Massachusetts Center for the Book is delighted to announce two years of Massachusetts Book Awards, the 18th and 19th awards (for books published in 2017 and 2018 respectively).
18th Annual Awards and Honors
 (2017 publication)
Fiction Award:  The Chalk Artist by Allegra Goodman (Dial Press)
Fiction Honors: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Penguin Press) and The World of Tomorrow by Brendan Mathews (Little, Brown)

Nonfiction Award:  The Written World by Martin Puchner (Random House)
Nonfiction Honors: Cuz by Danielle Allen (W. W. Norton) and The True Flag by Stephen Kinzer (Henry Holt)

Poetry Award: Noon Until Night by Richard Hoffman (Barrow Street)
Poetry Honors: In the Still of the Night by Dara Wier (Wave Books) and Said Not Said by Fred Marchant (Graywolf)

Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature Award :  The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole by Michelle Cuevas (Penguin Young Readers)
Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature Honors: And Then There Were Four by Nancy Werlin (Penguin Young Readers) and Fault Lines in the Constitution by Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson  (Peachtree)

Picture Book Award :  Windows by Julia Denos (Candlewick)
Picture Book Honors: Sparkle Boy by Lesléa Newman (Lee & Low) and
The Banana-Leaf Ball by Katie Smith Milway (Kids Can)
19th Annual Awards and Honors
 (2018 publication)
Fiction Award:  The Unmade World by Steve Yarbrough (Unbridled)
Fiction Honors:  Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee (Viking) and The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Nonfiction Award:  These Truths by Jill Lepore (W. W. Norton)
Nonfiction Honors:  Into the Raging Sea by Rachel Slade (Ecco) and
The Game by George Howe Colt (Scribner)

Poetry Award:  The Wall by Ilan Stavans (Pittsburgh)
Poetry Honors:  Ornitheology by Kevin McLellan (Word Works) and Rewilding by January Gill O’Neil (CavanKerry Press)

Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature Award:  Mapping the Bones by Jane Yolen (Penguin Young Readers)
Middle Grade/Young Adult Literature Honors:  Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Scholastic) and Lucy Castor Finds Her Sparkle by Natasha Lowe (Simon & Schuster)

Picture Book Award:  A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Picture Book Honors: Pipsqueaks, Slowpokes, and Stinkers by Melissa Stewart (Peachtree) and The Rough Patch by Brian Lies (Greenwillow)
These books were submitted with a record number of entries and selected from an estimable collection of long-listed books designated as "Must Reads," a list you can soon access at the book awards section of our website.
 Massachusetts Center for the Book is proud to administer the largest state book awards program in the country, a testament to the vitality of the contemporary writing community in our commonwealth. 

As always, we are grateful to a dedicated and discerning panel of judges and advisors who reviewed selections from enviably strong fields under consideration for the 18 th and 19 th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards. Thank you to Carol Baldwin, Lynn Blair, Laurie Cavanaugh, Charles Coe, Cindy Erle, Andrea Fiorillo, Betsy Groban, Karen Kosko, Rob MacLean, Jacqueline Rafferty, Amy Rhilinger, Elizabeth Safford, and Sean Thibodeau for working so well with one another and with members of the staff and board of the Center to bring two years of awards to this exciting culmination. 
SAVE THE DATE: We have scheduled an awards celebration for September 17, 2019, at the Massachusetts State House. We hope you will join us to celebrate the award and honors authors from the past three years and to look forward to the 20th awards! Details and an invitation to the event will follow.  
Thanks, again, to all of you for being part of our first 20 years!