Previous Winners

Bringing Writers and Readers Together for Meaningful Conversation About Books that Matter

The “MassBooks” have been awarded to works published each year since 2000, the year Mass Center for the Book was founded.  Books written by Massachusetts residents, often about important Massachusetts subjects, are selected for originality, liveliness, and engaging presentation, as well as for the quality of their publication.

Fiction Award Winners

2022 The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (Viking)

2021 The Bear by Andrew Krivak (Bellevue LP)

2020 On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press)

2019 The Unmade World by Steve Yarbrough (Unbridled)

2018 The Chalk Artist by Allegra Goodman (Dial Press)

2017 Mercury by Margot Livesey (HarperCollins 2016)

2016 A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay (Wm Morrow 2015)

2015 Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (Penguin Press 2014)

2014  News from Heaven by Jennifer Haigh (Harper 2013)

2013  The Technologists by Matthew Pearl (Random House 2012)

2012  Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington (Pamela Dorman/Viking 2011)

2011  World and Town by Gish Jen (Knopf 2010)

2010  Woodsburner by John Pipkin (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday 2009)

2009  People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Viking 2008)

2008  The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead 2007)

2007  The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud (Knopf 2006)

2006  The Season of Open Water by Dawn Clifton Tripp (Random House 2005)

2005  Project X by Jim Shepard (Knopf 2004)

2004  A Kiss from Maddalena by Christopher Castellani  (Algonquin 2003)

2003  Sea Room by Norman Gautreau (MacAdam/Cage 2002)

2002  Mystic River by Dennis Lehane  (Morrow 2001)

2001  Motherkind by Jayne Anne Phillips (Knopf 2000)

Nonfiction Award Winners

2022 All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles (Random House)

2021 How to Make a Slave and Other Essays by Jerald Walker (Ohio State UP)

2020 The Body Papers by Grace Talusan (Restless Books)

2019 These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore (W. W. Norton)

2018 The Written World by Martin Puchner (Random House)

2017 A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley by Jane Kamensky (Norton 2016)

2016  Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter  by Kate Clifford Larson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2015)

2015  The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert (Holt 2014)

2014  Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshall  (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2013)

2013  Brothers by George Howe Colt (Scribner 2012)

2012 Killer Stuff and Tons of Money by Maureen P. Stanton (Penguin 2011)

2011  First Family by Joseph J. Ellis (Knopf 2010)

2010  American Passage: A History of Ellis Island by Vincent J. Cannato (Harper 2009)

2009  Snow Falling in Spring by Moying Li (FSG 2008)

2008  Salem Witch Judge by Eve LaPlante (Harper One 2007)

2007  Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking 2006)

2006  The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism by Megan Marshall  (Houghton Mifflin 2005)

2005  Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky (Algonquin 2004)

2004  Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides by Christian G. Appy (Viking 2003)

2003  Revere Beach Elegy by Roland Merullo (Beacon 2002)

2002  The Imprisoned Guest by Elisabeth Gitter (St Martins 2001)

2001  Reflections in Bullough’s Pond by Diana Muir (University Press of New Engand 2000)

Poetry Award Winners 

2022 Floaters by Martín Espada (Norton)

2021 When My Body Was A Clinched Fist by Enzo Silon Surin (Black Lawrence)

2020 Battle Dress: Poems by Karen Skolfield (Norton)

2019 The Wall by Ilan Stavans (Pittsburgh 2018)

2018 Noon Until Night by Richard Hoffman (Barrow Street 2017)

2017 Vivas to Those Who Have Failed: Poems by Martin Espada (Norton 2016)

2016  Immortality by Alan Feldman ( 2015)

2015 Misery Islands by January Gill O’Neil (Cavankerry 2014)

2014  Grass Whistle by Amy Dryansky (Salmon 2013)

2013  Place by Jorie Graham (Ecco 2012)

2012  The Trouble Ball by Martín Espada (Norton 2011)

2011  Belated Heavens by Daniel Tobin (Four Way 2010)

2010  This Is the Red Door by James R. Whitley (Ironweed 2009)

2009  The Ghost Soldiers by James Tate (Ecco 2008)

2008  Blackbird and Wolf by Henri Cole  (FSG 2007)

2007  Averno by Louise Glück (FSG 2006) 

2006  Zeppo’s First Wife: New and Selected Poems by Gail Mazur (Chicago 2005)

2005  Trouble in Mind by Lucie Brock-Broido (Knopf 2004)

2004  Middle Earth by Henri Cole (FSG 2003)

2003 Never by Jorie Graham (Cambridge 2002)

2002 Poems Seven by Alan Dugan (Seven Stories 2001)

2001 Breathing Room by Peter Davison (Knopf 2000)

Children’s/Young Adult Winners

2022 Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca (Quill Tree Books) —Middle Grade / Young Adult

2022 Dream Street by Tricia Elam Walker (Anne Schwartz Books) — Picture Book / Early Reader

2021 Flamer by Mike Curato (Holt Books for Young Readers/Macmillan) — Middle Grade/Young Adult

2021 Wherever I Go by Mary Wagley Copp (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster) — Picture Book/Early Reader

2020 Shouting at the Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt (Penguin Young Readers) — Middle Grade/Young Adult

2020 ¡Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market by Raúl the Third (Versify) — Picture Book/Early Reader

2019 Mapping the Bones by Jane Yolen (Philomel/Penguin Young Readers) — Middle Grade/Young Adult

2019 A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) — Picture Book/Early Reader

2018 The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole by Michelle Cuevas (Penguin Young Readers 2017) — Middle Grade/Young Adult

2018 Windows by Julia Denos (Candlewick 2017) — Picture Book / Early Reader

2017 The First Step: How One Girl Put Segregation on Trial by Susan E. Goodman (Bloomsbury Childrens USA 2016) — Picture Book/Early Reader

2017 Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk (Dutton/Penguin Young Readers 2016) — Middle Grade/Young Adult

2016  Ketzel, the Cat who Composed by Leslea Newman (Candlewick 2015) — Picture Book/Early Reader

2016  The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin (Little, Brown 2015) – Middle Grade/Young Adult

2015  Going Places by Peter and Paul Reynolds (Atheneum 2014) — Picture Book/Early Reader

2015  Conversion by Katherine Howe (Putnam 2014) — Middle Grade/Young Adult

2014  First Drawing by Mordicai Gerstein (Little, Brown 2013)

2013  Ocean Sunlight by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm (Blue Sky 2012)

2012  Chasing the Nightbird by Krista Russell (Peachtree 2011)

2011  The Other Side of Dark by Sarah Smith (S&S 2010)

2010  Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Little, Brown 2009)

2009  One Hen by Katie Smith Milway (Kids Can 2008)

2008  Incantation by Alice Hoffman (Little, Brown 2007)

2007  Whale Port by Mark Foster and Gerald Foster (Houghton Mifflin 2006)

2006  Where the Great Hawk Flies by Liza Ketchum (Clarion Books 2005)

2005  My Light by Molly Bang (Blue Sky 2004)

2004  The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry (Houghton Mifflin 2003)

2003  Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos (FSG/Frances Foster 2002)

2002  Moonpie & Ivy by Barbara O’Connor (FSG/Frances Foster 2001)

2001  Henry Hikes to Fitchburg by D.B. Johnson (Houghton Mifflin 2000)  — Picture Book

2001  What’s In a Name by Ellen Wittlinger (S&S 2000) — Middle Reader/Young Adult