Spring is nearly here, which means longer days, muddier roads — and, for enthusiasts of the written word, the announcement of the Vermont Book Awards finalists.
The awards honor outstanding local work in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and children’s literature. The prizes are overseen by Vermont Humanities and the state Department of Libraries.
Miciah Bay Gault directs the Vermont Book Awards, and joined Vermont Public's Jenn Jarecki to reveal the 2024 finalists.
Creative nonfiction
- William Homestead for Not Till We Are Lost: Thoreau, Education, and Climate Crisis
- Lucy Ives for An Image of My Name Enters America
- Adrie Kusserow for The Trauma Mantras: A Memoir in Prose Poems
- Ethan Tapper How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World
More from Vermont Public: Bestselling author Chris Bohjalian publishes his 25th book
Fiction
- M.T. Anderson for Nicked
- Maria Hummel for Goldenseal
- Carolyn Kuebler for Liquid, Fragile, Perishable
- GennaRose Nethercott for Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart
More from Vermont Public: Like romance or fantasy novels? Here's a 'romantasy' starter list
Poetry
- Julia C. Alter for Some Dark Familiar
- Kellam Ayres for In the Cathedral of My Undoing
- Margaret Draft for Nowhere Was a Lake
- Alison Prine for Loss and Its Antonym
More from Vermont Public: Northeast Kingdom poet-artist Toussaint St. Negritude
Children’s literature
- Emma Hunsinger for How it All Ends (Middle grade graphic novel)
- Kekla Magoon for The Secret Library (Middle grade novel)
- Tanya Lee Stone for Remembering Rosalind Franklin (Picture book)
Winners will be announced May 3 during the Vermont Book Awards celebration at the College Hall chapel in Montpelier. The dessert and cocktail event will also be a celebration of Vermont Humanities’ Vermont Reads program. Bill McKibben will offer a keynote address.
