On Tuesday, October 8, I had the honor of offering a legislative welcome to the 24th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards, hosted by the Massachusetts Center for the Book.
In my welcome, I was absolutely delighted to celebrate 12 award-winning authors in the Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester district, one of the most book-loving, and author-dense corridors in the Commonwealth (if not the whole nation), including:
Grace Lin
Award Winner in Picture Book/Early Reader category for Once Upon a Book
(Grace and I are pictured above.)
Victoria Offredi Poletto & Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi
Award Winners in Translated Literature for their translation of My Language is a Jealous Lover by Adrián N. Bravi
Melissa Dickey
Received Honors in Poetry for their book Ordinary Entanglement
Margot Douaihy
Recognized on the 2024 Fiction Longlist for their book Scorched Grace
Sabina Murray
Recognized on the 2024 Fiction Longlist for their book Muckross Abbey and Other Stories
Andrew Leland
Recognized on the 2024 Nonfiction Longlist for their book The Country of the Blind
Sebastian Merrill
Recognized on the 2024 Poetry Longlist for their book Ghost::Seeds
Angela & Tony DiTerlizzi
Recognized on the 2024 Picture Book/Early Reader Longlist for their book A Very Cranky Book
Jane Yolen
Recognized on the 2024 Picture Book/Early Reader Longlist for their book Nana and Me
Hannah Moushabeck
Recognized on the 2024 Picture Book/Early Reader Longlist for their book Homeland
Read on for my welcoming remarks from the celebration and the award I presented to author Grace Lin.
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It’s my pleasure to welcome you today to the 24th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards.
I represent the Hampshire, Franklin, and Worcester district, which just happens to overlap with one of the most book-loving, and author-dense corridors in the Commonwealth (if not the whole nation).
Please join me in thanking the Center for the Book team: Courtney Andree, Ellen Flanagan Kenny, Karolina Zapal, and Nina Dodge, as well as the Board of Directors, many of whom are here, and all at Mass Center for the Book for focusing us — as they do — on great writing while also asking us to care deeply about developing, supporting, and promoting cultural programming that advances the causes of books and reading across the Commonwealth.
We are absolutely all the better for it.
I also want to recognize many of my colleagues from the legislature who are with us this afternoon, including: Senators Will Brownsberger, Pat Jehlen, and Cindy Friedman and Representatives Lindsay Sabadosa, Carmine Gentile, and Steve Owens.
There are likely many others here as well.
It is gratifying to see that so many writers, poets, and translators from western Massachusetts have risen to the top of this year’s awards program — taking home prizes in the Picture Book/Early Reader, Middle Grade/Young Adult, Poetry, and Translation categories, and capturing over a dozen spots on the longlist.
Just to mention a few of the authors here with us today:
Grace Lin of Florence, winner of the Picture Book/Early Reader Award for her book Once Upon a Book.
Victoria Offredi Poletto and Giovanna Bellesia-Contuzzi, both of Northampton, winners of the Translated Literature Award for their translation of My Language Is a Jealous Lover by Adrián Bravi.
Twelve authors in total from the Hampshire, Franklin, Worcester district have been recognized for their transformative contributions to Massachusetts.
But, we must also look beyond the “Valley of Writers” to the rest of Massachusetts.
For some of today’s honorees, their Mass Book Award represents one of the first major prizes of their career.
Others have taken home Caldecott medals and New England Book Awards, they’ve been named National Book Award and Lambda Literary Award finalists, and their books have been heralded as New York Times Critics’ Picks, and NPR “Best Books of the Year.”
What a thrill to join together today to celebrate the Commonwealth’s community of world-class writers and publishers.
I am delighted to kick off the awards ceremony with a presentation to Northampton-based writer and illustrator, Grace Lin, who won the 2024 Picture Book / Early Reader Award for Once Upon a Book, which was co-authored with Kate Messner.
Grace is a beloved figure in the children’s literature world, and her picture books and middle grade novels are known for celebrating the Asian American experience.
Her books have won Newbery and Caldecott Honors, her art has been exhibited in the White House, and her book reviews have appeared in the New York Times.
I’d like to share the judges’ citation:
Who doesn’t want to feel fully immersed in the book they’re reading?
Once Upon a Book explores the power of books to transport readers to wherever they need to be.
Through vibrant, realistic illustrations we travel from a cold, winter interior to a lush rainforest, a hot desert, a coral reef, an azure sky turned stormy, the moon, and back.
Lin captures the excitement of being whisked away to far off lands in storybooks with the reminder that the comfort of home is waiting for you at the end.
Readers will delight in finding a rabbit hidden on each page and a sense of wonder that comes with stepping into a great book.
