Two Greenfield authors have had their work recognized through the Massachusetts Center for the Book’s 2026 Massachusetts Book Awards, which celebrate the most outstanding books published by residents in 2025.
Astrid Sheckels took home an award for her picture book, “Flora and the Jazzers,” and Cameron Awkward-Rich was honored for his poetry book, “An Optimism.”
In a statement, Courtney Andree, executive director of the Massachusetts Center for the Book, said there were a lot of strong entries this year, tackling a variety of important topics.
“This year’s award winners invite us to grapple with the elusiveness of equality, find hope in the enduring bonds of family, confront the realities of a rapidly changing climate, and consider the vastness of the universe and our place in it,” Andree said. “We feel fortunate to be a part of such a vibrant and fearless literary community.”
‘Flora and the Jazzers’
“Flora and the Jazzers” is a Cinderella story set in the jazz age of the 1920s, with animals as the characters, Sheckels said.
Flora, a ferret who works as a hotel maid in the 1920s, loves music. She finds out that her favorite jazz band is coming to play at the hotel, and she wants to see them perform, but is told that she can’t because she’s just a maid. She goes back to work and is overheard singing by the bandmates, who are in need of a singer and ask Flora to join them.
Sheckels said the story is a rags-to-riches tale, similar to “Cinderella,” except there’s no fairy godmother, and there’s no prince charming. Just Flora and her talents.
“I wasn’t wanting to write a Cinderella story; it just happened. … I wanted a strong female character who didn’t need to be rescued. The voice she had at the beginning is the voice she had at the end,” she said. “She was staying true to herself.”
Sheckels said she had been working on this picture book on and off for years, and the concept has changed over time. It started with the idea of having an animal band, and she eventually landed on jazz for that band’s musical style. Then, Sheckels said she wanted a tale of the band finding its missing piece, which created Flora’s character.
She added that she has been working as an author/illustrator for more than a decade, and “Flora and the Jazzers” was the first story she’s written that felt like “a real Astrid book.”
Approximately four and a half months were dedicated to working on the watercolor paintings that would become the book’s artwork. Sheckels said her artwork is reminiscent of Beatrix Potter, and she likes the feel and look of watercolor, although it is a time-consuming process.
“It’s very old-fashioned, but I like having contact with the pencil, paper and the paintbrush,” Sheckels said.
One of her favorite scenes in the book, Sheckels described, involves looking into a dollhouse, where readers can see into the different rooms of the hotel. In the corner of a hidden stairwell, Flora can be seen scrubbing the floors.
She said it was a “deep honor” to be recognized by the Massachusetts Center for the Book and she hopes the award will help her story reach more children.
“It was a really fun project to do,” Sheckels said.
Sheckels will be bringing Flora’s story to the Heath Free Public Library on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 4 p.m. The free event will include a reading, a question-and-answer session, a book signing and a live drawing demonstration.
She added that she has another book, the latest in her “Hector Fox” series, that is being released in October. She plans to hold a book signing at Roundabout Books in Greenfield on Saturday, Nov. 7.
‘An Optimism’
Awkward-Rich, who, in addition to being a poet, works as an associate professor in the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has written several other poetry books that have also won awards. He said it was “definitely an honor” to be recognized by the Massachusetts Center for the Book for “An Optimism.”
He explained the collection of poems tells the story of his life over the past few years. When writing a poem, he said he doesn’t sit down prepared with an idea for what he wants it to be about, but rather, he comes with an open mind, ready to reflect on what is going on in the world and in his life, and what stories he has to tell.
“I think, for me, what poetry is for, it’s about what it’s like to be alive,” Awkward-Rich said. “It’s a record of what it felt like to be a Black, trans person from 2018 to 2024.
“I look back on what it is I’ve been up to,” he continued. “I like to go in looking to be surprised.”
Awkward-Rich joined UMass in 2018. He said his experience teaching at the college provided inspiration for the poetry book.
“This book was born out of a class that I taught at UMass Amherst during my first handful of years on faculty — Poetry and/as Black Feminist Thought — and would not have been possible without the brilliance, patience and insight of those students,” Awkward-Rich said in the statement. “In that way, it really is a gift that Massachusetts gave to me; I’m so happy that it is a gift well-received.”
He added that the poetry collection also looks at writers and poets of the past, particularly those who were/are also trans, queer and Black, and how they shaped Awkward-Rich’s own works and who he is as a writer.
“I found a lot of the work of this book was looking at the past and what the writers of the past have to offer me,” Awkward-Rich said. “The more I wrote, the more I realized I was trying to understand myself in a lineage.”
He added that not every poem he wrote over that approximately six-year period made it into the book. He went through and arranged his works in order, and removed works here and there, looking for what he believed to be the strongest pieces to tell the story.
Awkward-Rich said he believes a series written to Pauli Murray is among the strongest work in his collection. According to the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice, “The Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray was a 20th-century human rights activist, legal scholar, author, labor organizer, poet, Episcopal priest, multiracial Black, LGBTQ+ Durhamite who lived one of the most remarkable lives of the 20th century. S/he was the first Black person to earn a JSD (Doctor of the Science of Law) degree from Yale Law School, a founder of the National Organization for Women and the first Black person perceived as a woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest.”
“I think that series is the heart of the book,” Awkward-Rich said. “Every time I read it I still feel the feelings that brought me to want to write to Pauli Murray.”
