New England Book Awards

Submissions for the 2026 New England Book Awards are now open!

Titles submitted for the 2026 awards must be either about New England, set in New England, or written by an author residing in New England. Submissions can be hardcovers, paperback originals, or reissues.

Submissions must publish between September 1, 2025 and August 31, 2026. The award categories are Children's, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, and Poetry. Any bookseller employed by active NEIBA members may submit their own ballot. Only one ballot may be submitted per person.

The 2026 New England Book Award winners will be announced on September 16, 2026 at the NEIBA Fall Conference in Newton, Massachusetts. See the list of previous winners below!

2025

Fiction

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson (Ballantine Books)
The Lilac People by Milo Todd (Catapult Book Group)
Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh (Hachette Book Group)
WINNER: The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (Ballantine Books)
Spent by Alison Bechdel (Mariner Books)

Nonfiction

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
Magically Black by Jerald Walker (Amistad)
Black Moses by Caleb Gayle (Riverhead)
WINNER: How to Love a Forest by Ethan Tapper (Broadleaf Books)
The Salt Stones by Helen Whybrow (Milkweed Editions)

Poetry

Ultraviolet of the Genuine by Hannah Brooks-Motl (The Song Cave)
Five-Paragraph Essay on the Body-Mind Problem by Rachel Trousdale (Wesleyan University Press)
My Infinity by Didi Jackson (Red Hen Press)
Scorched Earth by Tiana Clark (Simon & Schuster)
WINNER: Super Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Poetry after Stonewall by Stephanie Burt (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press)

Picture Book

Hazel the Handful by Jamie Michalak, illustrated by Matt Myers (Candlewick)
Our Joyful Noise by Gabriele Davis, illustrated by Craig Stanley (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
WINNER: Big Enough by Regina Linke (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Kittybunkport by Scott Rothman, illustrated by Zachariah OHora (Viking Books for Young Readers)
Wind Watchers by Micha Archer (Nancy Paulsen Books) 

Middle Grade

WINNER: Blood in the Water by Tiffany D. Jackson (Scholastic) 
Family Week by Sarah Moon (Knopf Books for Young Readers) 
Candle Island by Lauren Wolk (Dutton Books for Young Readers)
Noodle and Bao by Shaina Lu (Quill Tree Books)
Creaky Acres by Calista Brill and Nilah Magruder (Kokila)

Young Adult

Top Heavy by Rhonda DeChambeau (Holiday House)
A Spell to Wake the Dead by Nicole Lesperance (G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers)
WINNER: The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb (Levine Querido)
Just Until by Joseph Moldover (Margaret Ferguson Books)
Spells to Forget Us by Aislinn Brophy (G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers)

2024

Fiction

WINNER! North Woods by Daniel Mason (Random House)

Rainbow Black by Maggie Thrash (Harper Perennial) 

Fire Exit by Morgan Talty (Tin House)

Sandwich by Catherine Newman (HarperCollins)

Swift River by Essie Chambers (Simon & Schuster)

Nonfiction

Of Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery (Mariner Books)

WINNER! Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson (Penguin)

A House Restored by Lee McColgan (Countryman Press)

Wild Girls by Tiya Miles (W.W. Norton & Co)

God Save Benedict Arnold by Jack Kelly (St. Martin’s Press)

Poetry

WINNER! The Wonder of Small Things by James Crews (Storey Publishing)

In the Cathedral of My Undoing by Kellam Ayres (Gunpowder Press)

Have You Been Long Enough at Table by Leslie Sainz (Tin House)

Auguries and Divinations by Heather Treseler (Bauhan Publishing)

Glitter Road by January Gill O'Neil (CavanKerry Press)

Picture Book

WINNER! Small Things Mended by Casey W Robinson; illustrated by Nancy Whitesides (Rocky Pond Books)

An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children by Jamaica Kincaid; illustrated by Kara Walker (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Cranky by Phuc Tran; illustrated by Pete Oswald (HarperCollins)

Life After Whale by Lynn Brunelle; illustrated by Jason Chin (Neal Porter Books)

Night Song by Mk Smith Despres; illustrated by Hyewon Yum (Enchanted Lion)

Middle Grade

WINNER! Chinese Menu by Grace Lin (Little, Brown)

Colonization and the Wampanoag Story by Linda Coombs (Crown Books)

How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger (Greenwillow Books)

WINNER! Timid by Jonathan Todd (Graphix)

The Secret Library by Kekla Magoon (Candlewick)

Young Adult

The Fall of Whit Rivera by Crystal Maldonado (Holiday House)

WINNER! Gather by Kenneth Cadow (Candlewick)

Practical Rules for Cursed Witches by Kayla Cottingham (Delacorte Press)

Four Eids and a Funeral by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Adiba Jaigirdar (Feiwel & Friends)

Mysterious Ways: A Novel by Wendy Wunder (Wednesday Books)

2023 Winners
Fiction: Yellowface by RF Kuang (William Morrow)
Nonfiction: Fen, Bog & Swamp written by Annie Proulx (Scribner)
Poetry: The Diaspora Sonnets by Oliver de la Paz (Liveright)
Picture Book: Homeland written by Hannah Moushabeck and illustrated by Reem Madooh (Chronicle Books)
Middle Grade: Hoops written and illustrated by Matt Tavares (Candlewick)
Young Adult: When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb (Levine Querido)

2022 Winners           
Fiction: Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty (Tin House)
Nonfiction: Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Isaac Fitzgerald (Bloomsbury)
Poetry: Such Color by Tracy K. Smith (Graywolf Press)
Picture Book: Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story written by Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry and Alexis Bunten and illustrated by Garry Meeches Sr. (Charlesbridge)
Middle Grade: Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Young Adult: Squire written by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh and illustrated by Sara Alfageeh (Quill Tree Books)

2021 Winners
Fiction: Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge (Algonquin Books)
Nonfiction: The Secret to Superhuman Strength written and illustrated by Alison Bechdel (Mariner Books)
Poetry: Just Us by Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press)
Picture Book: Watercress written by Andrea Wang and illustrated by Jason Chin (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House)
Middle Grade: Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca (Quill Tree Books)
Young Adult: Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado (Holiday House)

2020 Winners
Fiction - Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom)
Nonfiction - Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran (Flatiron Books)
Poetry - The Absurd Man: Poems by Major Jackson (W. W. Norton & Company)
Children's - Saturday written and illustrated by Oge Mora (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Middle Grade - Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Young Adult - The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

(Click here to view and Edelweiss collection of all 2020 finalists.)

2019 Winners
Fiction - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (Penguin)
Nonfiction - Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight (Simon & Schuster)
Children's - New Kid by Jerry Craft (HarperCollins)
Young Adult - Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Graphix)

(Click here to view and Edelweiss collection of all 2019 finalists.)

2018 Winners
Fiction - Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Penguin)
Nonfiction - Vacationland by John Hodgman (Penguin)
Children's - Rescue And Jessica by Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes, illust. Scott Magoon, (Candlewick)
Young Adult - The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (Little, Brown for Young Readers)

2017 Winners
Fiction - Women In The Castle by Jessica Shattuck (William Morrow)
Nonfiction - Stranger In The Woods by Michael Finkel (Knopf)
Children's - Some Writer by Melissa Sweet (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Young Adult - The Gentleman's Guide To Vice And Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (Katherine Tegen Books)

2016 Winners
Fiction - Before the Fall by Noah Hawley (Grand Central Publishing)
Nonfiction - Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery (Simon & Schuster)
Children's - Wolf Hallow by Lauren Wolk (Dutton/Penguin Young Readers)

2015 Winners
Fiction - Blue Horses: Poems by Mary Oliver (Penguin)
Nonfiction - Being Mortal by Atul Gawande (Metropolitan)
Children's - Baba Yaga's Assistant by Marika McColla, illust. Emily Carroll (Candlewick)

2014 Winners
Fiction - Euphoria by Lily King (Grove Atlantic)
Nonfiction - Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast (Bloomsbury)
Children's - Firefly July by Paul Janeczko, illust. Melissa Sweet (Candlewick)

2013 Winners
Fiction - The Art Forger by Barbara A. Shapiro (Algonquin)
Nonfiction - Bunker Hill by Nathaniel Philbrick (Penguin)
Children's - If I Built a House by Chris Van Dusen (Dial)

2012 Winners
Fiction - The Flight Of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey (HarperCollins)
Nonfiction -Remembering the Music by Kate Whouley (Beacon Press)
Children's - More by I. C. Springman & illustrated by Brian Lies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

2011 Winners
Fiction - Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
Nonfiction - Warmth Of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson ( Random House)
Children's - Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf)

2010 Winners
Fiction - Father of the Rain by Lily King (Grove Atlantic)
Nonfiction - Let's Take the Long Way Home by Gail Caldwell (Random House)
Children's - City Dog, Country Frog written by Mo Willems, illust. Jon J Muth (Hyperion)

For 20 years, NEIBA recognized New England authors’ body of work with the New England Book Awards. In 2010 we chose the focus on titles in specific categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, and Children’s. In 2017, the Young Adult award was added.

Other distinctions previously awarded by NEIBA include Editorial Excellence and Literary Excellence, as well as an award for exemplary New England Publishing. 

One of the longest-running New England Book Awards is the President's Award, given by the NEIBA Board President for lifetime achievement in arts and letters.

2025 Catherine Newman  

2024 Lily King

2023 Jenny Boylan

2022 Kate Messner

2021 Julia Alvarez

2020 Eric Carle

2019 Stephen King

2018 Elizabeth McCracken

2017 John Irving

2016 Elizabeth Strout

2015 Lois Lowry

2014 Sy Montgomery

2013 Wendell & Florence Minor

2012 Wally Lamb

2011 Howard Frank Mosher

2010 Dahlov Ipcar

2009 Ward Just

2008 David Macaulay

2007 Richard Russo

2006 Richard Ford

2005 Tracy Kidder

2004 James Carroll

2003 Doris Kearns Goodwin

2002 Donald Hall

2001 David McCullough

2000 Seamus Heaney

1999 Arthur Miller

1998 Saul Bellow

1997 Cornel West

1996 Grace Paley

1995 Seymour Lawrence

1994 Dr. Robert Coles

1993 Doris Grumbach

1992 John Kenneth Galbraith

1991 Robert McCloskey