Mass Book Awards
The Massachusetts Book Awards recognize significant works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature, graphic novel, 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.
Submissions for the next cycle will open in September for books published in the 2026 calendar year.
The 2026 Mass Book Awards Longlists
Mass Center for the Book is excited to recognize longlisted titles across five categories—Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Middle Grade/Young Adult, and Picture Book/Early Reader.
Awards and honors books (including the winners of the Translated Literature and Notable Contribution to Publishing prizes) will be announced in September and celebrated at the State House this fall. Please check back in early September for the final results and for more details on the awards ceremony!
Submissions will be accepted for the next awards cycle (books published in 2026) from September 2, 2026 to December 15, 2026.
FICTION LONGLIST
We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad (Scribner)
Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker (MIRA)
Lake Song: A Novel in Stories by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne (Ohio State Univ. Press)
All That Life Can Afford: A Novel by Emily Everett (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
Isola by Allegra Goodman (Dial Press)
Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh (Little, Brown & Company)
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (Ballantine Books)
These Heathens by Mia McKenzie (Random House)
The Weight by Melissa Mendes (Drawn & Quarterly)
Rooms for Vanishing by Stuart Nadler (Dutton)
The Lilac People by Milo Todd (Counterpoint)
The Sunflower Boys by Sam Wachman (Harper)
NONFICTION LONGLIST
The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains by Pria Anand (Washington Square Press)
The Hard Work of Hope by Michael Ansara (Cornell Univ. Press)
Clamor: How Noise Took Over The World and How We Can Take it Back by Chris Berdik (W.W. Norton)
Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks (Viking Books)
Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State by Caleb Gayle (Riverhead Books)
Trouble Maker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford by Carla Kaplan (Harper)
We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore (Liveright / W.W. Norton)
The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy by Ray Madoff (Univ. of Chicago Press)
Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry (Ecco)
Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless by Maria Pinto (UNC Press)
A Fire in His Soul: Van Gogh, Paris, and the Making of an Artist by Miles Unger (Pegasus Books)
The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland by Michelle Young (HarperOne)
POETRY LONGLIST
An Optimism by Cameron Awkward-Rich (Persea)
Preverbal by Carroll Beauvais (Lit Fox Books)
Cadet by Benjamin Bellet (Staircase Books)
In the Good Years by Laura Cresté (Four Way Books)
The Last Beast We Revel In by Noah Davis (CavanKerry Press)
Willow Hammer by Patrick Donnelly (Four Way Books)
Jailbreak of Sparrows by Martín Espada (Knopf)
Perfect Disappearances by Paul Hostovsky (Kelsay Books)
Groceries by Nora Claire Miller (Fonograf Editions)
One Trail of Longing, Another of String by Carla Panciera (Bordighera Press)
Goat, Goddess, Moon by Catherine Strisik (Holy Cow! Press)
To Wildness by Julia Thacker (The Waywiser Press)
MIDDLE GRADE / YOUNG ADULT LONGLIST
Absolutely Everything by Damian Alexander (Graphic Universe)
The Library of Unruly Treasures by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf BYR)
The Ripple Effect by Rebecca Caprara (Charlesbridge)
A World Without Summer by Nicholas Day (Random House Studio)
Top Heavy by Rhonda DeChambeau (Holiday House)
13 Ways to Say Goodbye by Kate Fussner (HarperCollins)
A Spell to Wake the Dead by Nicole Lesperance (Putnam & Sons BYR)
Imposter by Cait Levin (Charlesbridge Teen)
The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon by Grace Lin (Little, Brown BYR)
Neshama by Marcella Pixley (Candlewick)
The Dragon's Apprentice by James Riley (Labyrinth Road)
Candle Island by Lauren Wolk (Dutton BYR)
PICTURE BOOK / EARLY READER LONGLIST
Wind Watchers by Micha Archer (Nancy Paulsen Books)
Thank You, Old Oak by Britt Crow-Miller. Amy Schimler-Safford, illus. (Barefoot Books)
Gather Grateful by Megan Litwin. Alexandra Finkeldey, illus. (Candlewick)
There's No Place Like Gnome's by Scott Magoon (Viking BYR)
The Beat of the Dragon Boat by Christina Matula. Nicole Wong, illus. (Sleeping Bear Press)
Safe Crossing by Kari Percival (Chronicle Books)
Wonder Why by Lisa Varchol Perron. Nik Henderson, illus. (HarperCollins)
Unnaturally Blue by Dorson Plourde. Byron Eggenschwiler, illus. (Kids Can Press)
Black Hair Can by Sylvia Rodriguez (Charlesbridge)
Flora and the Jazzers by Astrid Sheckels (Waxwing Books)
We Go Slow by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie. Aaron Becker, illus. (Simon & Schuster)
Otter Carries On by Maya Tatsukawa (Henry Holt and Co. BYR)
