Four Franklin County authors have been nominated for the 2025 Mass Book Awards.
Authors Mk Smith Despres of Greenfield, Brian Donahue of Gill, Adrie Rose of Deerfield, and Gabe Cole Novoa of Shelburne Falls have made the longlist for the 25th annual awards from the Massachusetts Center for the Book (MCB).
Smith Despres was nominated in the picture book/early reader category for their book “Night Song,” which tells the story of a little frog named Bernardo who wishes he were like the birds who sang beautiful songs each morning.
“He knows he does not sound like that,” Smith Despres said. “But he meets a helpful snail and he learns to appreciate his role in the woods and singing the night song that puts the woods to bed.”
“Night Song” is Smith Despres’ first published book. They said the book was released in January 2024, and they have since published three other books and have two more in the works. Smith Despres said the story of “Night Song” “poured out” of them and was inspired by their love of nature and living in western Massachusetts, and by a painting of a frog an illustrator sent them. They are excited and honored to be nominated for the 2025 Mass Book Awards.
“It feels great, it feels really nice to have people read it and say that’s actually a good book,” Smith Despres said. “This is my first published book but I’ve been writing and telling stories forever, since before I could even write as a kid.”
Smith Despres, who works as an art teacher, added that they love using books and stories to support students’ learning and creativity, but added that picture books are not just for kids. They encourage adults to read picture books to reconnect with their inner child.
“I think people often think picture books are just for kids,” Smith Despres said. “Everyone was a kid once and reading picture books brings you back to that place of wonder.”
Donahue was nominated for the nonfiction award for his book “Slow Wood: Greener Building from Local Forests,” which discusses sustainable forestry and his own experiences building a house with timber sourced from his farm, Bascom Hollow Farm.
Donahue, a retired professor of American Environmental Studies, a forest historian, and a member of the Franklin Land Trust, has written several books and reports on the future of New England conservation, farming, and forestry. He said that today, most American homes are built with lumber sourced from around the globe, but it is still possible to build using locally sourced materials.
“I live in Gill and co-own Bascom Hollow Farm. When we bought the farm, we had to build a house, and so we built it using timber milled from the woodlands on the property,” Donahue said. “It’s still possible to build using materials that are here and build sustainably … beautiful houses come from beautiful forests.”
He said in the world of wood, there is a lot of discussion about the necessity of preserved wildlands and woodlands producing lumber. There needs to a be a balance between preservation and production, Donahue said, and his book discusses the need for balance in forestry.
“The point of the book is we could do a better job having wildlands and woodlands,” Donahue said. “Massachusetts is doing a good job at the state level to designate wild reserves and fostering ecological preservation.”
He was surprised and honored to learn he had been nominated for the award.
Rose was nominated for the poetry award for her chapbook “Rupture,” which is a collection of poems set over the course of a year, and includes commentary and reflections on the changing of seasons. Rose said she was delighted to be nominated.
“It’s a huge honor,” Rose said. “Massachusetts is full of great authors and poets, and it’s amazing to even be nominated.”
“Rupture” was Rose’s senior project for her poetry concentration at Smith College. She said she had been writing poems since she was a middle schooler at Charleston County School of the Arts, in South Carolina, but working on “Rupture” was her first time working on poems as a collection rather than individual pieces.
“I had tried to put collections together before, but this was such a wonderful and supportive experience,” Rose said. “It’s very different working on an individual poem from working on a collection of poems.”
Chapbooks are shorter collections of poems that average between 15 and 30 pages. Rose said she is currently working on two full-length manuscripts. She also leads a weekly writing group at Looky Here in Greenfield.
Cole Novoa was nominated in the middle grade/young adult category for his book “The Diablo’s Curse,” which tells the tale of cursed pirate treasure, and the queer teens on mission to break its curse.
“On its face, The Diablo’s Curse is about a genderfluid teen demon who wants to be human, a boy cursed to die who made an ill-conceived deal with said demon for survival, the murderous island they end up shipwrecked on together, and the resilient girl they meet there. It’s about cursed pirate treasure, a scavenger hunt, and trying to survive in an environment determined to kill them,” Cole Novoa said. “But The Diablo’s Curse is also about a teen who doesn’t believe they deserve happiness; a queer cisgender boy desperate to spare his sister from a deadly family curse; and a trans girl who walked away from everything she knew so she could be herself, only to end up shipwrecked on a dangerous island.”
Cole Novoa has been writing stories since he was 13 and has published seven books to date. “The Diablos Curse” is the second book in the “Wicked Bargain” universe, exploring tales of Latinx pirates, demons, and curses. He said he was inspired to write the book after hearing increasing reports of transphobic legislation being filed, and books being removed from shelves for featuring queer characters.
“As I dealt with the crushing reality of repeatedly hearing the lie that trans people like me are inherently dangerous, I thought about Dami from ‘The Wicked Bargain’ — a teen demon who has heard their entire life that being a demon makes them a terrible person, even though they never had a choice. And I thought about how if you hear you’re a monster enough times, it can be incredibly difficult not to internalize it,” Cole Novoa said.
He said he was thrilled to be nominated for a Mass Book Award, and hopes that his stories help readers on their own journeys to self-acceptance.
“I hope my books like ‘The Diablo’s Curse’ help queer and trans teens feel less alone — and worthy of happiness,” Cole Novoa said.
Mass Books will announce the winners of this year’s awards at a ceremony at the State House in October.
Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.
