2025 NAIWE Poetry Winner

 

Author: Britt Kaufmann

Students in high school are often finding themselves and in turn beginning to question the purpose of the subjects they are required to study. Britt Kaufmann is a high school math tutor who writes poetry that reflects on both math and life (sometimes including her life interactions with these high schoolers) and how those two intertwine in Midlife Calculus.

She makes potluck pleasantries:
“What do you do?”

I work at the high school, I say. An extra body in the math
classes, sitting in graffitied desks with the students, modeling
how to take notes and pay attention. I’m right there, to
encourage them to ask questions, give extra help. Sometimes
I “Vanna”—work the problems on the board as the teacher
talks, so he doesn’t lose eye-contact with the kids. It’s a
grant-funded position.

“Oh.”

Britt Kaufmann captures moments from her life and relates them to math concepts, such as the x-axis, irrationals, operations, or infinitesimal changes. She also writers about her experiences with working in a high school.

The parent is confused:

“Why are you calling me?”

I’m part of the Student Success Team, I say. I can set up a
one-on-one meet with your child while they’re on quarantine
to help them complete their math assignments. They can
share their screen and I can walk them through each
problem. Have them email me a time and I’ll send a link.

“Ok.”

Midlife Calculus combines the purpose of math with important life events, such as the pandemic, the educational system, and school shootings, but also with Kaufmann’s life events such as change, time passing by, and love.

The mid-year hire is curious:

“What, exactly, is your role here?”

I am the chewed up piece of gum, I say, trod into the
floorboards so the kids don’t fall through the cracks.

“Uh . . .”

Britt Kaufmann uses this space to share her experiences and love of math and the students she works with, along with her life struggles and limitations as an educator.

My nephew snuggles into my lap:

“What is your job?”

I’m a tutor, I say. You know how your kindergarten class
has an extra adult to help out? I’m like that person, except
at a high school.

“So, you go to the high school and toot?”

Congratulations, Britt Kaufmann’s Midlife Calculus for being a NAIWE 2025 Book Award winner!

2025 NAIWE Narrative Nonfiction Winner

 

Author: Mary Jumbelic

As a newly retired expert forensic pathologist, Dr. Mary Jumbelic is pulled into the investigation of a family friend’s death when a former colleague calls to ask her for an opinion on an open case.

As a talented pathologist and writer, Dr. Jumbelic juxtaposes important concepts within the pages: the murdered women speaking contrasted with the new life in young Jumbelic’s pregnant body and the ceremonial bed contrasted with also being the death bed. In addition, she compares her own experience to these silenced women, or perhaps, why she became a pathologist, having been nearly kidnapped from a park at the age of five.

Dr. Jumbelic shares personal accounts, often to lighten the mood, but to also provide additional connection with the women from the stories who can no longer speak. While the stories can be difficult to read, Dr. Jumbelic expresses on behalf of these women the final words they were never allowed to say.

Mary Jumbelic includes many facts and statistics in this novel to help the reader better understand “femicides” – women who have been murdered by husbands, ex-partners, family members, and acquaintances. She also includes information about domestic violence and how can women can reach out for help.

Congratulations, Mary Jumbelic’s Speak Her Name for being a NAIWE 2025 Book Award winner!

2025 NAIWE Literary Fiction Winner

 

Author: Elizabeth Tucker

A longer book than average, The Pale Flesh of Wood sits at exactly 300 pages, and it is divided into three books, each labeled with a time frame to link to the progression of the story.

The Pale Flesh of Wood opens with seven-year-old Lyla and her WWII veteran father Charles Hawkins working together to hang a rope for a tire swing. Charles had wanted a tire swing as a child, but his mother never would give permission for him to have one. Now that Charles’s mother has finally given her permission for a tire swing to be hung from one of her trees, it has become Lyla’s job to climb up the tree, drag her body out on the tree’s branch, and tie the rope on the branch, all under the unreliable supervision of her father.

Shortly after the tire swing has been hung, Lyla’s father hangs himself on the very rope that Lyla hung from the branch; Lyle struggles with coming to terms as to whether she helped facilitate the death of her father.

With book 1 occurring primarily in the 1950s, book 2 in the 1960s, and book 3 in 1981, the reader can examine this one significant event, the death of Lyla’s father, and visualize how it affected three generations within the one family.

Elizabeth Tucker does a masterful job of taking the reader on an emotional, realistic roller coaster ride of a tragic situation.

Congratulations, Elizabeth Tucker’s The Pale Flesh of Wood for being a NAIWE 2025 Book Award winner!

2025 NAIWE Information Nonfiction Winner

 

Author: Martin Middlewood

As a National Park Service archaeologist at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site located in the states of Washington and Oregon, Martin Middlewood discovered the stories of the air. While he learned that much of the history focused on people or aircraft, he became enamored with the stories related to Pearson Field, the oldest, continuously operating airfield in the United States.

Thus, Martin Middlewood took on the challenge of sharing these stories, and he does so while intriguing the reader with the history and the little-known, but amusing facts about the challenges that the people of Pearson Field faced.

In Hidden History of Pearson Field, Middlewood shares stories about people and their adventures as they flew hot air balloons, the role Pearson Field played in World War I, how Pearson Field served the Army Air Corps, and now as the field has become a historic site.

Congratulations, Martin Middlewood’s Hidden History of Pearson Field for being a NAIWE 2025 Book Award winner!

2025 NAIWE Genre Fiction Winner

 

Author: Nikki Minty

Monroe Morgan has been waiting to turn eighteen and move out of his mother’s rundown shack. However, shortly before his move away from his drug-addicted and abusive, he meets Indi, a battered neighbor who is confined by the teachings of The Church of Salvation. As Monroe and Indi’s new friendship develop, Monroe’s life takes a turn for the worse, if that is even possible, when a confrontation with Indi’s father leads to Monroe’s arrest and confinement in a hospital for drug-induced psychosis.

Nikki Minty is a skilled writer, writing in the first person without the feeling of a lot of telling. However, what makes her skill stand out even more is the fact that she writes in the first person of multiple characters. Each chapter is so well developed, along with the narrator, that the reader can easily follow along and not forget who is leading the story.

To keep the writer engaged in the story, Nikki goes back and forth between two narrators for over 80 pages before introducing another first-person narrator. Each of these characters are very different, allowing the reader to easily distinguish them and keep up with the plot line.

Congratulations, Nikki Minty’s Psychosis Diagnosis for being a NAIWE 2025 Book Award winner!

2025 NAIWE Book Cover Design Winner

 

Author: Mary Jumbelic

When first looking at the book cover, the contrast of the red with the dark background gives off a spooky feeling. A light, near-white outline of the woman’s nose and left cheek bring attention to her face. The first word of the book title is placed on the woman’s forehead, making it look like she has been branded. But this woman cannot see or speak because an X is placed over each of her eyes and the final two words of the book title acts as tape over the woman’s mouth.

The title of the book Speak Her Name and the placement of the words of the title on the cover are at the very essence of what this woman cannot do and provide an excellent foreshadow for what this book is about.

Comments from professional book designer Tamian Wood:

“The x’s over the eyes tell the reader, at a glance, that there is death involved in this story, even before we read the words. Also, the striation in the image that suggests clear tape over the eyes and mouth has a super creepy, murdery vibe.

“But what I particularly like about the title is that each letter is unique. With a standard font, a repeated character will look the same because there is typically only one version of each letter. In this case, all three of the E’s are subtly different, as are the A’s and X’s. Great attention to detail.

“Another subtle, but really cool touch is the slight pinkish tint to the upper eyebrow and below the nose of the central character, picking up the color of the font and tying the two elements together in an artful and harmonious way.

“Overall, nicely done.”

Congratulations, Mary Jumbelic’s Speak Her Name for being a NAIWE 2025 Book Award winner!

2024 NAIWE Informational Nonfiction Winner

 

Author: Steve Waddell

People often create new products or services to solve problems they experience. However, many people don’t know how to pursue their ideas and inventions. Valuepreneurs can help!

Steve Waddell provides a step-by-step guide beginning with getting started before an entrepreneur even has an idea going all the way to having a product and turning it into a business. In Valuepreneurs, Waddell spends a lot of time focusing on the steps before the final product. He works through several stages to ensure that the product is valuable, worthwhile, and desired. While some entrepreneurs have an idea and then develop a product, Waddell emphasizes the importance of developing the concept and then launching a prototype before protecting the product idea and researching how to market your product.

While this topic could be considered dry, Waddell has developed a method that is anything but. His knowledge as a visionary leaks throughout the pages in an easily understandable format. Valuepreneurs offers many visuals to help you understand how to mold your ideas to succeed as valuable and profitable products.

Congratulations, Steve Waddell’s Valuepreneurs for being a NAIWE 2024 Book Award winner!

2024 NAIWE Genre Fiction Winner

 

Author: Leslie K. Simmons

As the son of a Cherokee leader, John Ridge returns home from New England with an education and a white bride. But as Southern states dispute with the federal government, setting the stage for Indian removal and later a civil war, John seeks to assist his people.

Leslie Simmons has a way with words. The prose she lays on the page is visual and beautiful, and the reader is quickly mesmerized by this dynamic work simply because of the way Simmons tells the story. Her excellent way with words makes it easy to forget that this is a historical fiction text.

John and his bride, Sarah, are faced with difficult choices while the Cherokee’s beliefs are tested. Red Clay, Running Waters is a family saga filled with love and sacrifice woven with outside influences such as politics, race, and religion.

This is a timeless and engaging story that is difficult to put down!

Congratulations, Leslie K. Simmons’s Red Clay, Running Waters for being a NAIWE 2024 Book Award winner!

2024 NAIWE Middle Grade Winner

 

Author: Sherry Roberts

Starting middle school and facing the unknowns that it presents can be difficult for many, but CeCe was excited to share this experience with her friends. However, shortly before the school year was to begin, CeCe discovers that her family will be moving.

Devastated and defiant, CeCe is forced to quickly pack and say good-bye to the life that she had known to then be shoved into a car and travel across the country. She feels like she has lost control of everything.

Author Shelley Roberts writes this book in the first person and in the present tense, which is no easy feat. Many books written in the first person lack the depth that the reader desires. However, in this book, the author’s skillfulness in using the first person enables the reader to be one with CeCe and share in her thoughts and understand her challenges. All of the words in this book are straight from the mouth or thoughts of CeCe. Excellent job!

This is a useful and relevant book to help children cope with life through the many changes they are forced to face, especially when they feel they have no control over what’s important in their lives.

Congratulations, Shelly Roberts’s The Galaxy According to CeCe for being a NAIWE 2024 Book Award winner!

2024 NAIWE Narrative Nonfiction Winner

 

Author: Frederick Douglass Reynolds

Police detectives’ cases are often entangled with drug abuse, gang violence, homelessness, and even death. One years-long homicide case that stands out for two detectives begins in California in 2008 when five people in a homeless encampment were murdered on the same night.

This account hits on areas of the victims’ lives leading to their deaths: one was sought out for his involvement in the gang culture of drugs and four were just in the wrong place that dreadful night and witnessed a murder. And then there was a sixth murder in the desert many miles away that again was connected to the gang culture of drugs with the ultimate price of death. Within the world of a jailhouse, these murders were used as bragging rights to gain status and then to convict.

Written like a story, Saint Bloodbath brings the reader in the scene, allowing the reader to better understand the situations of homeless people and gang members and why they make the choices they do.

Frederick Douglass Reynolds, the author and a retired L.A. County Sheriff’s Homicide Sergeant, is a gifted writer with a vast array of personal experiences to describe with his pen. Saint Bloodbath is an excellent read based on true events that will make you question the humanity of some.

Congratulations, Frederick Douglass Reynolds’s Saint Bloodbath for being a NAIWE 2024 Book Award winner!