The 2019 Southern Book Prize: The Finalists

..wait, what? Aren't those announced in the Spring?

In response to input from bookseller members, SIBA revamped the Southern Book Prize to streamline the selection process and encourage more bookseller and customer engagement, with a goal towards increasing excitement and sales around the holiday season.

So what, exactly, has been "revamped"?

Nominations: Nominations have been expanded to include reviews of eligible books posted by SIBA booksellers to Edelweiss. Nominations can also be submitted via the nomination form.

The Timeline: the selection of the Southern Book Prize finalists has been moved up to the Fall in order to take advantage of the holiday season and the popularity of the "best of the year" lists that predominate during that period. Nominations will close on October 15, and Finalists will be announced on November 1st. Winners will be announced on February 14.

Streamlined Selection Process: Voting on the "long list" (the full list of nominated books) has been eliminated. Finalists are selected according to the number of nominations and/or reviews they receive.

More customer engagement: Voting on the finalist ballot is now open to the customers of SIBA member bookstores. The ballot is available online and can be embedded on member store websites. Member stores also receive postage-paid postcard ballots they can hand out to customers in store. The voting season extends through the holiday season and into the New Year.

Link to official PR

Link to customizable PR

Link to SBP Finalist and Honorable Mentions Edelweiss collection

Link to To-Do Checklist for Making the Most of the SPB in Your Store

2019 Southern Book Prize Finalists

Fiction

A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler (St. Martin’s Press)
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Algonquin Books)
Florida: Stories by Lauren Groff (Riverhead Books)
Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown (St. Martin’s Press)
Scribe by Alyson Hagy (Graywolf Press)
The Line that Held Us by David Joy (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (G. P. Putnam’s Sons)

Nonfiction

The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Table by Rick Bragg (Knopf)
Calypso by David Sedaris (Little, Brown & Company)
One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Southern Discomfort by Tena Clark (Touchstone)

Childrens

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
Grim Lovelies by Megan Shepherd (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt BYR)
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain by Will Walton (Push)
Lions & Liars by Kate Beasley (Farrar, Straus & Giroux BYR)
Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick)
Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe by Jo Watson Hackl (Random House BYR)

Honorable Mentions
Books which did not receive quite enough nominations to be finalists, but whose nominations were especially enthusiastic.

Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles (Hogarth)
Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin (Ecco)
Treeborne by Caleb Johnson (Picador)
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper)
Varina by Charles Frazier (Ecco)
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (Balzer + Bray)