fiction) – Winner
- The Season of Styx Malone, Kekla Magoon (Children’s Literature)
- The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai (Fiction)
- The Animal One Thousand Miles Long: Seven Lengths of Vermont and Other Adventures, Leath Tonino (Creative Nonfiction)
- Drunk in the Woods, Tony Whedon (Creative Nonfiction)
2018
- The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden (Fiction)
- Grand Canyon, Jason Chin (Children’s Literature, Picture Book)
- Selected Delanty, Greg Delanty (Poetry)
- Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray, Adam Federman (Creative Nonfiction)
- Event Boundaries, April Ossmann (Poetry)
- Breaking Bread: A Baker’s Journey Home in 75 Recipes, Martin Philip (Creative Nonfiction) – Winner
- Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time, Tanya Lee Stone (Children’s Literature, Young Adult Fiction)
2017
- Swallowed by the Cold, Jensen Beach (Fiction) – Winner
- The Gloaming, Melanie Finn (Fiction)
- The Killer in Me, Margot Harrison (Children’s Literature, Young Adult Fiction)
- Half Wild, Robin MacArthur (Fiction)
- Riverine: A Memoir from Anywhere but Here, Angela Palm (Creative Nonfiction)
- Willy Loman’s Reckless Daughter: Living Truthfully Under Imaginary Circumstances, Elizabeth A. I. Powell (Poetry)
- Steel, Alison Prine (Poetry)
- My Private Property, Mary Ruefle (Poetry)
2016
- The Devil in the Valley, Castle Freeman, Jr. (Fiction)
- Dream Sender, David Huddle (Poetry)
- Roll Deep, Major Jackson (Poetry) – Winner
- Read Between the Lines, Jo Knowles (Children’s Literature, Young Adult Fiction)
- A Slant of Light, Jeffrey Lent (Fiction)
- The Night Sister, Jennifer McMahon (Fiction)
- Finding Abbey: A Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave, Sean Prentiss (Creative Nonfiction)
- The Academy of Hay, Julia Shipley (Poetry)
- Another Kind of Hurricane, Tamara Ellis Smith (Children’s Literature, Middle-Grade Fiction)
2015
- Winter Ready, Leland Kinsey (Poetry)
- Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes, Kerrin McCadden (Poetry) – Winner
- Museum of the Americas, Gary Lee Miller (Fiction)
- If Only You People Could Follow Directions, Jessica Hendry Nelson (Creative Nonfiction)
- Like Water on Stone, Dana Walrath (Fiction)
- Belzhar, Meg Wolitzer (Children’s Literature, Young Adult Fiction)
