# Southern Book Prize

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American literary award

Award

Southern Book Prize Description Honoring the best "Southern" literature as voted by indie booksellers and readers Country United States Presented by Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Website www.southernbooksellers.org

**Southern Book Prize** (formerly the **SEBA Book Award**[1] and **SIBA Book Award**[2]) is a [literary award](/source/Literary_award) given by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA). It was first awarded in 1999.[1] Nominated books must be [Southern](/source/American_South) in nature or by a [Southern author](/source/Southern_literature), have been published the previous year, and have been nominated by a SIBA-member bookstore or one of their customers. Voting categories include [fiction](/source/Fiction), [Nonfiction](/source/Non-fiction), [poetry](/source/Poetry), [cooking](/source/Cookbook) and [children's literature](/source/Children's_literature). In 2016, the award was renamed the Southern Book Prize and awarded in honor of southern writer [Pat Conroy](/source/Pat_Conroy), who died in March 2016.[2]

The first awards were given in 1999.[3] From 1999 through 2007 winners were chosen by popular vote through an online voting mechanism.[3] Starting in 2008, winners were chosen from the list of finalists by a jury of SIBA booksellers.[3] Since 2019 candidates have been nominated by Southern indie booksellers before the ballot of finalists in three categories is voted on by bookstore customers. According to SIBA, 1800 ballots were cast to select the winners of the 2023 prize.[4]

## Winners

### Southern Book Prize

SIBA Book Award winners Year Category Author Title Ref. 1999 Children Debra Frasier Out of the Ocean [1] Fiction Tim Gautreaux The Next Step in the Dance [1] Nonfiction Tony Horwitz Confederates in the Attic [1] Poetry Andrew Glaze Someone Will Go On Owing [1] 2000 Children Ann Heiskell Rickey Bugs & Critters I Have Known Fiction Fred Chappell Look Back All the Green Valley Nonfiction Janisse Ray Ecology of a Cracker Childhood Poetry Rodney Jones Elegy for the Southern Drawl 2001 Children Kate DiCamillo Because of Winn-Dixie Fiction Tony Earley Jim the Boy Nonfiction Rick Bragg Somebody Told Me Poetry Peter Meinke Zinc Fingers 2002 Children J.J. Reneaux How Animals Saved the People Fiction Doug Marlette The Bridge Nonfiction Rick Bragg Ava’s Man 2003 Children Carl Hiaasen Hoot Cookbook Sara Foster The Foster’s Market Cookbook Fiction Sue Monk Kidd The Secret Life of Bees Nonfiction Pat Conroy My Losing Season Poetry Kathryn Stripling Byer Catching Light 2004 Children Melinda Long How I Became a Pirate [5] Cookbook Edna Lewis The Gift of Southern Cooking [5] Fiction Clyde Edgerton Lunch at the Piccadilly [5] Nonfiction Deborah Ford The GRITS Guide to Life [5] Poetry Fred Chappell (ed.) Locales [5] 2005 Children Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson Peter and the Starcatchers Cookbook Frank Stitt Frank Stitt’s Southern Table Fiction Ron Rash Saints at the River Nonfiction Celia Rivenbark We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier Poetry Maurice Manning A Companion for Owls 2006 Children Nikki Giovanni (with Bryan Collier) Rosa [6] Cookbook Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays Being Dead is No Excuse Fiction Joshilyn Jackson Gods in Alabama Nonfiction John Grogan Marley & Me Poetry Darnell Arnoult What Travels with Us 2007 Children Watt Key Alabama Moon Cookbook Amy Sedaris I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence Fiction Charles Frazier Thirteen Moons Nonfiction Charles J. Shields Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee Poetry Susan Meyers Keep and Give Away 2008 Children Donna Bateman with Brian Lies (illus.) Deep in the Swamp Cookbook Jean Anderson A Love Affair with Southern Cooking Fiction Sarah Addison Allen Garden Spells Nonfiction Barbara Kingsolver Animal, Vegetable, Miracle Poetry David Kirby The House On Boulevard Street 2009 Children Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery Two Bobbies Cookbook Martha Hall Foose Screen Doors and Sweet Tea Fiction Ron Rash Serena Nonfiction Rick Bragg The Prince of Frogtown Poetry Kevin Young Dear Darkness Young Adult Kristin Cashore Graceling 2010 Children Hester Bass The Secret World of Walter Anderson Cookbook Ted Lee and Matt Lee The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern Fiction Kathryn Stockett The Help Nonfiction Rick Bragg The Most They Ever Had 2011 Children Kathryn Erskine Mockingbird Cookbook Gena Knox Southern My Way: Simple Recipes, Fresh Flavors Fiction Ron Rash Burning Bright Nonfiction Jim Minick The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family Poetry Janisse Ray A House of Branches Young Adult Deborah Wiles Countdown 2012 Children Mary Quattlebaum Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond Cookbook Sheri Castle The New Southern Garden Cookbook Fiction John Hart Iron House Nonfiction Robert Morgan Lions of the West Poetry John Lane Abandoned Quarry Young Adult A. J. Hartley Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact 2013 Children William Joyce The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore Cookbook Cheryl Day The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook Fiction Wiley Cash A Land More Kind Than Home Nonfiction Jay Erskine Leutze Stand Up That Mountain: The Battle to Save One Small Community in the Wilderness Along the Appalachian Trail Poetry Kathryn Stripling Byer Descent Young Adult Sheila Turnage Three Times Lucky 2014 Children J. E. Thompson The Girl from Felony Bay Cooking John Currence Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey: Recipes from My Three Favorite Food Groups and Then Some Fiction Susan Crandall Whistling Past the Graveyard Nonfiction Sheri Fink Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital Poetry Cathy Smith Bowers The Collected Poems of Cathy Smith Bowers Young Adult Sarah Dessen The Moon and More 2015 Children Jacqueline Woodson Brown Girl Dreaming Cooking Sean Brock Heritage Fiction Sue Monk Kidd The Invention of Wings Nonfiction Beth Macy Factory Man Young Adult Alan Gratz with Brett Helquist (illus.) League of Seven

### Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize

Southern Book Prize winners Year Category Author Title Ref. 2016 Cookbook Alice Randall Soul Food Love [7][8] Fiction M. O. Walsh My Sunshine Away [7][8] History & Life Stories Steve Inskeep Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab [7][8] Literary Ron Rash Above the Waterfall [7][8] Mystery Brian Panowich Bull Mountain [7][8] Nonfiction Richard Grant Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta [7][8] Thriller Greg Isles The Bone Tree [7][8] Young Adult David Arnold Mosquitoland [7][8] Youngsters Robert Beatty Serafina and the Black Cloak [7][8] 2017 Biography, Autobiography & Memoir J. Drew Lanham The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature [9] Cooking Vivian Howard Deep Run Roots: Stories & Recipes from My Corner of the South [9] Creative Nonfiction JD Vance Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis [9] Fiction (Coming of Age) Ann Patchett Commonwealth [9] Fiction (Family Life) Mary Alice Monroe A Lowcountry Christmas [9] Fiction (Historical) Robert Morgan Chasing the North Star [9] Fiction (Literary) Julia Franks Over the Plain Houses [9] Juvenile Donna Gephart Lily and Dunkin [9] Southern Stories & Stories by Southerners Fannie Flagg The Whole Town's Talking [9] Thriller John Hart Redemption Road [9] 2018 Biography & History Coretta Scott King Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy [10] Fiction (Literary) Wiley Cash The Last Ballad [10] Fiction (Women & Family Gabrielle Zevin Young Jane Young [10] Juvenile Fiction Renée Ahdieh Flame in the Mist [10] Cassie Beasley Tumble & Blue [10] Mystery, Thriller, Suspense J. C. Sasser Gradle Bird [10] Nonfiction Michael Eric Dyson Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America [10] Southern Fiction Lisa Wingate Before We Were Yours [10] 2019 Children's Jo Hackl Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe [11] Fiction David Joy The Line that Held Us [11] Nonfiction Rick Bragg The Best Cook in the World [11] 2020 Children's Roshani Chokshi The Gilded Wolves [12][13] Fiction Jessica Handler The Magnetic Girl [12][13] Nonfiction Cassandra King Conroy Tell Me a Story: My Life With Pat Conroy [12][13] 2021 Children's Derrick Barnes with Gordon C. James I Am Every Good Thing [14] Fiction Carter Sickels The Prettiest Star [14][15] Nonfiction Natasha Trethewey Memorial Drive [14] 2022 Children's Aliya King Neil with Charly Palmer (illus.) Keep Your Head Up [16][17] Fiction Wiley Cash When Ghosts Come Home [16][17] Nonfiction Margaret Renkl Graceland, At Last [16][17] 2023 Children's Antwan Eady with Gracey Zhang (illus.) Nigel and the Moon [18][19] Fiction Silas House Lark Ascending [18][19] Nonfiction Mary Laura Philpott Bomb Shelter [18][19] 2024 Fiction Ann Patchett Tom Lake [20] Nonfiction Margaret Renkl The Comfort of Crows Children's and YA Gillian McDunn When Sea Becomes Sky 2025 Fiction Taylor Brown Rednecks [21] Nonfiction Annabelle Tometich The Mango Tree Young Readers Meredith Adamo Not Like Other Girls

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-summer_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-summer_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-summer_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-summer_1-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-summer_1-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-summer_1-5) Summer, Bob (1999). "SEBA presents first book awards." *[Publishers Weekly](/source/Publishers_Weekly)*, 246(20), 24. 1 Color Photograph. Last accessed Oct. 8, 2012.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-2016winners_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-2016winners_2-1) ["Celebrate Independents! Announcing the 2016 Southern Book Prize Winners"](http://www.sibaweb.com/booksellers/book-award-booksellers/635-conroy-2016-winners). Southern Book Prize. Retrieved April 28, 2017.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-siba2008_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-siba2008_3-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-siba2008_3-2) [2008 SIBA Book Award](http://www.sibaweb.com/siba-book-award/84-2008-siba-book-award)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Announcing the 2023 Southern Book Prize Winners"](https://thesouthernbooksellerreview.org/southern-book-prize/). *The Southern Bookseller Review*. Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA). Retrieved June 6, 2023.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:0_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:0_5-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:0_5-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:0_5-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-:0_5-4) Steelman, Ben (2004, Jun 27). "Book marks; Edgerton Nabs SEBA Award for 'Piccadilly'". *Star-News*. ProQuest document ID 285439497. Last accessed Oct. 8, 2012.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["SIBA Book Awards: Best of the South"](https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=232). *[Shelf Awareness](/source/Shelf_Awareness)*. June 21, 2006. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:1_7-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:1_7-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:1_7-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:1_7-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-:1_7-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-:1_7-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-:1_7-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-:1_7-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-:1_7-8) ["Awards: Pat Conroy Southern Book Winners"](https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2788). *[Shelf Awareness](/source/Shelf_Awareness)*. July 5, 2016. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:8_8-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:8_8-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:8_8-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:8_8-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-:8_8-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-:8_8-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-:8_8-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-:8_8-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-:8_8-8) ["2016 Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize"](https://www.squarebooks.com/2016-pat-conroy-southern-book-prize). *SQUARE BOOKS*. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:2_9-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:2_9-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:2_9-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:2_9-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-:2_9-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-:2_9-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-:2_9-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-:2_9-7) [***i***](#cite_ref-:2_9-8) [***j***](#cite_ref-:2_9-9) ["Awards: SIBA's Southern Book; Caine Prize"](https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3036). *[Shelf Awareness](/source/Shelf_Awareness)*. July 5, 2017. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:3_10-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:3_10-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:3_10-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-:3_10-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-:3_10-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-:3_10-5) [***g***](#cite_ref-:3_10-6) [***h***](#cite_ref-:3_10-7) ["Awards: SIBA's Southern Book; Branford Boase"](https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3285). *[Shelf Awareness](/source/Shelf_Awareness)*. July 6, 2018. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:4_11-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:4_11-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:4_11-2) ["Awards: Southern Book Prize; London Book Fair Bookstore of the Year"](https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3432). *[Shelf Awareness](/source/Shelf_Awareness)*. February 14, 2019. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:5_12-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:5_12-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:5_12-2) ["Awards: Southern Book Prize; Klaus Flugge"](https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3676). *[Shelf Awareness](/source/Shelf_Awareness)*. February 14, 2020. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:9_13-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:9_13-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:9_13-2) ["2020 Southern Book Prize Winners"](https://www.quailridgebooks.com/2020-southern-book-prize-winners). *Quail Ridge Books*. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:6_14-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:6_14-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:6_14-2) ["Awards: Southern Book, Ripped Bodice Winners"](https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3923). *[Shelf Awareness](/source/Shelf_Awareness)*. February 16, 2021. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** ["Carter Sickels' "The Prettiest Star" Wins 2021 Southern Book Prize!"](https://english.eku.edu/insidelook/carter-sickels-prettiest-star-wins-2021-southern-book-prize). *Department Of English | [Eastern Kentucky University](/source/Eastern_Kentucky_University)*. August 30, 2021. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:7_16-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:7_16-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:7_16-2) ["Awards: Southern Book, PROSE Excellence, R.R. Hawkins Winners"](https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4169). *[Shelf Awareness](/source/Shelf_Awareness)*. February 14, 2022. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:10_17-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:10_17-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:10_17-2) ["2022 Southern Book Prize Winners!"](https://www.cavalierhousebooks.com/2022-southern-book-prize-winners). *Cavalier House Books*. Retrieved 2023-01-24.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:18_18-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:18_18-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:18_18-2) ["Awards: Southern Book Winner; Wingate Literary Shortlist"](https://shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=4417#m59114). *[Shelf Awareness](/source/Shelf_Awareness)*. February 15, 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-06.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-:19_19-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-:19_19-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-:19_19-2) ["Booksellers' Guide to the Southern Book Prize"](https://sibaweb.com/page/ba_bkstore). *Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance*. Retrieved 2023-06-06.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** ["2024 Southern Book Prize Winners - Southern Indie Booksellers Alliance"](https://web.archive.org/web/20250119033605/https://sibaweb.com/blogpost/1157249/497948/2024-Southern-Book-Prize-Winners). *sibaweb.com*. Archived from [the original](https://sibaweb.com/blogpost/1157249/497948/2024-Southern-Book-Prize-Winners) on 2025-01-19. Retrieved 2025-05-23.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** ["2025 Southern Book Prize Winners"](https://sibaweb.com/blogpost/1157249/507940/2025-Southern-Book-Prize-Winners). *SIBA*.

## External links

- [SIBA Book Award](http://www.sibaweb.com/siba-book-award), official website

- [SIBA Book Award](http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/SIBA+Book+Award) at [LibraryThing](/source/LibraryThing)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Southern Book Prize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Book_Prize) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Book_Prize?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.