Nine non-fiction titles were submitted to the Adirondack Center for Writing’s annual Literary Contest.

For the last nine years, I have been privileged to serve as a judge for the ACW. The center, headed by Nathalie Thill and located in Saranac Lake, provides wonderful support and resources for writers and readers throughout the Adirondacks.

It also conducts an annual contest, with submissions in fiction, poetry, children’s literature, memoir, non-fiction, photography and feature articles.

As a judge, I have most often partnered with Bibi Wein, an experienced editor and author of the wonderful “The Way Home: A Wilderness Journey.” That was my good fortune again this year, and after doing our reading of the non-fiction entries, we met at Izzy’s Delicatessen in North Creek to compare notes and the books and select our winners.

What follows, in no particular order, is a brief summary of the books Bibi and I read for the contest. Perhaps it will serve as a summer reading list for Adirondack Daily Enterprise readers.

1. “High Places,” by Lynn Benevento. Benevento chronicles her family’s successful efforts to become 46ers, from 1983 to 2009. The book is illustrated with more than 30 of Benevento’s excellent mountain paintings.

2. “Sweet Memories,” by Jean Arleen Breed. Breed’s postcards, photos, and poems recall her youth, especially in the Port Henry and Mineville area.

3. “And I Know Too Much to Pretend,” by Lorraine M. Duvall. Duvall recounts her struggles and success as a mathematically gifted woman in the male-dominated computer business world.

4. “Adirondack: Life and Wildlife in the Wild, Wild, East,” by Ed Kanze. Saranac Lake author Kanze describes the building of a house, a home, and a life in the Adirondacks.

5. “Renovation: Restoring the Heart and Finding Home in the Adirondack Mountains,” * by Jeanne Elizabeth Whyte. The economic recession pushes a Virginia architect to the Fulton Lakes, where she rehabs a camp and builds a new life.

6. “President of Plattsburgh: The Story of Smith Weed,” * by Mark L. Barie. Historian Barie, from Champlain, NY, focuses on Smith Weed (1833-1920), an important but mostly forgotten North Country politician.

7. “Teaching Trout to Talk: The Zen of Small Stream Fly Fishing,” by Stuart Bartow. A collection of essays on what Bartow learns from his contemplative time fishing for trout in both well-known and obscure streams.

8. “The Girly Thought 10 Day Detox Plan,” by Patricia A. O’Gorman, Ph.d. A self-help skill-building and motivational book for women who wish to take control of their lives.

9. “Adirondack 102 Club,” ** by Martin Podskoch. Theme oriented travel-writer Podskoch introduces the 102 communities within the Adirondack Park.

As always, it was a delight reading works with an Adirondack connection, and discussing them with such a careful reader as Bibi. Our winners, as well as those in the other categories, were announced at the reception at the Blue Mountain Center on May 31, and can be found at the ACW website.

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*previously reviewed by this author for the Adirondack Enterprise

** previously reviewed by Rich Frost for the Adirondack Enterprise