MFAW-VT alum and former Visiting Alumni Writer Julia Bouwsma’s Work by Bloodlight won the Maine Literary Award for poetry.  Work by Bloodlight, which began as Julia’s MFA creative thesis, was chosen by Linda Pastan for the Cider Press Review Prize and published by Cider Press Review.  And, if that weren’t enough excitement, Midden, Julia’s second  book of poems, was chosen by Afaa Michael Weaver, for the Poets Out Loud Prize, and will be published by Fordham University Press in the fall.  Congratulations!

The Maine Literary Awards is an annual competition sponsored and coordinated by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Nominations are open to all Maine residents (including part-time seasonal residents). The statewide competition is for published books, as well as drama, short works (either published or unpublished), and student writing. Maine writers may self-nominate, or be nominated by others.  In 2018, 145 books were entered across the award’s categories, more than 70 manuscripts were submitted into the award’s Short Works Competition, and nearly 40 Maine students submitted work in the award’s Youth Competition.