2013 Massachusetts Book Award Winners

The Award Winners in the 2013 Massachusetts Book Awards

Fiction: The Technologists by Matthew Pearl -
The first graduating class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is thrown into turmoil by bizarre phenomena that cause instruments to inexplicably spin out of control, challenging enterprising students to protect lives while combating Harvard rivals.


Nonfiction: Brothers 
by George Howe Colt -

The brotherly counterpoint between fierce rivalry and stalwart affection is teased out in this absorbing meditation on family dynamics. New York Times notable author Colt (The Big House) presents vivid accounts of famous fraternal sagas, including the tragic path of Edwin and John Wilkes Booth, the mutual martyrdoms of the tormented Vincent Van Gogh and his tenderly supportive brother Theo, and the endless, anarchic scrimmage among the Marx Brothers

Poetry: Place by Jorie Graham -
In Place, Graham explores the ways in which our imagination, intuition, and experience-increasingly devalued by a culture that regards them as "mere" subjectivity-aid us in navigating a world moving blindly towards its own annihilation and a political reality where the human person and its dignity are increasingly disposable.

Children's/YA Lit: Ocean Sunlight by Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm -
On land or in the deep blue sea, we are all connected--and we are all a part of a grand living landscape. Packed with clear, simple science, this informative, joyous book will help children understand and celebrate the astonishing role our oceans play in human life.