The SCN Women’s Book Awards are presented annually in announced categories. Women of color and lesbian entries are welcome in all categories.
The award program is named in honor of May Sarton, who is remembered for her outstanding contributions to women’s literature as a memoirist, novelist, and poet.
The awards are given annually to women authors writing chiefly about women, published in the United States and Canada and selected from works submitted. The competition is limited to submissions originally written in English and published by small/independent publishers, university presses, and author-publishers (self-publishing authors).
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2023 SARTON AWARD WINNERS
- MEMOIR: This year we recognize two outstanding memoir entries in a very strong field:
- Love in the Archives, a Patchwork of True Stories About Suicide Loss by Eileen Vorbach Collins (Apprentice House Press)
- Spirit Things by Lara Messersmith-Glavin (University of Alaska Press)
- CONTEMPORARY FICTION: The Mother Gene by Lynne Bryant (Atmosphere Press)
- HISTORICAL FICTION: The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin (Godine)
- YOUNG ADULT FICTION: Eat and Get Gas: a Novel by J. A. Wright (She Writes Press)
- NONFICTION: Parenting with an Accent: How Immigrants Honor Their Heritage, Navigate Setbacks, and Chart New Paths for Their Children by Masha Rumer (Beacon Press)
2023 GILDA PRIZE WINNER
The Golden Ticket: A Life in College Admissions Essays by Irena Smith (She Writes Press)
2022 SARTON AWARD WINNERS
- [MEMOIR]Chasing Zebras by Margaret Nowaczyk (Wolsak and Wynn Publishers)
- [CONTEMPORARY FICTION]Blurred Fates by Anastasia Zadeik (She Writes Press)
- [HISTORICAL FICTION] Cora’s Kitchen by Kimberley Brown (Inanna Publications & Education)
- [NONFICTION] Manifesting Justice by Valena Beety (Kensington Publishing)
2022 GILDA PRIZE WINNER
Yes Again by Sallie H. Weissinger (She Writes Press)
2021 SARTON AWARD WINNERS
- [MEMOIR] Bless the Birds: Living with Love in a Time of Dying by Susan J Tweit (She Writes Press)
- [CONTEMPORARY FICTION] The Sound Between the Notes by Barbara Linn Probst (She Writes Press)
- [HISTORICAL FICTION] Vindicated: A Novel of Mary Shelley by Kathleen Williams Renk (Cuidono Press)
- [NONFICTION] The Strong Black Woman: How a Myth Endangers the Physical and Mental Health of Black Women by Marita Golden (Mango)
- [SPECIAL RECOGNITION] The Book of Awesome Girls: Why the Future Is Female by Becca Anderson (Mango)
2021 GILDA PRIZE WINNER
Act Like You’re Having a Good Time by Michele Weldon (Northwestern University Press)
2020 SARTON AWARD WINNERS
- [MEMOIR] I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird: A Daughter’s Memoir by Susan Curlean (University of Georgia Press)
- [CONTEMPORARY FICTION] Luz by Debra Thomas (She Writes Press)
- [HISTORICAL FICTION] Child Bride by Jennifer Smith Turner (Spark Press)
- [NONFICTION] Victory for the Vote by Doris Weatherford (Mango Publishers)
- [SPECIAL RECOGNITION] Seven Sisters and a Brother by Marilyn Allman Maye, et al (Books and Books Press)
2020 GILDA WINNER
The Girlfriend Mom: A Memoir by Dani Alpert (Little Ricky Press)
2019 SARTON AWARD WINNERS:
- [MEMOIR] When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew by Hendrika de Vries (She Writes Press)
- [CONTEMPORARY FICTION] The Greek Persuasion by Kimberly K. Robeson (She Writes Press)
- [HISTORICAL FICTION] What We Take for Truth by Deborah Nedelman (Adelaide Books)
- [NONFICTION] Forever Seeing New Beauties: The Forgotten Impressionist Mary Rogers Williams, 1857-1907 by Eve M. Kahn (Wesleyan University Press)
2018 SARTON AWARD WINNERS:
- [MEMOIR] Finding Mercy in This World by Catherine Johnson (Endicott and Hugh Books)
- [CONTEMPORARY FICTION] Once Upon a Time a Sparrow by Mary Avery Kabrich (Open Wings Press)
- [HISTORICAL FICTION] The River by Starlight by Ellen Notbohm (She Writes Press)
- [NONFICTION] The Once and Future Queen: Guinevere in Arthurian Legend by Nicole Evelina (Lawson Gartner Publishing)
- [YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION] BJ Erickson: WASP Pilot by Sarah Rickman (Filter Press)
2017 SARTON AWARD WINNERS:
- [MEMOIR] Gathering From the Grassland by Linda M. Hasselstrom (High Plains Press)
- [BIOGRAPHY] Lincoln’s Generals’ Wives: Four Women Who Influenced the Civil War by Candice Shy Hooper (Kent State University Press)
- [CONTEMPORARY FICTION] Venetian Blood: Murder in a Sensuous City by Christine Evelyn Volker (She Writes Press)
- [HISTORICAL FICTION] Dark Lady: A Novel of Emilia Bassano Lanyer by Charlene Ball (She Writes Press)
- [YOUNG ADULT FICTION] Defiance on Indian Creek by Phyllis A. Still (White Bird Publications)
2015-2016 SARTON AWARD WINNERS:
- [MEMOIR] The Space Between: A Memoir of Mother-Daughter Love at the End of Life by Virginia A. Simpson (She Writes Press)
- [BIOGRAPHY] Finding Dorothy Scott: Letters of a WASP Pilot by Sarah Byrn Rickman (Texas Tech University Press)
- [CONTEMPORARY FICTION] A Drop in the Ocean: A Novel by Jenni Ogden (She Writes Press)
- [HISTORICAL FICTION] An Address in Amsterdam by Mary Dingee Fillmore (She Writes Press)
- [YOUNG ADULT FICTION] Upside Down in a Laura Ingalls Town by Leslie Tall Manning (author-published)
2014-2015 SARTON AWARD WINNERS:
- [MEMOIR] So Many Africas: Six Years in a Zambian Village by Jill Kandel (Autumn House Press)
- [CONTEMPORARY FICTION] War Creek by Susan Marsh (MP USA)
- [HISTORICAL FICTION] Even in Darkness: A Novel by Barbara Stark-Nemon(She Writes Press)
2013-2014 SARTON AWARD WINNER:
Xylotheque: Essays by Yelizaveta P. Renfro (University of New Mexico Press, 2014)
2012-2013 SARTON AWARD WINNER:
Leaving Tinkertown by Tanya Ward Goodman
2012 SARTON AWARD WINNER:
When We Were the Kennedys by Monica Wood
2011 SARTON AWARD WINNERS:
- Gated Grief by Leila Levinson
- Lost Edens by Jamie Patterson
The Story Circle Network is an international not-for-profit membership organization made up of women who want to document their lives and explore their personal stories through journaling, memoir, autobiography, personal essays, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, and mixed-media.
