North Street Book Prize 2025
Honoring the best self-published and hybrid-published books of poetry, children's picture books, middle grade books, art books, graphic novels & memoirs, genre fiction, mainstream/literary fiction, and creative nonfiction & memoir
First Prize $1,000 Childrens Picture Book
Katherine Lockwood, My Body Beeps! Growing Up with Diabetes
Honorable Mention $500
- Ramiro F. Prudencio, One Leaf, One Life, Art Book
- Cassie Brooks, Sticks and Stones, Childrens Picture Book
- Bryce Craps, Night of the Reading Dead, Childrens Picture Book
- Elizabeth Hatton, King James Virgin: A Holiness Memoir, Creative Nonfiction
- Joanne Intrator, Summons to Berlin, Creative Nonfiction
- Michael Paul Johnson, Brute the Brewmaster, Genre Fiction
- Marc Hess and Ira Bobrovska, Coyote Peak, Graphic Novel and Memoir
- Atukunda Rachael Mutabingwa, Mbegu, Literary Fiction
- Helen Stine, The Truthful Story, Middle Grade
- Christie Max Williams, The Wages of Love, Poetry
Thanks to all our entrants in the eleventh annual North Street Book Prize for self-published and hybrid-published books. We received XXXX books across our eight categories: poetry, genre fiction, mainstream/literary fiction, creative nonfiction/memoir, children's picture book, comics/graphic narrative, art book, and middle grade (books for tweens).
Final judge Jendi Reiter received a shortlist of about 55 books from screeners Sarah Halper and Annie Mydla. Sarah, a scholar of English history and literature, screened the books initially submitted as hard copies, while our managing editor Annie and editorial assistants Paveł Zagawa, Ewa Stachyra, and Mateusz Naporowski screened the online entries.
Children's Picture Book and Creative Nonfiction/Memoir were extra competitive this year, leading us to award an additional Honorable Mention in each category. Several of the top novels had crossover appeal, potentially fitting in Genre Fiction, Mainstream/Literary, or Middle Grade. We placed them in the categories where they would have the strongest chance of winning.
Kid appeal was primary in the juvenile literature categories. Picture books needed engaging art with a personal touch and a tight storyline that posed and resolved an age-appropriate problem. Though it's great when a book addresses an issue of broader social concern, it also has to be fun enough for a child to re-read, whether that's because of the artwork or the humorous moments. On the flip side, in Middle Grade, it's a bonus when a story contains jokes or insights that will be appreciated on a deeper level by the adult reading the book to their tween.
Art book entries continued to show weaknesses in organization and conciseness. Don't let too much text overwhelm your main idea. Tell a story with the sequence of your images, and be strict about eliminating duplicative ones. Annie's blog post about turning a portfolio into a book will help you here.
In poetry, we wanted to see more sophisticated language and craft. We read a lot of free-verse narrative poetry with some nice images but no additional layers of meaning. Be more intentional about your line breaks, stanzas, and shape on the page. Devices like repetition, assonance, and alliteration can enhance both the meaning and the sound of your poem. On the other hand, don't try for rhyme and meter unless you can pull it off—Jendi winces at sloppy scansion—or the poem's content demonstrates a clear reason for subverting the form.
In the prose book categories, this year Jendi's picks prioritized original subject matter and solid structure. A book that knew its mission and executed it cleanly got higher marks than a more ambitious but disorganized one.
Whether your graphic novel is in color or black-and-white, you should create a high-contrast page with dynamic action, varied poses and close-up versus distance shots, and visually distinct characters. Don't go for a dull color palette by default. If muted tones suit the mood of your story, relieve the eye with occasional pops of brightness on details you want to dramatize.
Our Winners
Grand Prize winner Teresa Tennyson's speculative novel Five Years imagines humanity facing imminent extinction because the bees that pollinate the world's crops have succumbed to climate change. For the residents of one New England town, the existential question is whether they can face the end with dignity and mutual aid, or be swayed by a strongman who advocates survival of the fittest. Ending on a tentatively hopeful note, this absorbing tale is a testament to the value of democratic norms, especially at times when we are most tempted to abandon them.
Art Book winner The Endless Sphere of Time presents photographer Geir Jordahl's circular black-and-white images of liminal spaces in nature and architecture. Edited by Kate Jordahl, this luxuriously bound book pairs its meditative vistas with short works by Norwegian modernist poet Rolf Jacobsen, in their original language alongside English translations by Roger Greenwald. With scenes ranging from a New Orleans cemetery to a Chinese forest or Norwegian fjord, this is truly a globe-spanning collection.
Honorable Mention Dr. Ramiro F. Prudencio's One Leaf, One Life showcases his colored-pencil portraits of fallen autumn leaves, accompanied by lyrical reflections about the themes and memories that their shapes suggest. The drawings combine a scientist's accuracy with a mystic's soul.
Children's Picture Book winner Katherine Lockwood's My Body Beeps! Growing Up with Diabetes features an active little girl who just wants to play hide-and-seek like her other friends, but the sound of her glucose monitor keeps giving her away. A pal with asthma helps her find humor and companionship in their differences. Playful in spirit, with vibrant illustrations, this book has appeal beyond those directly affected by its topic, as kids in this age group can easily relate to the push-pull of independence versus safety.
Honorable Mention Cassie Brooks' Sticks and Stones celebrates another kind of diversity, starring a little boy who's curious about his mom's Wiccan nature religion but afraid of being bullied for unconventional interests. We awarded an additional Honorable Mention to Bryce Craps' hilarious Night of the Reading Dead, in which a kid nonviolently staves off a zombie attack by sharing the joy of stories with them. Beneath the goofy scenario, it offers a good lesson about meeting adversaries with compassion.
Creative Nonfiction & Memoir winner Ben Stubenberg's The Jamaican Bobsled Captain is a fast-paced, character-driven work of narrative journalism, telling the real story behind the Olympic team that inspired the 1990s Disney comedy Cool Runnings. Whereas the movie played the premise for laughs, Stubenberg's profile of Jamaican military pilot turned Olympic bobsledder Dudley "Tal" Stokes and his colleagues reveals how brave and disciplined these unlikely competitors were, against the backdrop of Cold War politics and the racism in European-dominated sports.
Honorable Mention Dr. Joanne Intrator's Summons to Berlin chronicles her years-long legal battle to win reparations from the German government for a building that the Nazis stole from her father's family. Her training as a psychiatrist specializing in psychopaths' duplicitous use of language primed her to cut through bureaucratic doubletalk. We awarded an additional Honorable Mention to Elizabeth Hatton's King James Virgin: A Holiness Memoir, which captures both the coziness and the hellfire anxieties of growing up in a separatist Pentecostal church in rural Kentucky during the JFK assassination.
Genre Fiction winner Jessica Mann's ecological fantasy Uplift tells a story of interspecies cooperation through the coming-of-age journey of a Clark's Nutcracker, a Pacific Northwest bird in the crow family. Breaking with her family's insular ways, she learns about loss and legacy from creatures whose lifespans range from a season to centuries, and returns with fresh ideas to save their habitat.
Honorable Mention Michael Paul Johnson's Brute the Brewmaster is a cozy medieval swords-and-sorcery tale about a super-strong warrior who just wants to retire and open a pub, but his commitment to nonviolence is tested by adversaries old and new.
Graphic Novel winner Jacoby A. Matott's colorfully grotesque Pumpkin Guts: The Hellbound Halloween pays homage to teen slasher movies, with sassy characters who crack jokes about the tropes they're playing out. A close-knit friend group on the cusp of graduation must survive a supernaturally cursed carnival, and in the process, face what they've been avoiding about love and loss.
Honorable Mention Mark Hess' Coyote Peak, illustrated by Ira Bobrovska, is the first installment of a paranormal mystery about a trio of hikers who encounter a werewolf-like figure in McKittrick Canyon. Pre-existing tensions among the characters are heightened by their conflicting responses to the unexplained event.
Literary Fiction winner Rashid Darden's A Peculiar Legacy lovingly portrays a tight-knit Black neighborhood in Washington, DC where a newly arrived gay couple and a Quaker matriarch do their best to mentor the local teenagers after one of the youths is murdered. With diverse queer representation and distinctive character voices, this novel demonstrates the power of empathy and forgiveness.
Honorable Mention Atukunda Rachael Mutabingwa's Mbegu, the third book in her series about the fictional African island nation of Adavera, dramatizes the conflict between authoritarian religion and direct experience of divine love, via a lesbian romance between the dictator's daughter and a descendant of the family that historically opposed him.
Middle Grade winner Michael Wardner's Kris Kringle and the Great Magic Swindle is a witty romp that will entertain both children and adults. Santa's elves have quit, and the Supreme Council of Sorcery, Witchcraft, and Tricks is about to revoke his magic license. But there's a bigger conspiracy afoot to steal all the magic in the world. With help from trolls, elves, the Easter Bunny, and Ms. Kringle in her airplane, our jolly friend discovers that dividing people into "naughty" and "nice" may be the root of the problem.
Honorable Mention Helen Stine's The Truthful Story is set in 1960s lowcountry North Carolina, where 10-year-old Genevieve fears that her beloved grandmother's death in the river has something to do with the town's battle against encroaching industrial development. With lyrical writing and a strong sense of place, this book stands out for its sympathetic representation of people of different abilities and social classes.
Poetry winner Kathleen Spivack's Homage is comprised of tributes to guiding figures in her life as an artist, from cellist Pablo Casals and painter Gustav Klimt to poets Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop, as well as personal mentors and ancestors. This tightly conceived chapbook shows a mature poet's mastery of craft and insight.
Honorable Mention Christie Max Williams' The Wages of Love is a polished collection with a unified voice, drawing on themes of fathers and sons, marital eros, and an older man's perspective on the romantic fantasies of his youth.
Read our press release about our winners. Our eleventh North Street Book Prize competition is open from February 15 through July 1, 2026.
We would like to recognize and encourage these finalists in our tenth contest. They all received free private critiques from Winning Writers (value $90-$240).
Art Book
Rachael Sokolowski & Suz Karchmer, Take Heart
Children's Picture Book
Nicole Kohr, ABC Checkup
Hopey LJ & Kathryn Llewellyn, The Little Girl Who Was Full of Light
Maria Lucas, Tía Is...
Creative Nonfiction & Memoir
Jan Baross, Bye-Bye Bakersfield
Megan Williams, One Bad Mother: A Mother's Search for Meaning in the Police Academy
Genre Fiction
Rhoda Berlin, See Me
Eric James Fullilove, View to a Kill
Graphic Novel
Francis Gary Powers, Jr. & Walter Pfenninger, Enemy Territory: The Story of the American CIA U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers
Literary Fiction
Paula Friedman, The Rescuer's Path
Middle Grade
Mary G. Verrill, Thea Bowman: A Story of Triumph
Contest Judges
Jendi Reiter
Jendi Reiter is vice president of Winning Writers, editor of The Best Free Literary Contests, and oversees the Winning Writers literary contests. Jendi is the author of the novel Origin Story (Saddle Road Press, 2024), the short story collection An Incomplete List of My Wishes (Sunshot Press, 2018), the novel Two Natures (Saddle Road Press, 2016), the poetry collections Made Man (Little Red Tree Publishing, 2022), Bullies in Love (Little Red Tree Publishing, 2015), and A Talent for Sadness (Turning Point Books, 2003), and the award-winning poetry chapbooks Swallow (Amsterdam Press, 2009) and Barbie at 50 (Cervena Barva Press, 2010). Awards include a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists' Grant for Poetry, the 2016 New Letters Prize for Fiction, the 2016 Rainbow Award for Best Gay Contemporary Fiction, the 2015 Wag's Revue Poetry Prize, the 2013 Little Red Tree International Poetry Prize, the 2012 Betsy Colquitt Award for Poetry from Descant magazine, the 2011 James Knudsen Editor's Prize in Fiction from Bayou Magazine, the 2011 OSA Enizagam Award for Fiction, the 2010 Anderbo Poetry Prize, and second prize in the 2010 Iowa Review Awards for Fiction. Jendi's work has appeared in Poetry, The New Criterion, Mudfish, Passages North, Cutthroat, Best American Poetry 1990, and many other publications. See their interviews in RoundPier and Lammergeier.
Photo by Ezra Autumn Wilde
Contest Judges
Annie Mydla
Annie Mydla is the managing editor of Winning Writers. Born in Boston in 1989, she moved to Poland at the age of twenty-seven, where she now lives full time. Annie has critiqued over 600 full-length books and manuscripts through her work with the Winning Writers critique service and the North Street Book Prize, and read over 8,000 self-published books as a North Street assistant judge. She and her team deliver North Street judging feedback to approximately 1,500 authors per year. Annie oversees a staff of five in Poland, coordinates contest administration and customer service, and helps maintain the Winning Writers website. She is a literary scholar and writer. Check out her Winning Writers blog posts on writing craft and industry success. Outside of work, Annie is the founder and facilitator of Autistic Women's Group (est. 2021) and the editor of its journal for literary, visual, and audio art, AWG Shares Magazine.
Contest Judges
Sarah Halper
Sarah Halper is an assistant judge of our North Street Book Prize and our Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest. She earned her undergraduate degree in English History and Literature at Harvard and her graduate degree at The MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
Contest Judges
Paweł Zagawa
Paweł Zagawa is an editorial assistant with responsibilities in contest administration, judging the North Street Book Prize, marketing research, and critiques. Paweł lives in Poland and has a master’s degree in English Literature. In his academic journey, he has written cultural criticisms of contemporary issues and analyzed literature, especially in regards to the topic of his master's thesis, the Victorian fin de siècle.
Contest Judges
Ewa Stachyra
Ewa Stachyra is a critique assistant specializing in minority representation in prose and poetry. She lives in Poland, pursuing her master's degree in English Literature, Culture, and Translation and writing a thesis on queer experiences in contemporary Irish literature. She graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor's thesis examining patriarchal oppression in Hamlet from a feminist perspective. Among her main areas of interest are Shakespeare studies, feminist criticism, and social justice.
Contest Judges
Mateusz Naporowski
Mateusz Naporowski is pursuing his Master's degree in English Literature, Culture, and Translation at the University of Silesia in Sosnowiec, Poland. In 2023, he graduated with a Bachelor's thesis on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. His MA thesis, based on Gerald Murnane's The Plains and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, focuses on the shifting meaning of landscape in the literature of the 1980s. His academic interests include literary theory, experimental and postmodernist literature, as well as metamodernism as a broader cultural paradigm.
