Presenting the Florida Book Award Winners,
under-the-radar treasures, unforgettable characters—and more.
By Pam Daniel and Janet Scherberger
Whatever your reading pleasure, you’ll find something that satisfies among this year’s Florida Book Award winners. From poetry to short stories, mystery and history, the literary genres and subjects that keep you turning the pages are there.
Established in 2006, the annual awards program is coordinated by Florida State University Libraries with the involvement of library, literary and cultural organizations, including Florida Humanities, throughout the state.
Past winners have included best-selling fiction writers Lauren Groff, Patricia Engel, Dennis Lehane and Carl Hiassen; National Geographic photographer Carlton Ward, Jr. and Pulitzer Prize-winner Gilbert King.
This year presented unique challenges as jurors grappled with personal losses in the wake of hurricanes Helene and Milton and the winter’s bitter cold. But as Floridians do, they persevered, reading and evaluating more than 190 entries.
“We are thrilled at the number of entries,” says Keith Simmons, executive director of the Florida Book Awards. “It demonstrates the vibrancy and range of books produced by Florida authors and about the state
Young Children’s
Gold
Mango Memories by Sita Singh
This boldly illustrated picture book tells the story of a young girl harvesting mangoes in a South Asian grove with an assist from her sari-clad grandmother, who shows her how to throw stones to bring down fruit from the tallest branches. Mango-related stories from her youth in India that she shared with her own children inspired the book, author Sita Singh told the School Library Journal in a recent interview. Mangoes, she said, are an “obsession” in South Asia, “quite similar to Bollywood and cricket.”
Judges described the book as a “beautifully written” tale that “addresses global themes of family, belonging, and memories.”
Singh describes herself as an “architect by training, a homemaker by choice, a food enthusiast and reader by hobby, and children’s author by passion.”
Mango Memories is the second picture book from Singh, who loves growing mangoes in her South Florida backyard. She has two additional books in the works, with one set for release this summer and another in spring 2026.
Silver
We Are a Class by Rob Sanders
Bronze
Goodnight School by Catherine Bailey
Older Children’s
Gold
The Lost Forest: An Unexpected Discovery Beneath the Waves
by Jennifer Swanson
Jennifer Swanson is no stranger to the Florida Book Awards. A former middle-school science teacher with more than 45 works of nonfiction to her name, she won Golds in 2022 and 2020 and a Silver in 2018.
Her latest accolade comes for The Lost Forest: An Unexpected Discovery Beneath the Waves, the incredible story of an ancient cypress forest discovered under the Gulf off the coast of Alabama thanks to water churned by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Swanson takes readers on a journey from the forest’s origins 60,000 years ago to its discovery by local fishers and exploration by scuba divers and scientists.
“Fascinating finds, including shipworms, clams, crabs, and other species, will have you examining the next piece of wood you find in the water,” the judges wrote. “The Lost Forest is a fun and interactive story that allows you to join the voyage by reading, watching videos and learning how to conduct your own scientific research with step-by-step instructions.”
Silver
Make a Little Wave by Kerry O’Malley Cerra
Bronze
Grow Up, Luchy Zapata
Cooking
Gold
The Florida Vegetarian Cookbook
by Dalia Colón
This is the first cookbook from Dalia Colón, a longtime journalist and award-winning host of WUSF’s food-focused “The Zest” podcast on the NPR Network. (Colón also writes this magazine’s award-winning “Taste of Florida” column.) In addition to recipes starring cabbage, cantaloupe, oranges, tomatoes, watermelon, sugarcane and other Florida crops, it includes 12 essays on such topics as the Florida Strawberry Festival and the rise and fall of the state’s citrus industry.
Written in engaging prose and featuring clear, accessible recipes, the cookbook has earned praise from James Beard Award-winning chefs Art Smith and Michelle Bernstein.
Colón, who has been a vegetarian since 2013, tested hundreds of recipes in her home kitchen before settling on those in the pages of this cookbook. Her favorite? The red beet hummus, she told Sarasota Magazine.
“It can be made ahead of time, it can be served at room temperature, it’s vegan and it’s pretty,” Colón said. “Even people who don’t think they like beets end up loving this hummus. It’s versatile and it’s a showstopper.”
Silver
Modern Cuban by Ana Quincoces
General Nonfiction
Gold
In Search of the Beloved Community
by Raymond Arsenault
Arsenault, the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History Emeritus at the University of South Florida, received the 2019 Lifetime Literary Award from Florida Humanities. His book is the first full-length biography of civil rights leader and longtime Congressman John Lewis and was named a Best Book of 2024 by the New Yorker.
In what the judges called “beautiful prose” and a “seamless blending of history and analysis,” Arsenault follows his subject from his childhood in rural Alabama to becoming one of the major forces in the 1960s struggle for civil rights and a U.S. legislator who became known as the “conscience of Congress.”
As a young man, Lewis was jailed and brutally beaten scores of times, yet fought on, without bitterness, for what he called “the beloved community,” a society dedicated to equality and justice for all. On the “Florida Matters” radio program, Arsenault quoted one of Lewis’ colleagues in Congress saying. “He gave us everything and asked for nothing.”
“I don’t know if we’ll ever see his likes again,” Arsenault said. This book makes that manifestly clear.
Silver
Melted Away by Barbara Drake-Vera
Bronze
You Paid for This by Richard Wickliffe
Honorable Mention
The Life and Death of Ryan White by Paul M. Renfro
Florida Nonfiction
Gold
Florida Springs: From Geography to Politics and Restoration by Christopher Meindl
With more than 1,000 springs, Central Florida boasts one of the world’s largest concentrations of freshwater springs. Christopher Meindl, an associate professor of geography and director of the Florida Studies program at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, takes a look at the geography, history, science and politics of these natural wonders that have captivated people for millennia. He spent 10 years researching this tribute after finding a dearth of comprehensive literature on what he dubs “Florida’s real magic kingdom.”
The title—Florida Springs: From Geography to Politics and Restoration—captures the breadth of Meindl’s discussion. Maps, graphs and photos augment text that explores the springs as centers of communities, wellness and tourism and addresses threats such as water flow, quality and overcrowding as well as policies, activism and protection efforts.
Judges call it an “important and readable book,” noting that Meindl “ends on the hopeful possibilities of springs restoration, so that these amazing parts of natural Florida will remain for future generations.”
Silver
Tampa Bay: The Story of an Estuary
and Its People by Evan Bennett
Bronze
Tracing Florida’s Journeys: Explorers, Travelers, and Landscapes Then and Now
by Leslie Kemp Poole
General Fiction
Gold
Dressing the Saints
by Arecelis Gonzáles Asendorf
The haunting past and lifelong dislocation of Cubans who found refuge in Florida are the subject of this debut collection of stories by Cuban-born Gonzáles Asendorf. Her characters confront aging, lost loves and fading memories of all that was left behind in poignant, tightly plotted tales that reverberate with loss and love.
“Most of [the protaganists] are of my parents’ generation,” the author told an interviewer. “That generation is dying. There’s a duality to each story—what was left behind and why, and what was found and created in this country.”
The judges praised the author’s “highly descriptive, evocative figurative language,” which brings each character to life and suffuses the stories with a vibrant sense of place. “The stories are rich in vivid sensory moments that pull readers into the experiences of the characters: the smells, sounds. sights, tastes, and emotions of their lives,” they wrote.
Silver
The Best That You Can Do by Amina Gautier
Bronze
Bomb Island by Stephen Hundley
Poetry
Gold
2000 Blacks by Ajibola Tolase
In what Publishers Weekly calls a “searing” debut collection, the young Nigerian poet and essayist, a faculty member at the University of South Florida, reflects on Africa’s history and disruptive encounters with the Western world and the myriad social and personal costs that has exacted. The poet also connects the disintegration and degradation of once proud and close-knit cultures with his relationship with his father, whose absence wreaked damage of its own.
Yet despite the darkness and violence of its subject, the collection is suffused with beauty, pride and tenderness. As the poet notes, “the native word for burn is the same as dance.”
Critics have praised both the depth of Tolase’s vision and the power of his language. The Los Angeles Review of Books calls this a work that has “[expanded] the canon of migration literature.”
Silver
Bright Life, Animal Heart by Laura Minor
Bronze
Homeland of Swarms by Oriette D’Angelo
Popular Fiction
Gold
Terra Incognita by Steph Post
The original run of Terra Incognita from Steph Post included just 100 one-of-a-kind hand-bound books, making it a work of art as much as a work of fiction. Mailed directly from the author, they came in a box and included two postcards; a signed and numbered print; and a hand-sewn booklet with a playlist, reading list, maps and more.
“This project was about more than just creating a book,” wrote Post on the website CrimeReads. “It was about going back to the idea that books are not just stories but personal experiences.”
Now that the initial run is sold out, Terra Incognita was released as a paperback and e-book in May.
Set in late 1800s New York, Tangier and Constantinople, the story follows six adventurers, who are on a quest to find the last lost city.
Jurors lauded the look as well as
the narrative.
“The book is beautifully bound,” they wrote. “Multiple points of view and different excerpts, such as journal entries and letters, added to the reading experience.”
Silver
Edison’s Last Breath by Patrick Kendrick
Bronze
Diamond Cut by Thomas B. Cavanagh
Honorable Mention
Murder of a Dead Man by
Holly Newman
Spanish Language
Gold
El tren de los invisibles
by Gabriela Caballero
The literature of exile gains a rich addition in this debut collection of 13 short stories by a young Venezuelan writer. Caballero’s characters, both haunted and resilient, have dared to lose almost everything to start over in a new land where they can seem and feel invisible. As they adapt and transform, they struggle to integrate their memories with the new lives and selves they are creating.
“Each story is a metaphor for travel, nostalgia and reinvention, where the protagonists, made invisible by oblivion or distance, become a reflection of what we are and what we would like to recover,” the judges noted. The book, they said, helps us “understand the fragility and strength of those who dare to leave, to dream of returning or to become others in order to survive.”
Silver
Hampi by River Coello
Bronze
45 de Agosto y otros obras dramaticas by Carmen Duarte
Visual Arts
Gold
Dry Tortugas: Stronghold of Nature
by Ian Wilson-Navarro
A one-month artist’s residency in 2021 at this remote national park 70 miles from Key West and accessible only by boat or plane provides the backdrop for this coffee table book.
Images in Dry Tortugas: Stronghold of Nature cover everything from creatures of the coral reefs like hogfish, tarpon, turtles and Goliath grouper to pelicans, frigatebirds, the starry night sky and sunsets behind the walls of long-abandoned Fort Jefferson, one of just a few structures at the park. Litter and coral disease are also part of the story.
A series of essays that explore the history, ecological significance and wonders of this natural treasure introduce the nearly 200 pages of photographs.
Judges described the photography as “awe-inspiring” and praised Wilson-Navarro for bringing “sensory elements to life—readers can almost feel the breeze, salt air, and sun, creating an immersive experience.” They credit its “simple, elegant design” and “intentional storytelling” with weaving together history, ecology, conservation and personal experience.
Dry Tortugas was published by University Press of Florida with support from Florida Humanities and the National Endowment for Humanities.
Silver
Sunset Colonies: A Visual Elegy to Florida’s Mobile Home Communities
by Diego Alejandro Waisman
Young Adult Fiction
Gold
What We Wish For by Melody Maysonet
In a tensely plotted story that laces dark realities with what award-winning author Melody Maysonet calls “slivers of hope,” 15-year-old Layla tries to find her way out of a crushing situation.
Living in a homeless shelter with a mother struggling with alcoholism, she maintains an “I-don’t-care” façade and a web of lies to convince her friends that nothing is wrong. After her mother relapses, she concocts a plan to escape, convincing her estranged rich relatives to pay for expensive rehab for her mother and to take her in. Showered with attention and material goods, she finally has everything she wants. But a long-hidden family secret throws her seemingly perfect new life into turmoil.
The compassionate portrait of young Layla shows the devastating effects of addiction, not just on addicts but those who love them. She suffers from shame and guilt as well as poverty and isolation, yet she won’t give up on her dreams of a better life. Kirkus Reviews praised the strength of Maysonet’s “poignant narrative,” calling the book “simultaneously tragic and hopeful and consistently authentic.”
Silver
Covalence: The Bonded Series Book One by Andie L. Smith
Bronze
Worth It by Amy Nielsen
True Floridians
Book-award winners name Sunshine State characters they love.
Travis McGee
The series by John D. MacDonald.
“Travis was just so cool. Tall, ruggedly handsome, living on a boat, he was also smart and tough.
I wanted to be him!”.
—Patrick Kendrick
2024 Silver Award: Edison’s Last Breat
Totch
Totch Brown, A Life in the Everglades
by Loren G. Brown.
“Totch Brown’s life amongst the Ten Thousand Islands and Everglades transports me back to a place largely untouched by human pressures, an incredible world not seen anymore”.
—Ian Wilson-Navarro
2024 Gold Award: Dry Tortugas: Stronghold of Nature
Skink
Various novels by Carl Hiaasen.
“The former Florida governor who lives in the wilds of the Everglades, eating roadkill and personifying the wacky Florida Man, could only exist in the Sunshine State.”
—Thomas Cavanagh
2024 Bronze Award: Diamond Cut
Savannah
Make a Little Wave
by Kerry O’Malley Cerra.
“She’s a middle-grade kid who’s passionate about saving the world (specifically sharks), and yet, like all good fictional characters, she makes a mess of things before finally finding her voice.”
—Melody Maysonet
2024 Gold Award: What We Wish For
Ava Bigtree
Swamplandia by Karen Russell.
“Ava has a big heart for her family and animals, a sense of wonder and a capacity for acceptance that
extends to buzzards, bogmen, and tourists.”
—Steph Post
2024 Gold Award: Terra Incognita
Janie Crawford
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston.
“From the moment that Janie strides down the main street of Eatonville, having barely survived the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane but ripe with knowledge and confidence, you [participate] in her growth from powerlessness to agency.”
—Barbara Drake-Vera
2024 Silver Award: Melted Away
Rosa
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
“She is a Holocaust survivor who moves to Miami. Despite living in a paradise, [she is] haunted by memories and people don’t know what to make of her.”
—Amina Gautier
2024 Silver Award: The Best That You Can Do
Harry Morgan
To Have and Have Not
by Ernest Hemingway.
“{Harry] is a magnificent portrait of human resistance from adversity.”
—Carmen Duarte
2024 Bronze Award: 45 de Agosto y otros obras dramaticas
