The 4th annual Massachusetts Book Awards was celebrated at the State House on November 18, 2004. This year marks the formal opening of the MassBook depository in Special Collections at the State Library. Secretary of the Commonwealth, William. F. Galvin, accepted the first four years of MassBook award and honor titles into the collection during the ceremony. A special guest for the event was John Y. Cole, Executive Director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

PEN New England was awarded the Massachusetts Book Medal for its significant contribution to the community of the book in the Commonwealth and an extraordinary group of Massachusetts writers were honored for their achievements in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children's literature.

The award winners and their residences are as follows:

Fiction Award to A Kiss from Maddalena by Christopher Castellani (Arlington resident) Fiction Honors to Reunion by Alan Lightman (Concord) and Operation Monsoon by Shona Ramaya (Grafton).

Nonfiction Award to Patriots: the Vietnam War Remembered from all Sides by Christian Appy (Waban)
Nonfiction Honors to The Big House by George H. Colt (Whately) and Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick (Nantucket)

Poetry Award to Middle Earth by Henri Cole (Boston)
Poetry Honors to Far Side of the Earth by Tom Sleigh (Cambridge) and Departure by Rosanna Warren (Boston)

Children's/Young Adult Literature Award to The Silent Boy by Lois Lowry (Cambridge)
Children's/Young Adult Honors to Don't Say Ain't by Irene Smalls (Boston) and My Brother's Flying Machine by Jane Yolen (Hatfield)

The Judges for this year's awards represent a broad spectrum of the Massachusetts book community, from librarians and editors to booksellers and teachers of writing: Maggie Dietz, Favorite Poem Project, Boston University; Becky LeGros Herrmann, Chelmsford Public Library; Suzette Jefferson, Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Wakefield; Dave MacLennan, Curious George Goes to Wordsworth, Cambridge; Sabina Murray, Dept of English, U Mass Amherst; Kristin O'Connell, Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities; Larry Parnass, Arts Editor, Daily Hampshire Gazette; Masha Rudman, School of Education, U Mass Amherst; Janet Vallee, Henry T. Wing School Sandwich; Priscilla Vaughn, Billerica Public Library; Afaa Michael Weaver, Dept of English Simmons College, Boston; Karen Wendler, World Eye Bookshop, Greenfield.

For more information about this year's MassBook award, please visit: www.massbook.org/events/MassBook%202004%20Press%20Release.htm