PORTLAND — At a ceremony on Thursday, May 29 at the University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Family Library in Portland, the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance announced the winners of the 2014 Maine Literary Awards.
This year’s awards brought in a record-breaking number of submissions: nearly 125 books were entered across the genres; more than 70 manuscripts were submitted into the award’s Short Works Competition in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; and nearly 70 Maine students submitted work in the same categories in the award’s Youth Competition.
The winners for book awards include: Roxana Robinson for “Sparta” in fiction; Al Lamanda for “Sunrise” in crime fiction; Mark D. Diehl for “Seventeen: Book One” in speculative fiction; Lincoln Paine for “The Sea and Civilization” in nonfiction; Peter Korn for “Why We Make Things and Why it Matters” in memoir; Christian Barter for “In Someone Else’s House” in poetry; Lynn Plourde for “You’re Wearing THAT to School?!” in children’s; Maria Padian for “Out of Nowhere” in young adult; Martha White for “E.B. White on Dogs” in anthology; Reeser Manley and Marjorie Peronto for “New England Gardener’s Year” in the John N. Cole Award for Maine-themed nonfiction; and Elizabeth W. Garber and Michael Weymouth for “Maine (Island Time)” for excellence in publishing.
The winners in the short works competition were Deborah H. Gould for fiction, Mira Ptacin for nonfiction and Christopher Robley for poetry.
The youth competition winners were Grace Whited for fiction, Toby Choyt for nonfiction and Tessa Holbrook for poetry. Elysia P. Roorbach was recognized for being a youth finalist three years in a row. All of the work by this year’s youth award winners will be published in the first June edition of the “Portland Phoenix.”
Maine journalist Bob Keyes was awarded the MWPA’s annual Distinguished Achievement Award for “exceptional and steadfast contributions to Maine’s literary community.”
A full set of the nearly 125 nominated books will be donated to the Cherryfield Free Public Library.
The 2014 Maine Literary Awards were sponsored by three independent bookstores: Sherman’s Books, booksellers since 1886; Portland’s Longfellow; and Damariscotta’s Maine Coast Book Shop.
The 2014 Maine Literary Awards were also generously supported by the John N. Cole family, Just Write Books, Maine Authors Publishing & Cooperative, Maine Poets Society, North40Creative, and the University of Southern Maine’s Glickman Library.
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