The list of 2018 finalists has been revealed for the Vermont Book Award — a literary prize awarded annually by Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, for works of outstanding literary merit by Vermont authors.
Miciah Bay Gault, program director for the MFA in writing and publishing at VCFA, joined VPR to announce the finalists yet again.
The 2018 Vermont Book Award finalists are:
- Selected Delanty, by Greg Delanty
- Event Boundaries, by April Ossmann
- Grand Canyon, by Jason Chin
- Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time, by Tanya Lee Stone
- Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray, by Adam Federman
- Breaking Bread: A Baker's Journey Home in 75 Recipes, by Martin Philip
- The Bear and the Nightingale, by Katherine Arden
Learn more about the Vermont Book Award at the VCFA website.
The seven nominees announced Tuesday fall within four categories — fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and children's literature — but ultimately only one winner is chosen for the award, Gault explained, and that final announcement will be made Sept. 22.
"These books are super exciting," Gault told VPR about the finalists, which were all published in 2017. "I feel like it's a really dynamic year for the Vermont Book Award."
Book nominations are received from a committee of the state's independent booksellers and from publishers, Gault said — and actually for this go-around, the pool of nominators opened up even further:
"This year, for the first time, we opened nominations to the public. ... It was open for about two weeks and people could go online and nominate a book," Gault said. "And it was great. We had great turnout."
Gault adds that while she will still be involved in the Vermont Book Award in the future, she is stepping down as program director for the MFA program at VCFA to concentrate more on her own work. She announced that her first novel will be published by Harper Collins, likely next year.
Disclosure: Mitch Wertlieb has served as a judge for the Vermont Book Award.
