2017 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction Shortlist Announced

Sponsored by Reba and Dave Williams Foundation for Literature and Arts, The Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction is given to a writer whose work is set in the South, exemplifies the tenets of Southern literature—quality of prose, originality, and authenticity of setting and characters—and reflects, in the words of its namesake, Willie Morris, "hope for belonging, for belief in a people’s better nature, for steadfastness against all that is hollow or crass or rootless or destructive.”

This year’s finalists are:

• Joshilyn Jackson, The Almost Sisters (William Morrow)

• Bren McClain, One Good Mama Bone (The University of South Carolina Press)

• J.C. Sasser, Gradle Bird (Koehler Books)

• Stephanie Powell Watts, No One Is Coming to Save Us (Ecco)​

This year’s reception and award ceremony will include a special panel on the life and writings of Pat Conroy and a major announcement about an expansion of the Willie Morris Award.  Previous winners include Kim Wright for Last Ride to Graceland, Amy Greene for Long Man, Terry Roberts for A Short Time to Stay Here, and Tom Franklin for Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.

Two of this year’s finalists, Bren McClain and J.C. Sasser, were part of SIBA’s TRIO, a traveling exhibit of art, music, and literature that celebrates the inspirational power of great storytelling, and all were Okra Picks, receiving enthusiastic support from SIBA booksellers. Sasser won the 2018 Southern Book Prize for Fiction: Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense for Gradle Bird.

The Reba and Dave Williams Foundation for Literature and Arts is a generous sponsor of SIBA, supporting bookseller scholarships to the SIBA Discovery Show and continued education through SIBA’s B3! Building Better Booksellers program.