Past Winners
*There were no finalists for the 2021 Housatonic Book Award in YA/MG.
2020
2019
Poetry
Winner: The Second O of Sorrow by Sean Thomas Dougherty
Finalists:
Fire Season by Patrick Coleman
Mend by Kwoya Fagin Maples
My Tarantella by Jennifer Martelli
American Radiance by Luisa Muradyan
Fiction
Winner: The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
Finalists:
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Solemn Graves by James R. Benn
Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Nonfiction
Winner: The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantu
Finalists:
Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation by Robert W. Fieseler
There Will Be No Miracles Here: A Memoir by Casey Gerald
Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King
Young Adult/Middle Grade
Winner: Hole in the Middle by Kendra Fortmeyer
Finalists:
Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
I Love You, Michael Collins by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
2018
Fiction: Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran
Poetry: Barbie Chang by Victoria Chang
Nonfiction: Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly
YA/Middle Grade: Trell by Dick Lehr
2017
Fiction:
Winner: Dancing with the Tiger by Lili Wright
Finalists:
Modern Girls by Jennifer S. Brown
All Stories Are Love Stories by Elizabeth Percer
The Monster’s Daughter by Michelle Pretorius
The Exit Coach by Megan Staffel
Poetry:
Winner: Off Message by Joel Brouwer
Finalists:
Performance of Being Human by Daniel Borzutsky
One Hundred Hungers by Lauren Camp
Hundred Year Wave by Rachel Richardson
Diving Makes the Water Deep by Zach Savich
Young Adult and Middle Grade:
Winner: Still a Work in Progress by Jo Knowles
Finalists:
The Only Road by Alexandra Diaz
Go South to Freedom by Frye Gaillard
Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow
Life at the Speed of Us by Heather Sappenfield
Nonfiction:
Winner: The Inventors by Peter Selgin
Finalists:
Walking the Llano: A Texas Memoir of Place by Shelley Armitage
A Piece of Sky, A Grain of Rice by Christine Hale
The Jaguar Man by Lara Naughton
A Road Unforeseen: Woman Fight the Islamic State by Meredith Tax
2016
Poetry:
Winner: Bastards of the Reagan Era, Reginald Dwayne Betts (Four Way Books)
Finalists:
One Blackbird at a Time, Wendy Barker (BkMk Press)
Gog, Brandi George (Black Lawrence Press)
Silent Anatomies, Monica Ong (Kore Press)
The Verging Cities, Natalie Scenters-Zapico (Center for Literary Publishing)
Fiction: (Literary Fiction)
Winner: My Sunshine Away, M. O. Walsh (Putnam)
Finalists:
Nonprofit, Matt Burriesci (New Issues)
The Misadventures of Sulliver Pong, Leland Cheuk (Chicago Center for Literature and Photography)
Prudence, David Treuer (Riverhead Books)
Twister, Genanne Walsh (Black Lawrence Press)
Young Adult and Middle Grade
Winner: Romancing the Dark in the City of Light, Ann Jacobus (Thomas Dunne Books)
Finalists:
Leif’s Journey, Terry Hokenson (namelos)
The Saga of Gudrid the Far Traveler, Nancy Marie-Brown (namelos)
My Seneca Village, Marilyn Nelson (namelos)
The Rosemary Spell, Virginia Zimmerman (Clarion)
Nonfiction
Winner: Planck: Driven by Vision, Broken by War, Brandon Brown (Oxford University Press)
Finalists:
All Who Go Do Not Return, Shulem Deen (Graywolf)
Mot: A Memoir, Sarah Einstein (University of Georgia Press)
Belief Is Its Own Kind of Truth, Lori Jakiela (Atticus Books)
Nagasaki: Life after Nuclear War, Susan Southard (Viking/Penguin)
2015 Winners
Fiction (Genre Fiction)
Winner: Red 1-2-3, by John Katzenbach, Grove Atlantic
Finalists:
The Rest Is Silence, by James Benn, Soho Press
The Forgers, by Bradford Morrow, Grove Atlantic
The Nature of Truth, by Sergio Troncoso, Arte Publico Press
Island Fog, by John Vanderslice, Lavender Ink
Poetry
Winner: If the Tabloids Are True What Are You? by Matthea Harvey, Graywolf Press
Finalists:
Tree Line, by Judy Halebsky, New Issues Press
Bone Map, by Sara Eliza Johnson, Milkweed Editions
To the Bramble and the Briar, by Steve Scafidi, University of Arkansas Press
Complicity, by Adam Sol, McClelland & Stewart
Nonfiction
Winner: The Empathy Exams, by Leslie Jamison, Graywolf Press
Finalists:
Thrown, by Kerry Howley, Sarabande Books
Phoning Home, by Jacob Appel, University of South Carolina Press
Factory Man, by Beth Macy, Hachette Book Group
Knish: In Search of the Jewish Soul Food, by Laura Silver, Brandeis Press
YA
Winner: Beauty of the Broken, by Tawni Waters, Simon Pulse
Finalists:
The Carnival at Bray, by Jessie Ann Foley, Elephant Rock Books
Mending Horses, by M.P. Barker, Holiday House Books
Rory’s Promise, by Michaela MacColl and Rosemary Nichols, Boyds Mill Press
Steering Toward Normal, by Rebecca Petruck, Abrams Amulet Books
2014
Fiction
Finalists:
The Fifty-First State, by Lisa Borders (Engine Books)
The Mourning Hours, by Paula Treck DeBoard (Harlequin MIRA)
My Notorious Life, by Kate Manning (Scribner)
River of Dust, by Virginia Pye (Unbridled Books)
Winner: Cartwheel, by Jennifer DuBois (Random House)
Poetry
Finalists:
Beauty Mark, Suzanne Cleary (BkMkPress)
Large White House Speaking, Mark Irwin (New Issues Poetry & Prose)
American Amnesiac, Diane Raptosh (Etruscan Press)
Vestigial, Page Hill Starzinger (Barrow Street Press)
Winner: Begin Empty-Handed, Gail Martin (Perugia Press)
Nonfiction
Finalists:
Scattered: The Forced Relocation of Poland’s Ukranians after WWII, Diana Howansky Reilly (University of Wisconsin Press)
The Blind Masseuse, Alden Jones (Terrace Books)
The Next Scott Nadelson, Scott Nadelson (Hawthorne Books)
Becoming Tom Thumb, Eric Lehman (Wesleyan University Press)
Winner: Bootstrapper, Mardi Jo Link (Knopf)
Writing for Middle Grades and YA
Finalists:
Rules for Ghosting, by AJ Paquette (Bloomsbury)
Lone Wolves, by John Smelcer (Leapfrog Press)
After Isaac, by Avra Wing (Olinville Press)
Over the Line, by David Lloyd (Syracuse University Press)
Winner: Brotherhood, by A.B. Westrick (Viking)
Housatonic Book Awards 