The winners of the New England Book Awards, sponsored by the New England Independent Booksellers Association, are:
Fiction: Geraldine Brooks, author of March, Year of Wonders, Nine Parts of Desire, Foreign Correspondence and People of the Book.
Nonfiction: Sy Montgomery, author of The Good Pig, Saving the Ghost of the Mountain, Wind Energy Basics, Journey of the Pink Dolphins and Tarantula Scientist.
Children's: Andrew Clements, author of, among other titles, Frindle, No Talking, Room One, Lunch Money, A Week in the Woods, The Jacket, The School Story, The Janitor's Boy, The Landry News, The Report Card and The Last Holiday Concert.
Publisher: Tilbury House, Gardiner, Me., which was founded some 35 years ago as the Harpswell Press and published mainly Maine books. The house grew slowly, adding some children's books, and in 1990 merged with another small publisher, Dog Ear Press. Recent titles include New Mainers: Portraits of Our Immigrant Neighbors, Wilderness Partners, Backyard Maine, Live Yankees, Maine in the World and The Cranberry.
The awards will be presented on October 1 during NEIBA's trade show in Hartford, Conn. Each author award includes a $500 grant from NEIBA to a literacy or other charitable organization chosen by the winner.
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NEIBA has made two more Shop Local grants to:
Vital Communities: Local First Upper Valley. With booksellers from Norwich Bookstore, Norwich, Vt., this new alliance will promote the importance of local business and cultural economies in the area, which cover several counties in Vermont and New Hampshire. The $1,250 grant will be used to help create a logo, develop a website and prepare membership materials.
Local First Vermont has been awarded $2,500 to continue its "outstanding work" begun in 2005 developing an online business directory of all locally owned products and services in the state. Local First Vermont has 216 members, 15 of whom are NEIBA members.
Since 2007, NEIBA has awarded Shop Local Grants totalling more than $20,000. The grants are intended for member stores "to establish local Independent Business Alliances which shift consumer culture toward supporting locally-owned businesses." The grants are made possible, in part, by Bookazine.