Announcing the 2022 Southern Book Prize Finalists: #VoiceYourChoice!

(Asheville, NC) Southern independent booksellers have selected the finalists for the 2022 Southern Book Prize, representing bookseller favorites from 2021 that are Southern in nature—either about the South or by a Southern writer. Nominations were submitted by bookstore members of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) and culled from books that have received strong reviews from Southern booksellers. The 18 finalists which received the highest number of nominations are a collection of the most beloved “hand sells” in fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature of the year.

The finalists make up the 2022 Southern Book Prize ballot at www.southernbookprize.com. Winners in each category will be chosen by popular vote from readers who support Southern independent bookstores. Participating bookstores promote the ballot to their customers, and submitted ballots are entered into a raffle to win a complete set of the finalist titles.

Voting opens November 5 and will run through February 1, 2022.

SIBA launched the public ballot to encourage bookstores to engage their customers in the important question of what books deserve to be called “the best Southern book of the year.” Southern Book Prize winners will be announced on February 14, Valentine’s Day.

The Finalists: Fiction

The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington [Algonquin Books]
Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson [William Morrow]
Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia [Flatiron Books]
Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby [Flatiron Books]
When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash [William Morrow]
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins [St. Martin's Press]

Nonfiction

Black, White, and The Grey by Mashama Bailey [Lorena Jones Books]
Bress 'n' Nyam by Matthew Raiford [Countryman Press]
Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light by Helen Ellis [Doubleday]
Fight Songs by Ed Southern [Blair]
Graceland, At Last by Margaret Renkl [Milkweed Editions]
How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith [Little, Brown and Company]

Children's

Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston [Balzer + Bray]
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas [Balzer + Bray]
Ground Zero by Alan Gratz [Scholastic Press]
Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli [Balzer + Bray]
Keep Your Head Up by Aliya King Neil [Denene Millner Books/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers]
The Key to You and Me by Jaye Robin Brown [HarperTeen]