‘Conversations With My Mother’ is a Hawthorne Prize Finalist!

Ronald-Stéphane Gilbert’s Conversations with My Mother: A Novel of Dementia on the Maine Coast has been named a 2025 Hawthorne Prize Finalist! Gilbert’s novel was one of twelve finalists for the fiction prize from the American Writing Awards. Congratulations!

The story, told from the perspective of an elderly, good-hearted Francophone with dementia, examines her relationship with her acerbic caregiver daughter and peripatetic businessman son who attempt to cope with their mother’s deepening decline and the impending sale of the family property to underwrite her care.

The Hawthorne Prize is awarded by a team of judges. Entries are judged based on multiple writing criteria, including storytelling, character development, dialogue, and overall impact.