Announcing the 2024 Sarton and Gilda Women's Book Awards Shortlist
The Sarton Award honors May Sarton, who is remembered for her contributions to women's literature as a memoirist, novelist, and poet. Sarton memoirs, novels, and nonfiction books are distinguished by the compelling ways they honor the lives of women and girls and are limited to books published by independent authors and publishers.
The Gilda Prize honors comedian Gilda Radner. Gilda memoirs are distinguished by their fresh voices, their honesty, and their authenticity. They make us laugh (even when we want to cry).
2024 SHORTLIST
MEMOIR
A Smoke and a Song: A Memoir by Sherry Sidoti (She Writes Press)
Elk Love: A Montana Memoir by Lynne Spriggs O'Connor (She Writes Press)
Freeing Teresa: A True Story about My Sister and Me by Franke James (The James Gang, Iconoclasts Inc.)
The Girl with Three Birthdays-An Adopted Daughter's Memoir of Tiaras, Tough Truths, and Tall Tales by Patti Eddington (She Writes Press)
Hiding for My Life: Being Gay in the Navy by Karen Solt (She Writes Press)
Hole in My Heart: Love and Loss in the Fault Lines of Adoption by Lorraine Dusky (Grand Canyon Press)
Melted Away: A Memoir of Climate Change and Caregiving in Peru by Barbara Drake-Vera (LSU Press)
HISTORICAL FICTION
Akmaral by Judith Lindbergh (Regal House Publishing)
The Beekeeper's Question, Love and Honey, War and Reckoning, A Novel of WWII by Christina Baldwin (Sea Script Book Publishing)
Craze by Margaret Vandenburg (Jaded Ibis Press)
The Many Mothers of Ivy Puddingstone by Randy Susan Meyers (Koehler Books)
Traces by Patricia L. Hudson (University Press of Kentucky)
CONTEMPORARY FICTION
Almost Family by Ann Bancroft (She Writes Press)
Beautiful and Terrible Things by S.M. Stevens (Black Rose Writing)
California Dreaming by Noa Silver (She Writes Press)
The Other Side of Nothing by Anastasia Zadeik (She Writes Press)
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Don't Pity the Desperate by Anna B. Moore (Unsolicited Press)
Roots of the Banyan Tree by Kathryn Silver-Hajo (FlowerSong Press)
NONFICTION
Garden Inventories: Reflections on Land, Place and Belonging by Mariam Pirbhai (Wolsak and Wynn Publishers)
I'm Not Yelling: A Black Woman’s Guide to Navigating the Workplace by Elizabeth Leiba (Mango Publishing)
Newspaperwoman of the Ozarks: The Life and Times of Lucile Morris Upton by Susan Croce Kelly (Univ. Arkansas Press)
THE GILDA PRIZE
Elizabeth Sails by Kristin Owens (Rising Action)
Nearly Departed by Gila Pfeffer (The Experiment)
Winners of both competitions will be announced and posted on this page in mid-April 2025.
The 2025 competitions will open in mid-April and close on October 31. Guidelines can be found here.
See previous winners here.
From its beginning in 1997, the Story Circle Network has been dedicated to helping women share the stories of their lives through memoir, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama, and to raising public awareness of the importance of women's personal histories. The organization carries out its mission through publications, webinars, classes, conferences, workshops, competitions, writing and reading circles, book reviews, and woman-focused programs.
The Women's Book Awards are sponsored by the Story Circle Network, an international nonprofit association of women writers.
The Sarton and Gilda competitions are open for nomination of books by women authors published in English in the United States and Canada. The awards are limited to submissions originally written in English and published by independent publishers, university presses, and author-publishers (self-publishing authors) with editorial offices headquartered in North America. Nominations of works from/about women of color and LBT+ women are welcome in all categories. Anyone, including the author, may nominate one or more books in multiple categories.
Professional librarians not affiliated with SCN select the winners from finalists chosen by first round jurors. Winners and finalists will be announced in April of the following year via social media, on the Story Circle Network website, and to SCN’s extensive email list.
- Winners receive a cash prize of $100, a commemorative award, gold seals, and a virtual seal for their websites, as well as advertising in SCN’s eletters and website and a year’s membership in SCN. Winners are also invited to attend and be honored at Stories from the Heart, SCN’s national conference (virtual or onsite).
- Finalists receive silver seals and a virtual seal for their websites.
