Nearly 900 Readers Weigh in on Favorites
The 2021 New Hampshire People’s Choice Awards Winning Books Are Named
At an online awards ceremony earlier this month, Master of Ceremonies and accomplished New Hampshire author Robert Wheeler announced the 2021 winners of the NH People’s Choice Award winners. The New Hampshire Writers Project (NHWP) first introduced the awards in 2011 as the Readers’ Choice Awards. The name was later changed and is now the NH Peoples’ Choice Awards. Every two years, readers have the opportunity to vote for their favorite books in five categories — Fiction, Non-fiction, Middle Grade/Young Adult, Children’s Picture Books, and Poetry. The voting takes place online and this year close to 900 (894 to be exact) votes came in for the more than 80 books being considered. The competing books are published works written about New Hampshire as well as works that are written by New Hampshire natives or residents.
The winning titles and corresponding authors are:
Fiction category:
“Toward the Light” by Bonnar Spring: Hate, betrayal, and revenge. When Luz Concepcion returns to Guatemala to settle an old score, she discovers instead secrets, lies, and redemption.
Non-fiction category:
“Counter Culture: Clams, Convents and a Circle of Global Citizens” by Eleanor Dunfey-Freiburger. Roy and Catherine ‘Kate’ Manning had little formal education or resources. They did have humor, entrepreneurial zest, and spiritual roots as they collared the American dream starting out in 1915 with Dunfey’s Orchestra, a luncheonette, and a baby every two years through the Great Depression to the doorstep of World War II.
Middle Grade/Young Adult category:
“July in August” by Maryjo Paradis Smith. The last thing July Krativitz wants is attention. If the grownups knew her mother was an addict, they’d put her in a foster home. And then who’d take care of her baby brother?
Children’s Picture Book category:
“Rootbound Rescue” by Kayla Fisher. A garden flower accidentally lands in the wild. Animal friends help her out of her pot, teaching her to bloom and grow through adversity.
Poetry category:
“Crown of Wild” by Erica Bodwell. In “Crown of Wild,” brokenness is inflected with pain and beauty. The poet knows how humans get damaged and do damage, and knows the womanly body: its sensations, pressures, what impinges on it, how it breaks free. These lyric narrative poems are home to characters as real as characters in short stories.
The Results Are In for the 2021 NH Literary Awards
Top Honors Awarded to Authors in Five Categories
At an online awards ceremony earlier this month, Master of Ceremonies and accomplished author Robert Wheeler announced the 2021 winners of the Biennial NH Literary Awards. For over 25 years, the NH Literary Awards recognize published works written about New Hampshire as well as works that are written by New Hampshire natives or residents. Winners are selected in each of five categories — Fiction, Non-fiction, Middle Grade/Young Adult, Children’s Picture Books, and Poetry. Read more…
