Mass Book Awards
The Massachusetts Book Awards recognize significant works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, graphic novel/memoir, and children’s/young adult literature written, illustrated, or translated by current Commonwealth residents. An annual “notable contribution to publishing” award recognizes the work of Massachusetts-based presses.
The 2025 Mass Book Awards
The 25th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards were announced on September 3, 2025. Learn more about this year’s honorees at Bookshop.org. Submissions will be accepted for the next awards cycle (books published in 2025) from September 2, 2025 to December 15, 2025.
FICTION AWARD
The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry (Tor)
FICTION HONORS
River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure (William Morrow)
The Road from Belhaven by Margot Livesey (Knopf)
FICTION LONGLIST
Nicked by M.T. Anderson (Pantheon)
To & Fro by Leah Hager Cohen (Bellevue Literary Press)
The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James (Simon & Schuster)
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali (Gallery Books)
In the Garden of Monsters by Crystal King (Mira)
The Book of Love by Kelly Link (Random House)
Sandwich by Catherine Newman (Harper)
Remember You Will Die by Eden Robins (Sourcebooks)
Jackie by Dawn Tripp (Random House)
NONFICTION AWARD
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson (Seal Press / Hachette)
NONFICTION HONORS
Freeman's Challenge: The Murder That Shook America's Original Prison for Profit by Robin Bernstein (University of Chicago Press)
Exit Wounds: How America's Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border by Ieva Jusionyte (University of California Press)
NONFICTION LONGLIST
The Education Wars: A Citizen's Guide and Defense Manual by Jennifer C. Berkshire and Jack Schneider (The New Press)
What Works in Community News by Ellen Clegg and Dan Kennedy (Beacon Press)
Slow Wood: Greener Building from Local Forests by Brian Donahue (Yale University Press)
Class Dismissed: When Colleges Ignore Inequality & Students Pay the Price by Anthony Abraham Jack (Princeton University Press)
H is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z by Elizabeth Kolbert (Ten Speed Press)
The Stolen Wealth of Slavery: A Case for Reparations by David Montero (Legacy Lit / Hachette)
Women Behind the Wheel by Nancy A. Nichols (Pegasus Books)
Making it in America by Rachel Slade (Pantheon)
Magically Black and Other Essays by Jerald Walker (Amistad)
POETRY AWARD
Auguries & Divinations by Heather Treseler (Bauhan Publishing)
POETRY HONORS
Each Knuckle with Sugar by Sarah Levine (Driftwood Press)
Glitter Road by January Gill O'Neil (CavanKerry Press)
POETRY LONGLIST
Three-Day Weekend by Christopher Blackman (Gunpowder Press)
Wild Pack of the Living by Eileen Cleary (Nixes Mate Review)
The Sorrow Apartments by Andrea Cohen (Four Way Books)
kiss & release by Anthony Dipietro (Unsolicited Press)
We Are All Sleeping with Our Sneakers On by Matthew Lippman (Four Way Books)
Psychic Party Under the Bottle Tree by Jennifer Martelli (Lily Poetry Review)
Proverbs of Limbo by Robert Pinsky (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Rupture by Adrie Rose (Gold Line Press)
Matters for You Alone by Leslie Williams (Slant Books)
MIDDLE GRADE / YOUNG ADULT AWARD
Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear by Robin Wasley (Simon & Schuster BYR)
MIDDLE GRADE / YOUNG ADULT HONORS
Better Must Come by Desmond Hall (Atheneum)
Kingdom of Dust by Lisa Stringfellow (Quill Tree Books)
MIDDLE GRADE / YOUNG ADULT LONGLIST
Spells to Forget Us by Aislinn Brophy (G.P. Putnam’s Sons BYR)
Carter Avery's Tricky Fourth-Grade Year by Rob Buyea (Delacorte Press)
When We Flew Away by Alice Hoffman (Scholastic)
Sona and the Golden Beasts by Rajani LaRocca (Quill Tree Books)
Flyboy by Kasey LeBlanc (Quill Tree Books)
The Diablo's Curse by Gabe Cole Novoa (Random House BYR)
Inheritance of Scars by Crystal Seitz (Simon & Schuster)
One Last Chance to Live by Francisco X. Stork (Scholastic)
Happy & Sad & Everything True by Alex Thayer (Aladdin)
PICTURE BOOK / EARLY READER AWARD
The Noisy Puddle by Linda Booth Sweeney. Miki Sato, illus. (Owlkids Books)
PICTURE BOOK / EARLY READER HONORS
Nothing: John Cage and 4'33" by Nicholas Day. Chris Raschka , illus. (Holiday House)
Small Things Mended by Casey Robinson. Nancy Whitesides, illus. (Rocky Pond Books)
PICTURE BOOK / EARLY READER LONGLIST
What's New Daniel by Micha Archer (Penguin Random House)
The Last Zookeeper by Aaron Becker (Candlewick)
ARTificial Intelligence by David Biedrzycki (Charlesbridge)
Miles Comes Home by Sarah S. Brannen. Forrest Burdett, illus. (Little Bee Books)
World of Rot by Britt Crow-Miller. Bruno Valasse, illus. (Storey Publishing)
Night Song by Mk Smith Despres. Hyewon Yum, illus. (Enchanted Lion Books)
Springtime Storks: A Migration Love Story by Carol Joy Munro. Chelsea O'Byrne, illus. (Minerva)
Joyful Song: A Naming Story by Lesléa Newman. Susan Gal, illus. (Levine Querido)
Is a Book a Box for Words? by Harriet Ziefert. Mercè Galí, illus. (Red Comet Press)
GRAPHIC NOVEL / MEMOIR AWARD
Sunshine by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Scholastic)
NOTABLE CONTRIBUTION TO PUBLISHING AWARD
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States adapted by Paul Peart-Smith (Beacon Press)
Autumn Allen (Barefoot Books); Jenny Arch (South Hadley Public Library); Laura Bovee (Chicopee Public Library); Robin Brenner (Woburn Public Library); Hannah Brooks-Motl (Poet, Amherst); Melanie Córdova (Montes Lit); Dina Delic (Morrill Memorial Library); Emma De Lisle (Peripheries); Melissa Dickey (Deerfield Academy); Audrey Huang (Belmont Books); Nicole-Anne Keyton (Beacon Press); Brad Lennon (Harvard Bookstore); Nathan McClain (Hampshire College / The Massachusetts Review); Lydia McOscar (Restless Books); Eric Poulin (Simmons West); Emily Prabhaker (Easthampton Public Library); Paul Swydan (Silver Unicorn Bookstore); staff and consultants of Massachusetts Center for the Book.