Newton Author Receives 2021 American Book Fest Award

NEWTON, MA — A Newton resident, community activist and writer is the winner of the 2021 American Book Fest Award for Creative Nonfiction for latest book, Prohibition Wine: A True Story of One Woman’s Daring in Twentieth-Century America.

Marian Leah Knapp has lived in Newton for over fifty years and is the author of three other books. She is one of over 400 winners and finalists in more than 90 categories.

“When I found out I was the winner it was like ‘oh my god, how could this be?’” said Knapp. “It’s good for me to know that somebody thought it was worthwhile. For me, it was the personal affirmation that it was a worthwhile story to tell and written well enough that people liked it."

Prohibition Wine, published via She Writes Press in May 2021, tells the story of Knapp’s widowed paternal grandmother, Rebecca Goldberg, a Jewish immigrant from the Russian Empire living in Wilmington, Massachusetts who sold illegal alcoholic drinks during Prohibition to help feed herself and her six children. Goldberg’s case made headline news at the time and she made history.

“When I was growing up, my father and his siblings would get together and talk about what their life was like living in Wilmington and their mother illegally selling alcohol to put food on the table,” said Knapp. “It was always intriguing to me to hear these stories.”

Although she thought about writing the book from her father’s and aunt's and uncles’ perspectives, Knapp said she ultimately decided that her grandmother was the one behind the stories and deserved to be at the forefront of the book.

“I realized that the key person in this story was my grandmother,” she said. "She was the strong immigrant woman who was absolutely determined that her children would get educated and they would stay together as a family. And she did it, even under the difficult circumstances.”

Knapp said writing the book was “quite a journey” and included a large amount of research on her family tree, immigration, and the history of the prohibition. She hopes readers will get a glimpse into the lives of immigrants and the ongoing fights of strong, capable women.

"I want people to understand the difficulties that happen with immigrants, and that's still happening,” she said. “My grandmothers story happened over 100 years ago, but it's still happening today."

American Book Fest is an online publication that provides coverage for all sectors of the publishing industry, including mainstream, independent, and self-published. This year's awards were presented for titles published from 2019 to 2021.

Prohibition Wine is available for purchase here. For more information about American Book Fest, click here.