NEW ENGLAND BOOK FESTIVAL HONORS ‘YOU WILL BE PETER’


BOSTON_ A novel approach to a biblical tale is the winner of the 2023 New England Book Festival, which honors the best of the holiday season.

Authors Jerry Lathan and Steven Manchester’s You Will Be Peter  is an historical biographical novel. The spiritual yet modern work captures the three-year ministry of Jesus Christ through the eyes of Simon Peter, the Everyman who started a movement that lasts two thousand years.

The story reads like a gripping, page-turning novel and illuminates an oft-told tale in a unique way.

Other winners in the competition:

POETRY:

WINNER: What Minimal Joy - Michael Favala Goldman

RUNNER-UP:

Quiver - Maya Workowski

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • The Journey/ Poems of Salvation - Regina Marie Blaylock
  • Through the Walks of Nature - Maria Luisa Barrera
  • Ismael Mask- Charles Kell


CHILDREN’S BOOKS:

WINNER: Ho Ho Nooooooo! - Yvonne Craig

RUNNERS-UP:

  • Magic Pasta - Diana Pisher Walker
  • The Feather Necklace - Brian Mulcahey
  • Bailey Speaks! - Mary Calvert
  • Dead Alley - S.A. Larsen
  • Bentley's Fantabulous Idea - Miki Taylor

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Leo Learns to Meditate - Katelin Ross
  • The Fish Stick Detective - John Kilby
  • Farting Four-Toed Troll - Lavelle Carlson
  • Wally the Wellfleet Oyster - Elise Shaver
  • The Snowman Project - Angie Dixon
  • The Selfish Shellfish and the Sick Sea - Andrea Harrison
  • Oliver the Oyster and the Lost Lab - J.B. Auchter
  • Nishka’s Golden Heart - Mel Kucenic
  • Have You Seen My Mom - Amanda Caitlin Zirzow
  • The Mystery of the Blue Goo - Teressa Hill
  • Boo Who? - Teressa Hill
  • Magical Mo - Teressa Hill
  • Hilton’s Island - Mary Beth McCarthy
  • Hope Beneath the Tree - Kristen Vincent
  • Tea, Elixir and Cottongrass 1 - Claire Huneault
  • Good Boy Lukey & the Dream Crumbs - Linda Beck
  • Bobby and His Hobby - Shlomo Goldman
  • Marco & Me - Johnny Marfia
  • A Hero Answers 9-1-1 - Steve Frank Schubert


BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY:

WINNER: Flirting with Danger - Janet Wallach

RUNNER-UPS:

  • A Hard Silence - Melanie Brooks
  • Emptying the Nest - Morgan Baker

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Emotional Torture - Beth Nanson
  • Salvation is a Glazed Doughnut - Kathrin A. Swanson-Valerio
  • Deep Breaths - John Locklin


GENERAL NON-FICTION:

WINNER: Learning To Feel- Kris Girrell

RUNNERS-UP:

  • Chop That Sh*t Up! - CSM Daniel L Pinion, USA
  • The Rise and Fall of the Sideshow Geek - Nathan Wakefield
  • Adapt - Raghavan Venugopal
  • The Fun Habit - Mike Rucker
  • The Discerning Investor - Julie Jason

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Parish the Thought Too - John Ruane
  • Life Behind the Masks - Wilma MacLiver
  • The Greatest Burden The Greatest Blessing - Mark J. Resnick,
  • The Destination Birth - Alex Bisset
  • The Castle on Gibbet Hill - Cherie Dumont
  • Unhunched:Discover Wellness Through Posture - Aesha Tahir
  • Connecticut Industries Unite for WWII Victory - Sharon L. Cohen
  • Delaware from Railways to Freeways: - Dave Tabler
  • Doubt to Certainty - Mina Wasfi
  • Rise Above the Rut - Jay Nesbit
  • Episodes at Intervals, Revised Edition - George I. Martin
  • Grow it Back - Tamim S. Hamid


REGIONAL LIT:

WINNER: Water Music - Marcia Peck

RUNNER-UP: Little Eden - J.B. Wadsworth

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Newburyport Clipper Heritage Trail, Volume II - Ghlee E. Woodworth
  • The Shadow of Banshee Hill - Flonn Mac Meldrum


SPIRITUAL/RELIGIOUS:

WINNER: You Will Be Peter - Jerry Lathan and Steven Manchester

RUNNERS-UP:

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Words of Inspiration - Rev. Frieda King
  • The Land of Hearts - Antwinette Scott
  • Estelles ~ Our Galactic Reflection - Shelley Briske

MEMOIR:

WINNER: Maeve Rising: Coming Out Trans in Corporate America - Maeve DuVally

RUNNER-UPS:

  • Chop That Sh*t Up! - CSM Daniel L. Pinion, USA
  • Cuba, your children cry! - Otto H. Iglesias
  • About Natalie- Christine Naman


HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Destiny Lives on Fairhaven Street - C.J. Hudson
  • A Diary to My Babies:- Carmen Grover
  • Framing a Life: Building the Space To Be Me - Roberta S. Kuriloff
  • A Healing Journey, From 9/11 Beyond the Pandemic - Gilda Morina Syverson
  • If I Die Before I Wake - Eli Shaw
  • An Unsuspecting Child - Marylee Martin
  • Tales of Princes Past - Marjorie Anne Prince


GENERAL FICTION:

WINNER: Guidance to Death - Daniel V. Meier, Jr.

RUNNERS-UP:

  • Frank’s Shadow - Doug McIntyre
  • The Islander - David W. Berner
  • The Throne of Osiris - Peter Meissner
  • Macleish Sq. - Dennis Must

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • The Secret - Eve M. Riley
  • Unsettled - Patricia Reis
  • The Many Adventures of Donnie Malone - Paul E. Doutrich
  • Becoming Crone - Lydia M. Hawke
  • The Shakespeare Killer - Douglas J. Wood
  • The Last Three Houses on Bowman Street - Thomas Hall
  • An Equal Piece of Justice - Lee W. Doty
  • Tides of Blue - Sharon Brubaker
  • The Strange Odyssey of Peter Sampson - Hal Schweig
  • The KEAK Anthology - Dr. Katherine E.A. Korkidis
  • Formula for a Felony - J.T. Kelly
  • Portrait in Words - Mumtaz Hussain
  • The Bitter End: A Love Story - Elise Lapham
  • Enemies Among Us - Jeffrey S. Stephens
  • Muskets and Masquerades -Lindsey S. Fera
  • The Unlocked Path - Janis Robinson Daly
  • Look into the Mirror - D.G. Stern
  • What We Never Say - Paulette Stout
  • Goodbye Woodstock - M.H. Sullivan
  • Raven’s Lament - Frank Talaber
  • Backstabbed on Broadway - Carolyn Summer Quinn
  • The Race Horse - Vicki Rees Kendall
  • UMA: Champion of the Seven Dojo - Lawrence Kane & Kris Wilder
  • Second Life - James Sniechowski
  • Watching - Jeffrey Jay Levin
  • In Silence Cries the Heart - Catherine Hughes
  • The Last Red Wolf - Kurtis Dolman
  • Christmas Letters - Carolyn Stearns
  • Nameless vs. The Army of the Dead - Brett Comeau

 

COMPILATIONS/ANTHOLOGIES:

WINNER: The KEAK Anthology - Dr. Katherine E.A. Korkidis

RUNNER-UP: For Now: One Hundred 100-Word Stories - John Sheirer


HOW-TO:

WINNER: The Fun Habit - Mike Rucker

RUNNER-UP: SQL Quest: A Journey Through Data - Neha Saini


WILD CARD:

WINNER: Rise of the Warrior Leader - Claudio Chiste

RUNNER-UP: Death Spoon - Bob Oedy

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • My Autobiographies - John Koeni
  • Legacy, Learn It, Live It, Leave it - Eli Shaw
  • The Matador and the Mustang - James Smith


BUSINESS:

WINNER: Index Funds - Mark Hebner

RUNNER-UPS:

  • The Value Equation - Christopher H. Volk
  • Backstage Pass: - Harvey Lee


HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • The Agency Owner’s Guide to Freedom - Jesse P. Gilmore
  • Boss the Handbook for Anyone Who Has a Boss or Anyone.. - James Rose
  • The Chief Customer Officer Playbook - Rod Cherkas
  • Starting a Business in the United States of America - Satpreet Singh


PHOTOGRAPHY/ART:

WINNER: Curves and Angles - Charles E. Rawlings

RUNNER-UP: Delaware Before The Railroads - Dave Tabler


YOUNG ADULT:

WINNER: Protect the Queen - Steve Burt

RUNNERS-UP:

  • The Last Football Player - John Blossom
  • With a Stroke of Her Sword - JW Warner

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • Tales of Witches and Wyverns - S. Ramsey
  • The Grinning Throat: Mudlark Mysteries 1 - Kate Wiseman
  • Botheration - Vito DiBaronei
  • Our Lives In Between - Billie Kowalewski
  • Moon Tides - Eliza Kade
  • Soar a Burning Sky - Steven Michael Beck


SCIENCE FICTION:

WINNER: Storm Warning - Calvin B. Fisher

RUNNERS-UP:

  • Ares - Jayson Adams
  • Outworld Trilogy - Ruth Tait


HONORABLE MENTIONS:

  • The Last Football Player - John Blossom
  • Zombie Philosopher - Richard Jeffery Wagner
  • The Last Stop Motel - G. Grace
  • Life Below the Sinkholes - G. Grace
  • Brent and Edward Go To Mars - Richard Jeffery Wagner
  • Ascendant - Susy Smith
  • Desert Shadows - Richard Draude