Messud, Gluck, Hoffman, and Philbrick.

Somerville's Claire Messud has won the 2007 Massachusetts Book Award in the fiction category, given by the Massachusetts Center for the Book, for her novel, "The Emperor's Children." Louise Gluck of Cambridge took the poetry prize for her collection, "Averno." In children's literature, the winner is Alice Hoffman, for "Incantation." The nonfiction winner is Nathaniel Philbrick, for "Mayflower."

The honor books (i.e., runners-up) in fiction were Mameve Medwed for "How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life," and Kim McLarin for "Jump at the Sun." Nonfiction honors went to Globe columnist James Carroll for "House of War," and Noam Chomsky for "Failed States." Poetry honors: Franz Wright for "God's Silence" and Martin Espada for "The Republic of Poetry." In children's, the honor books were "Clementine," by Sara Pennypacker and "Counting on Grace" by Elizabeth Winthrop.

The Massachusetts Center for the Book is the Bay State affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.