NEW ENGLAND BOOK FESTIVAL HONORS NOVEL SET IN SMALL MAINE ISLAND

NEW ENGLAND_ The story of the deeply personal struggles of the people on a small island in Maine is the winner of the   2025 New England Book Festival, which honors the best books of the holiday season.

Author Kate Woodworth’s Little Great Island: A Novel (Sibylline Press) is the story of Mari McGavin, who retreats to the tiny Maine island where she grew up—a place she swore she’d never see again.

There Mari runs into her lifelong friend, Harry Richardson, one of the island’s summer residents, who returned to sell his family’s summer home. Mari and Harry’s lives intertwine once again, setting off a chain of events as unexpected and life altering as the shifts in climate affecting the whole ecosystem of the island…from generations of fishing families to the lobsters and the butterflies.

The rich writing and scene setting makes this novel an immersive work and well worthy of top honors in the competition.

Other winners in the competition:

 COMPILATIONS/ANTHOLOGIES:

WINNER: Hollywood Remembered - Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince

RUNNER-UP: So Many Shapes and Sizes - John Sheirer

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Little Fortified Stories - Barbara Black
• Myopic Duplicity - Jeff Circle, Editor

GENERAL FICTION:

WINNER: Little Great Island - Kate Woodworth

RUNNERS-UP:

• When The Rules Don’t Apply - Gerard Shirar
• Little Bird - Barbara Viniar
• Seeds of the Pomegranate - Suzanne Uttaro Samuels
• To Know Good and Evil - Daniel V. Meier Jr.
• After You, My Dear - PJ Ellis
• One Ordinary Man - Steve Vesce

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Under Strange, Strange Skies - Don Stansberry
• Keeper of the Fallen Ages - Clifton Wilcox
• Tara Rising - Kris Girrell
• The Remarkable Life of Lillian Bauer - Thomas Hall
• Split - Michael Swartz
• The Escape - Eve M. Riley
• Born Posthumous - Fish Nealman
• Once Upon a Safehouse - Carolyn Summer Quinn
• Please Wait to Cross - Elissa Bass
• The Game - Eve M. Riley
• Trust: A Novella - Dr Rhonda M Lawson
• The Invisible Hand - Douglas Cole
• One-Legged Uncle Jesse - Mike Morris
• The Monuments Must Bleed - Clifton Wilcox
• An Improbable Alliance - Diane Coia-Ramsay
• Swimming with Manatees - Bill Bennett
• Widow’s Walk - Jane Willan
• The Case Against Jasper - Clifton Wilcox
• Charlie’s Wings - Karl L. Stewart
• Forever, Now - Haleh Shahrzad
• After Happily Ever - Jen Saffrey
• Diamond City - Marianna Boncek
• Conversations with My Mother - Ronald-Stephane Gilbert
• Dream Me Dead - Laurie Elizabeth Murphy
• Fangs of Fate - Rebecca Parcha
• How the Story Ends - Tory Gates
• A Thousand More - K.S. Lynn
• The Clemency Protocol - Jessie Clark
• Witches of Willow Creek - Jennie Wren Foster
• He Was Given No Choice - Roy Dussouy
• Out of Time - M. Jacqueline Murray
• Estate: To My Once Darling Child - J. Andrew Shelley
• Line ‘Em Up! - Oscar Avery

UNPUBLISHED STORIES:

WINNER: Fierce Innocence - Wendy MacGowan


POETRY:

WINNER: She Confuses Lovers, Movies, Angels and Poems - Gia Civerolo

RUNNERS-UP:

• Drifter - Douglas Cole
• Still Life - Marianna Boncek

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• And you cannot tell me why I must not love you anymore - Natia Khaduri
• Writings of a West Virginia Paper Boy - Craig Erlewine

ROMANCE:

WINNER: Living on a Prayer - Katrina Alexander


YOUNG ADULT:

WINNER: The Ruinous Curse - The Hunt for Alesta - Mark K. McClain

RUNNERS-UP:

• George Petit and the Whispers of Time - Luca Tom Bilotta
• The Joker’s Revenge - Nancy Beaule

HONORABLE MENTION:

•  Star Fire - Kerry Reed

GENERAL NONFICTION:

WINNER: The Wheelman’s Daughter - Pamela Bauer Mueller

RUNNERS-UP:

• Before Their Crimes - Dr. Wendy Smith
• In the Valley of the Shadow - Steven Manchester/Brian Fox

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Story Seeds - Megan Lovely
• True Crime and Consequences - David Lyons
• #MakingBelievers - Greg Thomas
• The Masterpiece of Nature - Rabei A. Wazzeh
• From Vico ° Porta Nuova and Beyond - Egizia Santilli Brown

SCIENCE FICTION:

WINNER: The Princess Key - Rick Clogston

RUNNER-UP: Portal - Katrina McKee


CHILDREN’S BOOKS:

WINNER: Lawrence Likes to Dance - Don Stansberry

RUNNERS-UP:

• Monsters Don’t Say Meep - Bridgetta Tomarchio
• The Underground Hounds - Doreen Pulio-Fleisch
• Martin the Mouse in Santa’s House - Richard Ballo
• Five Different Boo-boos - Maggie Keefe
• The Adventures of Belle Bear - Kathy Akopov Guillory
• Welcome to the NIC-Zoo - Paige Pedroll

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• A Day to Play - Jennifer Butenas
• Oliver the Oyster Saves Santa - J.B. Auchter
• Papa’s Cookies - Mary C. Kerins
• A Summer of Canoes - J.W. Elliot
• Smalltown City and the Spirit of City Hall - Nancy Pearson
• Freddy the Frog - D.L. Torres
• The Incredible Trash Donkey - Jeanette Kamciyan
• Wally's Window - Christy Donohue

BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY:

WINNER: Clark Gable, King of Hollywood - Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince

RUNNER-UP: Faith, Cancer, God’s Miracle - Ray Scott


SPIRITUAL/RELIGIOUS:

WINNER: Identity Crisis: Who Am I, Really? - M.J. Kelley II

RUNNER-UP:

• Spiritually Homeless - Kris Girrell
• Spirit Guides and Angels: Death and Taxes - Wayne Cesaro

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Faith, Cancer, God’s Miracle - Ray Scott
• The Magnificence of the - Timeout A. Taumua

REGIONAL LIT:

WINNER: The Given Up Girl - Ellen B. Rockmore

RUNNERS-UP:

• Our Share of Morning - Laura Bonazzoli
• On This Harvest Moon - Jennifer Safrey

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Breathe Easy - Tammy Donahue
• Christmas Under a Cold Moon - Jennifer Safrey
• The Pulse of the City - C.D. “Tony” Hylton III

MEMOIR:

WINNER: Outside the Lines - Helen Fremont

RUNNER-UP:

• Reviving Artemis - Deborah Luskin

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• One Man’s Journey - Donald T. Hardison II
• White-Tailed Eagles Rising - Rochelle Reynard
• My Warp Threads - Maureen O’Hera
• Killing brumbies - Sue Andrews

WILD CARD:

WINNER: Before Their Crimes - Dr. Wendy Smith

RUNNERS-UP:

• Story Seeds - Megan Lovely
• The Mountains We Climb - Aimee Goodwin

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Born Posthumous - Fish Nealman
• Grumpy Goes Home for the Holiday - Susan Marie Chapman

BUSINESS:

WINNER: Developing Your Marketing Mindset - Leora Halpern Lanz

 

HOW-TO:

WINNER: Daddy Days - John Turner, Jay Bouchard

RUNNER-UP: Positive Politics - Neil Thanedar

HONORABLE MENTION:

• Must: Becoming the Person You Are Meant to Be - Stephen Rue

GAY:

WINNER: Angel - Charles Lunsford