The Vermont Book Awards: A Celebration of Vermont Writers

The Vermont Book Awards are annual prizes for outstanding literature by Vermont authors, presented by Vermont Humanities and the Vermont Department of Libraries. Every year prizes are awarded for books written by Vermont authors and published in the previous calendar year in four categories: Poetry, Fiction, Creative nonfiction, and Children’s literature.

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Join us for this community gathering of writers and readers, honoring books published by Vermont writers in 2024. A dessert reception with cash bar will be followed by a brief program revealing the four winning authors, and announcing Vermont Humanities' next Vermont Reads pick.

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Bill McKibben will deliver this year's keynote speech!

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Join us in the beautiful, historic chapel in College Hall, at 36 College Street in Montpelier.

2024 Vermont Book Awards Finalists

Creative nonfiction

William Homestead for Not Till We Are Lost: Thoreau, Education, and Climate Crisis

Lucy Ives for An Image of My Name Enters America

Adrie Kusserow for The Trauma Mantras: A Memoir in Prose Poems

Ethan Tapper How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World

Fiction

M.T. Anderson for Nicked

Maria Hummel for Goldenseal

Carolyn Kuebler for Liquid, Fragile, Perishable

GennaRose Nethercott for Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart

Poetry

Julia C. Alter for Some Dark Familiar

Kellam Ayres for In the Cathedral of My Undoing

Margaret Draft for Nowhere Was a Lake

Alison Prine for Loss and Its Antonym

Children’s literature

Emma Hunsinger for How it All Ends (Middle grade graphic novel)

Kekla Magoon for The Secret Library (Middle grade novel)

Tanya Lee Stone for Remembering Rosalind Franklin (Picture book)

Disability Services

Vermont Humanities strives to provide accommodations whenever possible. All event locations are ADA accessible. To request a specific accommodation or a reduced price ticket contact Miciah Bay Gault at mbaygault@vermonthumanities.org by April 18.

Hosts and Sponsors

The Vermont Book Awards are presented by Vermont Humanities and the Vermont Department of Libraries, with support from the following Vermont businesses, organization, and individuals:

Phoenix Books (lead sponsor)

The Audiobook Experience (at Voice Over Vermont)

Greenway Institute

Susan Z. Ritz

The Vermont Arts Council

The Vermont Bookshop

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Keynote speaker Bill McKibben is an educator, environmentalist, and the author of more than 20 book. He helped founded 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, and recently launched Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice.