News | April 16, 2019

2019 New England Society Book Awards Finalists Announced

WHAT: The New England Society in the City of New York (NES) is pleased to announce the finalists, or the “shortlist,” for the 2019 New England Society Book Awards, which recognize books of merit that celebrate New England and its culture. The NES Book Awards are presented annually to authors of books published in the previous year. Following tradition, the winning authors will be selected from this shortlist and announced to the membership at the annual Founders’ Day Celebration on May 15. The winners will then be lauded at a special evening at the National Arts Club on  June 27.  “Given the remarkable roster of Finalists and the broad range of categories and subjects explored by them, we look forward to naming the Winners of the 2019 New England Society Book Awards,” said Roland Foster Miller, the committee co-chair. “They will be stellar.” 

THE FINALISTS:  

ART & PHOTOGRAPHY

  • The Art of Curating: Paul J. Sachs and the Museum Course at Harvard
    by Sally Ann Duncan and Andrew McLellan (Getty Publications)
  • Winslow Homer and the Camera: Photography and the Art of Painting
    by Dan E. Byrd and Frank H. Goodyear III (Yale University Press)

FICTION

  • Still Life With Monkey by Katharine Weber (Paul Dry Books)
  • The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith (Penguin Random House, Viking)
  • The Late Bloomers' Club by Louise Miller (Penguin Random House, Viking)  

CONTEMPORARY NONFICTION/BIOGRAPHY

  • Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman (Pantheon Books)
  • Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World by Eileen McNamara (Simon & Schuster)

HISTORICAL NONFICTION

  • After Emily: Two Remarkable Women and the Legacy of America's Greatest Poet
    by Julie Dobrow (W.W. Norton & Company)
  • Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip's War by Lisa Brooks (Yale University Press)

SPECIALTY TITLE

  • Seaweed Chronicles by Susan Hand Shetterly (Algonquin Books)
  • A Naturalist at Large by Bernd Heinrich (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

WHERE & WHEN: The June 27 event is open to the public, offering all NES members and literary enthusiasts a chance to mingle with winners. This year’s event will be held at New York’s venerable National Arts Club and include a panel discussion with the winning authors, book signings and the awards ceremony. To purchase tickets, visit www.nesnyc.org/upcomingevents or call 212.297.2194.

WHO: Founded in 1805, The New England Society in the City of New York is one of the oldest social, charitable and cultural organizations in the United States. For more than 100 years, prominent writers such as Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louis Auchincloss, William F. Buckley Jr., David McCullough, Dominick Dunne and Nathaniel Philbrick have been honored by NES. The New England Society Book Awards carry on these literary connections and recognize books of merit that celebrate New England and its culture.