Canton’s Levin to receive 2026 Mass. Book Award

By Canton Citizen

The Massachusetts Center for the Book has announced the winners of the 2026 Massachusetts Book Awards, celebrating the most outstanding books published in 2025 by Massachusetts authors, artists, and poets.

Massachusetts Book Award winner Cait Levin

Among the winners of the prestigious award this year is Canton resident Cait Levin, who won the prize for middle grade/YA fiction for her novel Imposter, in which a girl must prove herself in her computer science class and in a national robotics competition.

“Imposter explores how we react when our passions and interests are met with skepticism and disregard,” said Levin. “It follows Cam, a high school sophomore, as she confronts the reality many girls and women face in STEM.

“It’s an honor for Cam’s story to win the Massachusetts Book Award. My deepest hope is that the book will find more readers who need to hear it, and that they will be inspired to keep pursuing what lights them up even when — especially when — naysayers try to dim that light.”

The Massachusetts Book Awards Ceremony will be held on October 28 at the Massachusetts State House. This ceremony marks 26 years of the Massachusetts Book Awards.

“This year’s award winners invite us to grapple with the elusiveness of equality, find hope in the enduring bonds of family, confront the realities of a rapidly changing climate, and consider the vastness of the universe and our place in it,” said Courtney Andree, executive director of the Massachusetts Center for the Book. “MCB is thrilled to recognize this amazing group of Massachusetts writers, illustrators, translators, poets, and publishers! We feel fortunate to be a part of such a vibrant and fearless literary community.”

Other 2026 winners include Jill Lepore of Cambridge, who received the prize for nonfiction for her book We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution; Stuart Nadler of Boston, who won the prize for fiction for his book Rooms for Vanishing; Cameron Awkward-Rich of Greenfield, who secured the prize for poetry for his collection An Optimism; and Astrid Sheckels of Greenfield, who claimed the prize for picture book for Flora and the Jazzers.

The second annual Notable Contribution to Publishing Prize went to Somerville-based Bulgilhan Press for the graphic novel Slices of Life: A Comic Montage, by Qu. Aidan Rooney received the biannual translated literature prize for Cécé, by Emmelie Prophète.

Founded in 2000, MCB is a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring a love of reading, honoring the rich literary culture of the commonwealth, promoting unrestricted access to books and libraries, and fostering literacy and learning. As the designated commonwealth affiliate of the Library of Congress, the center runs youth and family literacy programs like the Reading Challenge and Letters About Literature; represents Massachusetts at the National Book Festival; operates the Massachusetts Book Awards and Mass Kids Lit Fest; and partners with community organizations on literary initiatives and events, big and small, across the state.

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