The Vermont Book Awards announced 14 finalists for its 2025 prize on Thursday. Awards in four categories, each of which comes with $1,000 and a trophy made by a Vermont artist, will be presented on Saturday, May 2, at College Hall in Montpelier.
Established in 2014 by the Vermont College of Fine Arts, the annual prizes recognize outstanding work in creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry and children’s literature by Vermont authors. The honors are given each spring for work published the prior calendar year. Books by writers who live in Vermont for at least six months of the year are eligible, as long as they are not an anthology or self-published.
This year’s finalists, chosen from a field of 75 nominees, are a mix of emerging and established authors. Poetry finalists, for example, include former Vermont poet laureate Chard deNiord, who has published more than half a dozen poetry collections, and three writers with debut collections: Jeff McRae, Carlene Kucharczyk and literary translator Kristin Dykstra. Among the fiction finalists are acclaimed cartoonist and graphic novelist Alison Bechdel for Spent; poet Aria Aber for her debut novel, Good Girl; and Sasha Hom for her first novella, Sidework.
Helen Whybrow has written three works of nonfiction and edited four anthologies. She is a finalist in the nonfiction category for her memoir, The Salt Stones: Seasons of a Shepherd’s Life, which also made the National Book Award longlist.
“This variety of experience is thrilling to me,” Vermont Book Award director Miciah Bay Gault said when she revealed the finalists on Vermont Public’s “Morning Edition.”
Booksellers, librarians, publishers and members of the public nominate authors for the awards, which are administered by Vermont Humanities and the Vermont Department of Libraries. The awards will be presented during a dessert and cocktail reception with Vermont poet laureate Bianca Stone as the keynote speaker. Gault, whose second novel, The Nobody Code, will be published in August, called the ceremony her favorite night of the year.
“It is just magical to be in that room with so many writers, so many readers, so many people who care about literature,” she told “Morning Edition.” “The vibe is just giddy and sparkly.”
Here are the 2025 finalists:
Creative nonfiction
Fiction
Poetry
Children’s literature
Vermont Book Awards Celebration, Saturday, May 2, 7 p.m., at College Hall in Montpelier. $35-160. Tickets at eventbrite.com.