Finalists and Winners of the Annual Literary Awards

The Virginia Literary Awards are given to outstanding Virginia authors in the areas of poetry, fiction, nonfiction (and, in the case of nonfiction, also by any author about a Virginia subject), and literary lifetime achievement.

Listed below are the authors that have been honored in past Literary Awards. Learn more about the 2023 Winners.

Past winners of the poetry, fiction, nonfiction, People’s Choice and Lifetime Achievement awards include Richard Bausch, David Baldacci, Carrie Brown, Deborah Eisenberg, Melvin Ely, Claudia Emerson, Rita Dove, Annette Gordon-Reed, John Grisham, Helon Habila, Earl Hamner Jr, Wesley Hogan, Constance Merritt, Scott Nelson, Debra Nystrom, James I. Robertson Jr, R. T. Smith, Rebecca Skloot, Lisa Spaar, Dabney Stuart, and Charles Wright

Fiction | Nonfiction | Poetry | Lifetime Achievement | People's Choice
Carole Weinstein Prize in Poetry | Mary Lynn Kotz Award | Cardozo Award

Fiction

[* - Winner]
Title and Author Annual Awards
All the Ruined Men: Stories, Bill Glose 26th Annual Awards*
The Displacements, Bruce Holsinger 26th Annual Awards
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver 26th Annual Awards
My Monticello: Fiction, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson 25th Annual Awards*
Now You Know It All, Joanna Pearson 25th Annual Awards
The Tender Grave, Sheri Reynolds 25th Annual Awards
Between Tides, Angel Khoury (Honorable Mention) 25th Annual Awards
Florence Adler Swims Forever, Rachel Beanland 24th Annual Awards
Nine Shiny Objects, Brian Castleberry 24th Annual Awards*
The Deep, Alma Katsu 24th Annual Awards
Miracle Creek, Angie Kim 23rd Annual Awards
Thomas and Beal in the Midi, Christopher Tilghman 23rd Annual Awards*
One Night Gone, Tara Laskowski 23rd Annual Awards
Bearskin, James A. McLaughlin 22nd Annual Awards
Let's No One Get Hurt, Jon Pineda 22nd Annual Awards*
Yellow Stonefly, Tim Poland 22nd Annual Awards
Fire is Your Water, James Minick 21st Annual Awards
The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs, Janet Peery 21st Annual Awards*
If the Creek Don't Rise, Leah Weiss 21st Annual Awards
A Thousand Miles from Nowhere, John Gregory Brown 20th Annual Awards*
Nitro Mountain, Lee Clay Johnson 20th Annual Awards
Hard Red Spring, Kelly Kerney 20th Annual Awards
Fall of Princes, Robert Goolrick 19th Annual Awards*
This Angel on my Chest, Leslie Pietrzyk 19th Annual Awards
The Shore, Sara Taylor 19th Annual Awards
A Kind of Dream, Kelly Cherry 18th Annual Awards
What is Visible, Kimberly Elkins 18th Annual Awards
The Great, Glass Sea, Josh Weil 18th Annual Awards*
The Last First Day, Carrie Brown 17th Annual Awards
River of Dust, Virginia Pye 17th Annual Awards
Guests on Earth, Lee Smith 17th Annual Awards*
The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers 16th Annual Awards
What the Zhang Boys Know, Clifford Garstang 16th Annual Awards*
The Right-Hand Shore, Christopher Tilghman 16th Annual Awards
Nothing Can Make Me Do This, David Huddle 15th Annual Awards*
Welcome to Americastan, Jabeen Akhtar 15th Annual Awards
The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach 15th Annual Awards
Honorable mention: Mercy Creek, Matt Matthews 15th Annual Awards
Mattaponi Queen, Belle Boggs 14th Annual Awards*
Compass Rose, John Casey 14th Annual Awards
Ford County, John Grisham 14th Annual Awards
Temporary Lives: Stories, Ramola D 13th Annual Awards
The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver 13th Annual Awards*
The New Valley, Josh Weil 13th Annual Awards
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks 12th Annual Awards
Train to Trieste, Domnica Radulescu 12th Annual Awards*
Success Stories, David A. Taylor 12th Annual Awards
The Rope Walk, Carrie Brown 11th Annual Awards
Measuring Time, Helon Habila 11th Annual Awards
What the Thunder Said, Janet Peery 11th Annual Awards*
Thanksgiving Night: A Novel, Richard Bausch 10th Annual Awards
Twilight of the Superheroes, Deborah Eisenberg 10th Annual Awards*
The Quick-Change Artist: Stories, Cary Holladay 10th Annual Awards
March: A Novel, Geraldine Brooks 9th Annual Awards*
Little Criminals: Short Stories, Kurt Rheinheimer  9th Annual Awards
Holy Skirts, Ren' Steinke 9th Annual Awards
Confinement, Carrie Brown 8th Annual Awards*
How I Left the Great State of Tennessee and Went on to Better Things, Joe Jackson 8th Annual Awards
A Year and a Day, Leslie Pietrzyk 8th Annual Awards
The Stories of Richard Bausch, Richard Bausch 7th Annual Awards
The Known World, Edward P. Jones 7th Annual Awards*
True Cross, T. R. Pearson 7th Annual Awards
Hello to the Cannibals: A Novel, Richard Bausch 6th Annual Awards
The Gypsy Man, Robert Bausch 6th Annual Awards
The House on Belle Isle and Other Stories , Carrie Brown 6th Annual Awards
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague, Geraldine Brooks 5th Annual Awards
Dugan Under Ground, Tom De Haven 5th Annual Awards*
I, Roger Williams, Mary Lee Settle 5th Annual Awards
The Hatbox Baby: A Novel, Carrie Brown 4th Annual Awards*
Graveyard of the Atlantic, Alyson Hagy 4th Annual Awards
The Dress Lodger, Sheri Holman 4th Annual Awards
Someone To Watch Over Me, Richard Bausch 3rd Annual Awards
The Story of A Million Years, David Huddle 3rd Annual Awards
Pictures of a Dying Man, Agymah Kamau 3rd Annual Awards*
The Hearts of Soldiers, Joan Vannorsdall Schroeder 3rd Annual Awards
The Half-Life of Happiness: A Novel, John Casey 2nd Annual Awards
Wingtips: Stories, Avery Chenoweth 2nd Annual Awards
Jacob’s Ladder: A Story of Virginia During The War, Donald McCaig 2nd Annual Awards*
News of the Spirit, Lee Smith 1st Annual Awards
The Way to Cobbs Creek, Dabney Stuart 1st Annual Awards
Black Zodiac, Charles Wright 1st Annual Awards*

Nonfiction

[* - Winner]
Title and Author Annual Awards
What the Eyes Can't See: Ralph Northam, Black Resolve, and a Racial Reckoning in Virginia, Margaret Edds 26th Annual Awards*
Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire, Jonathan M. Katz 26th Annual Awards
Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America's Overdose Crisis, Beth Macy 26th Annual Awards
Children Under Fire: An American Crisis, John Woodrow Cox 25th Annual Awards
The Strange Genius of Mr. O: The World of the United States' First Forgotten Celebrity, Carolyn Eastman 25th Annual Awards*
Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee's Army after Appomattox, Caroline E. Janney 25th Annual Awards
The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South, Chip Jones 24th Annual Awards*
Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond's Historic Cemeteries, Ryan Smith 24th Annual Awards
Soul Liberty: The Evolution of Black Religious Politics in Postemancipation Virginia, Nicole Myers Turner 24th Annual Awards
Hitler's Last Hostages: Looted Art and the Soul of the Third Reich, Mary M. Lane 23rd Annual Awards
Thick: And Other Essays, Tressie McMillan Cottom 23rd Annual Awards*
Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America, Erik Neilson and Andrea L. Dennis 23rd Annual Awards
We Face the Dawn: Oliver Hill, Spottswood Robinson, and the Legal Team That Dismantled Jim Crow, Margaret Edds 22nd Annual Awards
Jefferson's Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America, Catherine Kerrison 22nd Annual Awards*
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, Beth Macy 22nd Annual Awards
Sargent's Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas, Donna M. Lucey 21st Annual Awards
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, Liza Mundy 21st Annual Awards*
Darkness Falls on the Land of Light: Experiencing Religious Awakenings in 18th Century New England, Douglas L. Winiarski 21st Annual Awards
The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood, Belle Boggs 20th Annual Awards
'Most Blessed of the Patriarchs': Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination, Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf 20th Annual Awards
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, Margot Lee Shetterly 20th Annual Awards*
Twisted, My Dreadlock Chronicles, Bert Ashe 19th Annual Awards
Something Must Be Done about Prince Edward County, Kristin Green 19th Annual Awards*
Madison's Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention, Mary Sarah Bilder 19th Annual Awards
Give War and Peace a Chance, Andrew Kaufman 18th Annual Awards
The Road to Black Ned's Forge: A Story of Race, Sex, and Trade on the Colonial American Frontier, Turk McCleskey 18th Annual Awards
Overwhelmed: How to Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, Brigid Schulte 18th Annual Awards*
Rose Kennedy: The Life and Times of a Political Matriarch, Barbara Perry 17th Annual Awards
The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772'1832, Alan Taylor 17th Annual Awards
Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War, Elizabeth Varon 17th Annual Awards*
38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End, Scott W. Berg 16th Annual Awards*
Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times, Cynthia A. Kierner 16th Annual Awards
Help Me to Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery, Heather Andrea Williams 16th Annual Awards
Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade, Maurie D. McInnis 15th Annual Awards*
Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War, Tony Horwitz 15th Annual Awards
Brown's Battleground: Students, Segregationists, and the Struggle for Justice in Prince Edward County, Virginia, Jill Titus 15th Annual Awards
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot 14th Annual Awards*
To Serve the Living: Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death, Suzanne E. Smith 14th Annual Awards
Bible Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked About Book of All Time, Kristin Swenson 14th Annual Awards
Abigail Adams, Woody Holton 13th Annual Awards*
Soul of a People, David A. Taylor 13th Annual Awards
Louis D. Brandeis: A Life, Melvin I. Urofsky 13th Annual Awards
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Drew Gilpin Faust 12th Annual Awards
The Heminges of Monticello: An American Family, Annette Gordon-Reed 12th Annual Awards*
Remarkable Trees of Virginia, Nancy Ross Hugo and Jeff Kirwan 12th Annual Awards
Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America, Wesley C. Hogan 11th Annual Awards*
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp & Camille Kingsolver 11th Annual Awards
Cradle of America: Four Centuries of Virginia History, Peter Wallenstein 11th Annual Awards
Archie and Emelie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age, Donna M. Lucey 10th Annual Awards
Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890-1945, Charles F. McGovern 10th Annual Awards
Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, The Untold Story of an American Legend, Scott Reynolds Nelson 10th Annual Awards*
At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past A. Roger Ekirch 9th Annual Awards*
A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America James Horn 9th Annual Awards
A World on Fire: A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race Joe Jackson 9th Annual Awards
His Excellency: George Washington Joseph J. Ellis 8th Annual Awards
Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s through the Civil War Melvin Patrick Ely 8th Annual Awards*
Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma Camilla Townsend 8th Annual Awards
In the Presence of Mine Enemies Edward L. Ayers 7th Annual Awards
An Expendable Man: The Near-Execution of Earl Washington, Jr. Margaret Edds 7th Annual Awards
A Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial Suzanne Lebsock 7th Annual Awards*
Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederate Capital Nelson Lankford 6th Annual Awards
A Blessed Company: Parishes, Parsons, and Parishioners in Anglican Virginia, 1690-1776 John K. Nelson 6th Annual Awards
Managing White Supremacy: Race, Politics, and Citizenship in Jim Crow Virginia J. Douglas Smith 6th Annual Awards*
Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity Jennifer Ackerman 5th Annual Awards
John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court R. Kent Newmyer 5th Annual Awards*
Lift Up Thy Voice: The Grimke Family's Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders Mark Perry 5th Annual Awards
Eye of the Storm Charles F. Bryan Jr. and Nelson Langford 4th Annual Awards
Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia James Fox 4th Annual Awards
Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland: A Carroll Saga Ronald Hoffman 4th Annual Awards*
German Boy: A Refugee’s Story Wolfgang W. E. Samuel 4th Annual Awards
What The River Means Elizabeth Hodges 3rd Annual Awards
The Rise and Fall Of the American Whig Party Michael F. Holt 3rd Annual Awards
Forced Founders Woody Holton 3rd Annual Awards
Robert Gwathmey Michael Kammen 3rd Annual Awards*
Confederates in the Attic Tony Horwitz 2nd Annual Awards
Slave Counterpoint Philip Morgan 2nd Annual Awards*
We Mean To Be Counted Elizabeth Varon 2nd Annual Awards
William Styron: A Life James L. W. West III 2nd Annual Awards
Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings Annette Gordon-Reed 1st Annual Awards
Stonewall Jackson James I. Robertson Jr. 1st Annual Awards*
From Calabar to Carter’s Grove Lorena Walsh 1st Annual Awards

Poetry

[* - Winner]
Title and Author Annual Awards
Living Room, Laura Bylenok 26th Annual Awards
The Night Drivers, Melanie McCabe 26th Annual Awards
Selected Books of the Beloved, Gregory Orr 26th Annual Awards*
Made to Explode, Sandra Beasley 25th Annual Awards
Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems, Rita Dove 25th Annual Awards*
Lock Her Up, Tina Parker 25th Annual Awards
Postscript to War, Bill Glose 24th Annual Awards
Eros, Unbroken, Annie Kim 24th Annual Awards*
White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia, Kiki Petrosino 24th Annual Awards
Colonize me, Benjamin Naka-Hasebe Kingsley 23rd Annual Awards*
Honeyfish, Lauren K. Alleyne 23rd Annual Awards
My Surly Heart, David Huddle 23rd Annual Awards
Search & Rescue, Michael Chitwood 22nd Annual Awards*
Claude Before Time and Space, Claudia Emerson 22nd Annual Awards*
Hold, Bob Hicok 22nd Annual Awards
Holy Moly Carry Me, Erika Meitner 22nd Annual Awards
Starlight & Error, Remica Bingham-Risher 21st Annual Awards
Orexia, Lisa Russ Spaar 21st Annual Awards
For the Scribe, David Wojahn 21st Annual Awards*
Honorable mention: White Bird: A Sequence, Wendell Hawken 21st Annual Awards
Collected Poems: 1974-2004, Rita Dove 20th Annual Awards*
Great Bear, Cathryn Hankla 20th Annual Awards
River House, Sally Keith 20th Annual Awards
Impossible Bottle, Claudia Emerson 19th Annual Awards
Little Anodynes, Jon Pineda 19th Annual Awards*
The Regret Histories, Joshua Poteat 19th Annual Awards
Honorable Mention: What the Neighbors Know, Melanie McCabe 18th Annual Awards
Spans: New and Selected Poems, Elizabeth Seydel Morgan 18th Annual Awards
The Cabinetmaker's Window: Poems, Steve Scafidi 18th Annual Awards*
Sweet Husk, Corrie Williamson 18th Annual Awards
Elegy Owed, Bob Hicok 17th Annual Awards
The Invented Child, Margaret Mackinnon 17th Annual Awards*
The Red Wolf: A Dream of Flannery O'Connor, R. T. Smith 17th Annual Awards
Black Snake at the Family Reunion, David Huddle 16th Annual Awards
Homeland, LuAnn Keener-Mikenas 16th Annual Awards*
Secure the Shadow, Claudia Emerson 16th Annual Awards
World Tree, David Wojahn 15th Annual Awards*
Touch, Henri Cole 15th Annual Awards
Hawks on Wires, Dave Smith 15th Annual Awards
Honorable mention: Nine Acres, Nathaniel Perry 15th Annual Awards
Poor-Mouth Jubilee, Michael Chitwood 14th Annual Awards
The Eternal City, Kathleen Graber 14th Annual Awards*
Heterotopia, Lesley Wheeler 14th Annual Awards
Continental Shelf, Fred D'Aguiar 13th Annual Awards
Home Remedies, Sarah Kennedy 13th Annual Awards
Bad River Road, Debra Nystrom 13th Annual Awards*
Figure Studies: Poems, Claudia Emerson 12th Annual Awards
The Pear as one Example: New & Seleted Poems 1984-2008, Eric Pankey 12th Annual Awards
Satin Cash, Lisa Russ Spaar 12th Annual Awards*
Blessings and Inclemencies: Poems, Constance Merritt 11th Annual Awards
Outlaw Style: Poems, R. T. Smith 11th Annual Awards*
Littlefoot, Charles Wright 11th Annual Awards
What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison, Camille Dungy 10th Annual Awards
Fire Baton, Elizabeth Hadaway 10th Annual Awards*
Ornithologies, Joshua Poteat 10th Annual Awards
Late Wife: Poems Claudia Emerson 9th Annual Awards
Reliquaries by Eric Pankey 9th Annual Awards
Family Preserve: Poems Dabney Stuart 9th Annual Awards*
American Smooth: Poems Rita Dove 8th Annual Awards
In the Dark Ruth Stone 8th Annual Awards*
Buffalo Yoga Charles Wright 8th Annual Awards
Torn Sky Debra Nystrom 7th Annual Awards*
Brightwood: Poems R. T. Smith 7th Annual Awards
The Saint of Letting Small Fish Go Eliot Khalil Wilson 7th Annual Awards
The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems Gregory Orr 6th Annual Awards
Shadow of Heaven: Poems Ellen Bryant Voigt 6th Annual Awards
A Short History of the Shadow Charles Wright 6th Annual Awards*
Icon and Evidence Margaret Gibson 5th Annual Awards
Messenger: Poems R. T. Smith 5th Annual Awards*
Alluvial Katherine Soniat 5th Annual Awards
The Drowned City Jennifer Atkinson 4th Annual Awards
Texas School Book Depository: Prose Poems Cathryn Hankla 4th Annual Awards
Cenotaph: Poems Eric Pankey 4th Annual Awards*
Summer Lake: New and Selected Poems David Huddle 3rd Annual Awards
Hammerlock Tim Seibles 3rd Annual Awards
Late Leisure: Poems Eleanor Ross Taylor 3rd Annual Awards*
The River Hills & Beyond: Poems Lou V. Crabtree 2nd Annual Awards*
On Long Mountain Elizabeth Seydel Morgan 2nd Annual Awards
Gift of Jade Margaret Ward Moreland 2nd Annual Awards

Lifetime Achievement

Author Annual Awards
David Baldacci 20th Annual Awards
Nikki Giovanni 19th Annual Awards
Jan Karon 18th Annual Awards
Barbara Kingsolver 17th Annual Awards
Charles Wright 16th Annual Awards
Tom Robbins 15th Annual Awards
Earl Hamner 14th Annual Awards
Lee Smith 13th Annual Awards
John Grisham 12th Annual Awards
Rita Dove 11th Annual Awards
Tom Wolfe 10th Annual Awards
William Styron 9th Annual Awards
Merrill D. Peterson 8th Annual Awards
George Garrett 7th Annual Awards
Louis D. Rubin, Jr. 6th Annual Awards
Mary Lee Settle 5th Annual Awards
Booker T. Washington 4th Annual Awards
Anne Spencer 3rd Annual Awards
Edgar Allan Poe 2nd Annual Awards
Ellen Glasgow 1st Annual Awards

People's Choice

Title and Author Annual Awards
Fiction: Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
Nonfiction: Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, The Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire, Jonathan M. Katz
26th Annual Awards (2023)
Fiction: Yellow Wife, Sadeqa Johnson
Nonfiction: The Girls Who Stepped Out of Line: Untold Mari K. Eder Stories of the Women Who Changed the Course of World War II, Mari K. Eder
25th Annual Awards (2022)
Fiction: A Time for Mercy, John Grisham
Nonfiction: The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family, Bettye Kearse
24th Annual Awards (2021)
Fiction: The Substitution Order, Martin Clark
Nonfiction: Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington's Mother, Craig Shirley
23rd Annual Awards (2020)
Fiction: Tony's Wife, Adriana Trigiani
Nonfiction: Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, Beth Macy
22nd Annual Awards (2019)
Fiction: Say Nothing, Brad Parks
Nonfiction: Code Girls: The Untold Story of American Women Code Breakers of World War II, Liza Mundy
21st Annual Awards (2018)
Fiction: The Stargazer's Sister, Carrie Brown
Nonfiction: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, Margot Lee Shetterly
20th Annual Awards (2017)
Fiction: The Jezebel Remedy, Martin Clark
Nonfiction: Something Must Be Done about Prince Edward County, Kristen Green
19th Annual Awards (2016)
Fiction: The Good, The Bad and the Emus, Donna Andrews
Nonfiction: Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local – and Helped Save an American Town, Beth Macy
18th Annual Awards (2015)
Fiction: King and Maxwell, David Baldacci
Nonfiction: The Feud: The Hatfields and McCoys, The True Story, Dean King
17th Annual Awards (2014)
Fiction: Come August, Come Freedom, Gigi Amateau
Nonfiction: Whispers of Rebellion: Narrating Gabriel's Conspiracy, Dr. Michael Nicholls
16th Annual Awards (2013)
Fiction: The Sixth Man, David Baldacci
Nonfiction: Lost Communities of Virginia, Terri Fisher and Kirsten Sparenborg
15th Annual Awards (2012)
Fiction: In the Company of Others, Jan Karon
Nonfiction: The Horse in Virginia, Julie Campbell
14th Annual Awards (2011)
Fiction: Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls
Nonfiction: Haunted Plantations of Virginia, Beth Brown
13th Annual Awards (2010)
Fiction: The Legal Limit, Martin Clark
Nonfiction: The Place to Be: Washington, CBS, and the Glory Days of Television News, Roger Mudd
12th Annual Awards (2009)
Fiction: Puss 'n Cahoots, Rita Mae Brown
Nonfiction: Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, Woody Holton
11th Annual Awards (2008)
Fiction: Big Stone Gap, Adriana Trigiani
Nonfiction: Jamestown: The Buried Truth, William M. Kelso
10th Annual Awards (2007)
Fiction: St. Dale, Sharyn McCrumb
Nonfiction: Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument, Allen St. John
9th Annual Awards (2006)
Fiction: Hour Game, David Baldacci
Nonfiction: Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival, Dean King
8th Annual Awards (2005)
Fiction: The Known World, Edward P. Jones
Nonfiction: Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy, Elizabeth R. Varon
7th Annual Awards (2004)

Carole Weinstein Prize in Poetry

The Carole Weinstein Prize in Poetry was awarded between 2005 through 2015 to poets with strong connections to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The $10,000 annual prize recognized significant contributions to the art of poetry and was awarded on the basis of a range of achievement in the field of poetry. More information is available at www.weinsteinpoetryprize.org.

Author Annual Awards
Joshua Poteat 18th Annual Awards (2015)
Rita Dove 17th Annual Awards (2014)
R. T. Smith 16th Annual Awards (2013)
Kelly Cherry 15th Annual Awards (2012)
Lisa Russ Spaar 14th Annual Awards (2011)
Henry Hart 13th Annual Awards (2010)
Eleanor Ross Taylor and Charles Wright 12th Annual Awards (2009)
David Wojahn 11th Annual Awards (2008)
Claudia Emerson 10th Annual Awards (2007)
Brian Henry and George Garrett 9th Annual Awards (2006)
Elizabeth Seydel Morgan and Ron Smith 8th Annual Awards (2005)

Art in Literature: Mary Lynn Kotz Award

[* - Winner]

The collaboration between VMFA and LVA and the creation of Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award was announced in 2012. In honor of this new literary award, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ curators selected nine masterpieces from the VMFA collection, each of which inspired one of nine award-winning poets to write an original poem. These are collected in the publication Art Meets Literature: An Undying Love Affair.

Title and Author Annual Awards
Jo van Gogh-Bonger: The Woman Who Made Vincent Famous, Hans Luijten 26th Annual Awards (2023)*
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South, Erin I. Kelly and Winfred Rembert 25th Annual Awards (2022)*
Continuum: North American Native Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Gaylord Torrence 24th Annual Awards (2021)*
Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract, Philip J. Deloria 23rd Annual Awards (2020)*
Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler - Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art, Mary Gabriel 22nd Annual Awards (2019)*
Sargent's Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas, Donna M. Lucey 21st Annual Awards (2018)*
Georgia, Dawn Tripp 20th Annual Awards (2017)*
Portraits at an Exhibition, Patrick Horrigan 19th Annual Awards (2016)*
Madame Cezanne, Dita Amory 18th Annual Awards (2015)
Poe and the Visual Arts, Barbara Cantalupo 18th Annual Awards (2015)
Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, Dianne Hales 18th Annual Awards (2015)
Rubens, Velasquez & the King of Spain, Aneta Georgievska-Shine and Larry Silver 18th Annual Awards (2015)
The Anatomy Lesson, Nina Siegal 18th Annual Awards (2015)
Lisette's List, Susan Vreeland 18th Annual Awards (2015)*
Arts and Crafts Embroidery by Laura Euler 17th Annual Awards (2014)
The Embrace: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo by Carolyn Kreiter Foronda 17th Annual Awards (2014)*
The Melancholy Art byMichael Ann Holly 17th Annual Awards (2014)
Labyrinths: The Art of the Maze by Franco Maria Ricci 17th Annual Awards (2014)
Balthus: Cats and Girls by Sabine Rewald 17th Annual Awards (2014)
The Innocence of Objects by Orhan Pamuk 16th Annual Awards (2013)*
Cezanne, A Life by Alex Danchev 16th Annual Awards (2013)
Titian, His Life by Sheila Hale 16th Annual Awards (2013)
Artists in Love by Veronica Kavass 16th Annual Awards (2013)
Bernini’s Beloved by Sarah McPhee 16th Annual Awards (2013)

Annual Whitney and Scott Cardozo Award for Children's Literature

The Whitney and Scott Cardozo Award for Children’s Literature was established in 2007 to recognize outstanding works of children’s literature by authors living in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic region. The award was part of the Virginia Literary Awards Celebration from 2007 – 2012. Past winners of the award are listed below.

Title and Author Annual Awards
When a Dragon Moves In, Jodi Moore 15th Annual Awards (2012)
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, Tom Angleberger 14th Annual Awards (2011)
Unite or Die: How Thirteen States Became a Nation, Jacqueline Jules 13th Annual Awards (2010)
Abe's Honest Words, Doreen Rappaport 12th Annual Awards (2009)
The Old House, Pamela Duncan Edwards 11th Annual Awards (2008)
Duck & Goose, Tad Hills 10th Annual Awards (2007)

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