Norwich Author Ken Cadow Wins Kirkus Prize and $50,000

Ken Cadow in front of the cabin where he wrote Gather Credit: File: Justin Cash ©️ Seven Days

Norwich author Ken Cadow continues to rack up honors for his 2023 young adult novel Gather, the story of a resourceful and resilient teen from rural Vermont.

Cadow, who serves as coprincipal of Oxbow High School in Bradford, was one of three authors awarded the Kirkus Prize at a Wednesday night ceremony in New York City. Given annually by the long-standing book review magazine Kirkus Reviews, it recognizes books of exceptional merit and comes with a $50,000 cash award.

Cadow’s book, which he wrote in a small, primitive cabin in his woodsy Upper Valley backyard, won the young readers’ literature prize.

“Humor, grace, and tenderness bring to life this beautifully realized story,” prize jurors wrote of the book.

Cadow came up with the idea for Gather more than two decades ago, after becoming fascinated by the hunting culture in Norwich and the ways in which the pastime was dying out as developers and newcomers bought up land. The insights and empathy he’s cultivated through his 20-year career as a middle and high school teacher and administrator in rural Vermont also informed the book.

In an interview on Thursday, Cadow said he was surprised to hear his name announced as the winner. When it dawned on him early in the awards ceremony that he might have to give an acceptance speech, he borrowed a pencil from his wife, Lisa, and managed to scribble down a few words on a napkin just in case.

In his speech, Cadow referenced social theorist Murray Bookchin, who cofounded the Institute for Social Ecology at Goddard College in Plainfield. “We must attempt the impossible or face the unthinkable,” Cadow quoted Bookchin as saying.

“And I think sometimes that’s what educators have to do,” Cadow said. “We don’t know what we’re getting our kids ready for. We don’t know the world that they’re growing into. But teachers who fall in love with these kids, we try to do our best to usher them into the world.”

Cadow also spoke of the bad rap that characters such as those depicted in his book often get.

“It’s so easy right now — it’s almost en vogue — to disparage the white rural male,” he said. “And they were all young once. And they all had their own difficulties once.”

Other winners of the 2024 Kirkus Prize were Percival Everett, who won in the fiction category for James, his retelling of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Adam Higginbotham, who received the nonfiction award for Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, an account of the 1986 space shuttle disaster.

Cadow said his trip to New York City this week was a”whirlwind 36 hours” that included an office tour of his publisher, Candlewick Press; a visit to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum; and shopping for clothes for the awards ceremony that were a bit more elevated than his typical well-worn Carhartts. He said he wasn’t quite sure how he would use the money yet, apart from a nice meal out with Lisa — though he noted it might come in handy when it comes to fixing his roof.

Last fall, Cadow was one of five finalists for the National Book Award in young people’s literature, an impressive and unusual achievement for a first-time, 60-year-old novelist.

Earlier this year, Cadow was one of six authors awarded the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults by the American Library Association.

In May, Vermont Humanities chose Gather as the Vermont Reads book for 2024. The Vermont Reads program, which has run for 22 years, invites communities to plan projects and discussions centered on a book chosen by the council.