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Here are recent Vermont Book Award winners in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and children’s literature. The annual prize is supported by a partnership between Vermont Humanities, Vermont Department of Libraries, and Vermont College of Fine Arts with additional support from Phoenix Books and the Vermont Arts Council.

The 2023 Vermont Book Award winners were:

  • for Children’s Literature: Dan Nott for Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the Systems We Use Every Day
  • for Creative Non-Fiction: Mary Ruefle for The Book
  • for Fiction: Sandra Simonds for Assia
  • for Poetry: Vievee Francis for The Shared World

2023 Vermont Book Award Finalists:

Creative Nonfiction

  • Brad Kessler for Deep North: Stories of Somali Resettlement in Vermont
  • Mary Ruefle for The Book
  • Jeff Sharlet for The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War

Fiction

  • J. Vanessa Lyon for Lush Lives
  • Genevieve Plunkett for In the Lobby of the Dream Hotel
  • Sandra Simonds for Assia

Poetry

  • Michael Dumanis for Creature
  • Vievee Francis for The Shared World
  • Leslie Sainz for Have You Been Long Enough at Table
  • Ellen Bryant Voigt for Collected Poems

Children’s Literature

  • Kekla Magoon for The Minus-One Club (young adult novel)
  • M.T. Anderson for Elf Dog and Owl Head (middle grade novel)
  • Kenneth M. Cadow for Gather (young adult novel)
  • Dan Nott for Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet, and the Secrets Behind the Systems We Use Every Day (graphic literature)