crook's corner book prize

January 9, 2023

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Kera Yonker, kerayonker@gmail.com

Caroline Frost Wins $5000 Crook’s Corner Book Prize for Debut Novel
SHADOWS OF PECAN HOLLOW

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, January 9, 2023—Shadows of Pecan Hollow by Caroline Frost, published by William Morrow, is the winner of the tenth annual Crook’s Corner Book Prize for the best debut novel set in the American South.

Chosen by this year’s judge, National Book Award Finalist Ben Fountain, Shadows of Pecan Hollow is a hauntingly intimate and distinctly original debut about the complexity of love—both romantic and familial—and the bonds that define us.

Fountain says, “With Shadows of Pecan Hollow, Caroline Frost delivers a stunner of a debut novel that reads more like the work of an accomplished master. Everything you could want in a novel is here: rich, evocative settings, conflicted loyalties and hearts, and a slow fuse of a plot that throws off plenty of sparks on its way to final ignition. This immersive, full-bodied novel will keep its hooks in you long after the last page is read, and marks the arrival of a tremendously wise and talented writer. I think we can look forward to many more fine books from Caroline Frost.”

The winner was chosen from the Shortlist announced in September 2022. The three shortlisted titles also included All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris (Morrow/HarperCollins) and Bewilderness by Karen Tucker (Catapult).

Caroline Frost has a Master of Professional Writing degree from the University of Southern California and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Although she currently resides in Pasadena, California with her husband and three small children, her roots in Texas run deep. Shadows of Pecan Hollow is her first novel.

The Crook’s Corner Book Prize, established as a collaboration between the iconic Southern restaurant Crook’s Corner, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation, was inspired by the prestigious book awards long given by famous “literary cafés” in Paris.

Submissions are now open for next year’s Prize. For more information on the Prize and submission guidelines, please visit www.crookscornerbookprize.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

July 12, 2022

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Chapel Hill, North Carolina—The Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation today announced its annual Longlist for best debut novel set in the American South. The $5,000 literary prize winner will be announced in January 2023.

The Longlist is:

“Whatever challenges recent years have presented, they have not dampened the creative urge, as is obvious from this outstanding list of debut novels,” said Anna Hayes, Foundation President.

The Crook’s Corner Book Prize, now in its tenth year, aims to highlight emerging fiction writers, who typically face some of the toughest obstacles in publishing. Although eligible books must be predominantly set in the South, authors may live anywhere, and all genres of fiction, except for Young Adult, are eligible. The 2022 Prize, awarded in January, went to Eric Nguyen’s “Things We Lost to the Water.”

Judging for this year’s Prize will be Ben Fountain. Ben Fountain was born in Chapel Hill and grew up in eastern North Carolina. His most recent book is “Beautiful Country Burn Again,” a narrative, with history, of the 2016 presidential election. He is also the author of the novel “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” which was adapted for film by three-time Oscar winner Ang Lee, and the short story collection “Brief Encounters with Che Guevara.” His work has received the National Book Critics’ Circle Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, and a Whiting Writer’s Award, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award. His novel “The Jacmel Wreck” will appear in 2023.

The Crooks Corner Book Prize Foundation Shortlist will be announced in September.

About Crooks Corner Book Prize Foundation

Inspired by the literary prizes awarded by famous Parisian cafés such as the Deux Magots and the Café de Flore, the Crook’s Corner Book Prize honors the iconic Crook’s Corner, which for 40 years was a culinary, literary, and artistic beacon in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Sadly, Crook’s Corner closed in 2021. However, the Crook’s Corner Book Prize will continue its annual award, a fitting homage to the unforgettable restaurant. For more information on the Prize and submission guidelines, please visit www.CrooksCornerBookPrize.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

January 11, 2021

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ERIC NGUYEN WINS CROOK’S CORNER BOOK PRIZE FOR DEBUT NOVEL ​THINGS WE LOST TO THE WATER

Chapel Hill, NC, January 11, 2021—Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen, published by Knopf, is the winner of the ninth annual Crook’s Corner Book Prize. The prize awards $5,000 annually for the best debut novel set in the American South.

Chosen by this year’s judge, acclaimed poet, short story writer, and novelist Ron Rash, Things We Lost to the Water is a captivating novel about an immigrant Vietnamese family who settles in New Orleans as they search for identity–as individuals and as a family–and struggle to remain connected to one another as their lives are inexorably reshaped.

Rash says, “There is much to admire in Nguyen’s novel, but two aspects stand out to me. The first is his ability to reveal the inner lives of his characters. Their motivations and actions are distinctly individual, but they always feel true to the vagaries of the human heart. Equally impressive, and rarer in a first novel, is the novel’s superb structure, which moves the characters and the reader toward a climax that is both surprising and inevitable.”

The winner was chosen from the Shortlist announced in September 2021. The shortlisted titles were The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian (Sourcebooks Landmark), and Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen (Knopf).

Eric Nguyen earned an MFA in Creative Writing from McNeese State University in Louisiana. He has been awarded fellowships from Lambda Literary, Voices of Our Nation Arts, and the Tin House Writers Workshop. He is the editor-in-chief of diaCRITICS.org. and lives in Washington, DC.

The Crook’s Corner Book Prize, established as a collaboration between the iconic Southern restaurant Crook’s Corner, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation, was inspired by the prestigious book awards long given by famous “literary cafés” in Paris.

Submissions are now open for next year’s Prize. For more information on the Prize and submission guidelines, please visit www.crookscornerbookprize.com or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Media contact: Cindy Hamel, cindyhsellars@gmail.com, 917-544-1793 and April Starling, april@GetLinkCommunications.com, 917-544-0608.

September 15, 2021

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CHAPEL HILL, NC – The Crook’s Corner Book Prize, awarded annually for the best debut novel set in the American South, has announced its Shortlist today. The winner will be chosen from the Shortlist by Ron Rash, author of the PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestselling novel Serena, in addition to four other critically acclaimed  novels, four collections of poems, and six collections of stories. The $5,000 prize, inspired by the prestigious book awards given by famous Parisian literary cafés, is awarded by the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation. Although eligible books must be set predominantly in the South, the prize is open to writers from anywhere. 

As COVID-19 persists in wreaking havoc across the globe, writers, booksellers, and publishers have been especially impacted. “It seemed we were having a reprieve from the pandemic, but with the Delta variant sweeping through our communities, many events, like bookstore readings, continue to be cancelled,” says Foundation president Anna Hayes. “This has an especially negative effect on debut novelists, who need to be out promoting their new work. We’re proud of all the authors on our Shortlist and hope to help them gain the attention they deserve.”

THE SHORTLIST

The Prophets
by Robert Jones, Jr.
(G. P. Putnam’s Sons)

Portraying the enormous, heroic power of love, this novel is about the forbidden union between two enslaved young men on a Deep South plantation, the refuge they find in each other, and a betrayal that threatens their existence. Jones is from New York City and received his BFA in creative writing, and MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College. He has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Essence, and The Paris Review.

The Girls in The Stilt House
by Kelly Mustian

(Sourcebooks Landmark)

Set in 1920s Mississippi, this debut Southern novel weaves a beautiful and harrowing story of two teenage girls cast in an unlikely partnership through murder. Mustian grew up in Natchez, Mississippi and currently lives near the foothills of North Carolina. Her work has appeared in numerous literary journals and commercial magazines, and her short fiction has won a Blumenthal Writers and Readers Series Award. She is a past recipient of a Regional Artist Grant from the North Carolina Arts and Science Council.

Things We Lost To The Water
by Eric Nguyen
(Alfred A. Knopf)

As they search for identity–as individuals and as a family–an immigrant Vietnamese family settles in New Orleans and struggles to remain connected to one another as their lives are inexorably reshaped. Nguyen earned an MFA in creative writing from McNeese State University in Louisiana and now lives in Washington, DC. He has been awarded fellowships from Lambda Literary, Voices of Our Nation Arts (VONA), and the Tin House Writers Workshop. He is also the Editor in Chief of diaCRITICS.

The winner will be announced in January 2022. About the book prize.

The Crook’s Corner Book Prize honors the iconic Crook’s Corner Restaurant, which for 40 years was a culinary, literary, and artistic beacon in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Sadly, Crook’s Corner closed in 2021. However, the Crook’s Corner Book Prize will continue its annual award, an ongoing homage.

CONTACTS:
Cindy Hamel, cindyhsellars@gmail.com, 917-544-1793
April Starling, april@getlinkcommunications.com, 917-544-0608

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January 11, 2021

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SION DAYSON WINS CROOK’S CORNER BOOK PRIZE FOR DEBUT NOVEL ​AS A RIVER

Chapel Hill, NC, January 11, 2021—As a River by Sion Dayson is the winner of the eighth annual Crook’s Corner Book Prize, which awards $5000 for the best debut novel set in the American South.

This year’s judge, award-winning novelist Monique Truong, chose the winner from the Shortlist announced in September 2020.​ The shortlist titles were ​As a River​ by Sion Dayson (Jaded Ibis Press), ​Confessions of an Innocent Man​ by David R. Dow (Dutton) and ​Valentine​ by Elizabeth Wetmore (Harper Collins).

Set in Georgia, written in spare and lyrical prose, As a River moves back and forth across decades, evoking the mysterious play of memory as it touches upon shame and redemption, despair, and connection. At its heart it’s a novel about our struggles to understand each other, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive.

Sion Dayson was born in New York and raised in North Carolina. After a decade spent in Paris where she acquired French nationality, she now makes her home in Valencia, Spain. Her work has appeared in numerous venues including The Writer, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Hunger Mountain, Utne Reader, The Wall Street Journal, and several anthologies. ​Jaded Ibis Press ​is a feminist press committed to publishing socially engaged literature with an emphasis on the voices of people of color, people with disabilities, and other historically silenced and culturally marginalized voices.

The Crook’s Corner Book Prize​, established as a collaboration between the iconic Southern restaurant, ​Crook’s Corner​, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation, was inspired by the prestigious book awards long given by famous “literary cafés” in Paris.

“This pandemic year has particularly impacted debut novelists, who have a tough time gaining recognition even in the best of times,” says Foundation president Anna Hayes. “With in-person bookstore readings and book launch events canceled, we are especially glad for this opportunity to shine a spotlight on exciting new writers.”

Submissions are now open for next year’s Prize. For more information on the Prize and submission guidelines, please visit ​www.crookscornerbookprize.com​ or follow us on ​Twitter​, Facebook​, and ​Instagram​.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Cindy Hamel, ​cindyhsellars@gmail.com​, 917-544-1793 and April Starling, ​april@getlinkcommunications.com​, 917-544-0608

September 17, 2020

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CHAPEL HILL, NC – The Crook’s Corner Book Prize, awarded annually for the best debut novel set in the American South, has announced its Shortlist today. The winner will be chosen this year by award-winning novelist, Monique Truong. The $5000 prize, inspired by the prestigious book awards given by famous Parisian literary cafés, is co-sponsored by the iconic Southern restaurant, Crook’s Corner, in Chapel Hill, NC. Although eligible books must be set predominantly in the South, the prize is open to writers from anywhere.

In this year of the COVID-19 crisis, writers, booksellers, and publishers have all suffered from the disruptions of quarantines and social distancing. “With bookstore readings canceled and all book launch activities impacted, no one has suffered more than debut novelists, who will always have a tough time gaining recognition, even in the best of circumstances,” says Foundation president Anna Hayes. “We are therefore especially glad this year to shine the spotlight on these exciting new authors.”

THE SHORTLIST

As a River
by Sion Dayson

(Jaded Ibis Press)

Written in spare and lyrical prose and set in Georgia, As a River moves back and forth across decades, evoking the mysterious play of memory as it touches upon shame and redemption, despair, and connection. At its heart it’s a novel about our struggles to understand each other, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. Sion Dayson grew up in North Carolina and earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has appeared in Electric literature, Utne Reader, and more.

Confessions of an Innocent Man
by David R. Dow
(Dutton)

A man wrongfully convicted of murder will stop at nothing to deliver justice to those who stole everything from him. This suspenseful novel, set in Texas, is a fierce howl of rage that questions the true meaning of justice. David R. Dow is the Cullen Professor at the University of Houston Law Center and the Rorschach Visiting Professor of History at Rice University. Working with students in his death penalty clinic, Dow has represented more than one hundred death-row inmates during their state and federal appeals. He is also the founder and director of the Texas Innocence Network.

Valentine
by Elizabeth Wetmore
(Harper Collins)

A brutal rape in the Texas oil country of the mid-1970s reverberates through the lives of five women, whose different perspectives reveal the many faces of pain, resilience, and comfort. ​​Deeply rooted in the implacable Texas landscape, the gripping narrative finds surprising pockets of empathy engendered by anger, fear, and evil. Author Elizabeth Wetmore is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fiction has appeared in Epoch, Kenyon Review, Colorado Review, Baltimore Review, Crab Orchard Review,Iowa Review​, and other literary journals.

The winner will be announced on January 11, 2021. About the book prize.

Media contacts: Cindy Hamel at Cindy Hamel PR 917-544-1793 or cindyhsellars@gmail.com.

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January 7, 2020

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DEVI S. LASKAR, CHAPEL HILL NATIVE, WINS $5000 CROOK’S CORNER BOOK PRIZE

Chapel Hill, NC, January 6, 2020—Devi S. Laskar’s The Atlas of Reds and Blues, published by Counterpoint Press, is the winner of the seventh annual Crook’s Corner Book Prize for best debut novel set in the American South.

This year’s judge was National Book Award-winning author Charles Frazier, who says, “I loved the very focused and concise ideas and dramatic situation, the efficient and effective structure, the strong and precise language.”

The Atlas of Reds and Blues grapples with the complexities of second-generation American life. Inspired by the author’s own terrifying experience of a mistaken police raid on her home, Devi S. Laskar’s debut novel explores, in spare and powerful prose, the ways in which racism permeates and pollutes the American dream. As the protagonist, known only as Mother, lies bleeding from a police gunshot wound in her Atlanta driveway, she revisits, in a time-bending mind-flash, her life as the successful child of immigrants from India, wife of a successful white businessman, and mother of three daughters.

Laskar is a native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and holds an MFA from Columbia University. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is an alumna of The OpEd Project and VONA. The Atlas of Reds and Blues is her first novel. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The Crook’s Corner Book Prize, established as a collaboration between the iconic Southern restaurant, Crook’s Corner, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation, was inspired by the prestigious book awards long given by famous “literary cafés”
in Paris.

Submissions are now open for next year’s Prize. For details, see the Submission Guidelines.
Media contact: Cindy Hamel, cindyhsellars@gmail.com, 917-544-1793.

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September 10, 2019

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CHAPEL HILL, NC – The Crook’s Corner Book Prize, awarded annually for the best debut novel set in the American South, has announced its Shortlist today. The winner will be chosen this year by National Book Award-winning novelist, Charles Frazier. The $5000 prize, inspired by the prestigious book awards given by famous Parisian literary cafés, is co-sponsored by the iconic Southern restaurant, Crook’s Corner, in Chapel Hill, NC. 

“No one has a tougher time getting published and gaining recognition than first-time novelists,” says Anna Hayes, president of the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation. “Our goal is to offer a timely boost to new talent.” 

Although eligible books must be set predominantly in the South, the prize is open to writers from anywhere. 

THE SHORTLIST

The Atlas of Reds and Blues
by Devi S. Laskar

(Counterpoint Press)

In a time-bending mind-flash as she lies bleeding from a police gunshot wound, the protagonist of The Atlas of Reds and Blues, known only as Mother, revisits her life as a successful immigrant to America from India. Devi S. Laskar is a native of Chapel Hill, N.C. She holds an MFA from Columbia University in New York, an MA in South Asian Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BA in journalism and English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Sugar Land
by Tammy Lynne Stoner
(Red Hen Press)

In the Midland, Texas of 1923, a girl who falls in love with her best (girl)friend seeks sanctuary in the safest place she can think of, working at the Sugar Land Prison for men. Against the background of Texas from Prohibition through the civil rights era, she weds the prison warden, befriends legendary blues singer Leadbelly, and searches for the key to her own prison. Tammy Lynne Stoner was born in Midland, Texas and has been published in two dozen journals and anthologies. She is also the publisher of Gertrude, the longest consecutively published queer journal.

Lot: Stories
by Bryan Washington
(Riverhead Books)

Bryan Washington’s Houston, Texas doesn’t mention much about oil or pickup trucks. It’s about today’s Houston, a sprawling and multiethnic city in which a vibrant underclass is bouncing, sliding, and shooting the rapids of the American system as its people try to make a home in it. Family, community, love, work, and the human connections that make a life are Washington’s subjects. A resident of Houston, his fiction and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times Style Magazine, BuzzFeed, Vulture, The Paris Review, Boston Review, Tin House, and more. He’s also the recipient of an O. Henry Award.

The winner will be announced on January 6, 2020. About the book prize.

Media contacts: Cindy Hamel at Cindy Hamel PR 917-544-1793 or cindyhsellars@gmail.com.

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August 13, 2019

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The Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation announces its annual Longlist for best debut novel set in the American South. Now in its seventh year, the $5,000 prize will be presented in January 2020. The Longlist includes:

The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish
by Katya Apekina
(Two Dollar Radio)

Lot
by Bryan Washington
(Riverhead Books)

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January 8, 2019

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MARGARET WILKERSON SEXTON WINS $5000 CROOK’S CORNER BOOK PRIZE

Chapel Hill, NC, January 8, 2019—

Margaret Wilkerson Sexton’s A Kind of Freedom, published by Counterpoint Press, is the winner of the sixth annual Crook’s Corner Book Prize for best debut novel set in the American South. This year’s judge was award-winning author Tayari Jones, who described the book as “an eye-opener, page-turner, and heart-breaker.”

A Kind of Freedom follows the downward spiral of an African-American family in New Orleans, from the 1940s through Hurricane Katrina. The family, anchored by a respected physician and his Creole wife, had occupied the upper echelons of black society in the city. But as each generation journeys through the 1980s and finally to the post-Katrina world, family members – despite never-extinguished hope – succumb to drugs and seemingly implacable futility.

Sexton, whose African-American grandfather and six of his children graduated from college, wanted to know why the following generations struggled even as it became possible for a black man to become President. “I wondered what systems took the place of Jim Crow in my generation,” she says. “I wanted to demonstrate the extent to which the current laws surrounding housing, drugs, and sentencing were as powerful as laws enforcing racial segregation in the 1940s.”

The New York Times review of the book declared, “For a debut novelist to take up such charged material is daring; to succeed in lending free-standing life to her characters without yielding an inch to sentimentality . . . announces her as a writer of uncommon nerve and talent.”

Born and raised in New Orleans, Sexton received a B.A. in creative writing from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law. Longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award, A Kind of Freedom was named as a New York Times Notable Book of 2017 and a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. Sexton’s work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Lenny Letter, The Massachusetts Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, on Oprah.com, and in other publications. As a recipient of the Lombard Fellowship from Dartmouth, Sexton spent a year in the Dominican Republic working for a civil rights organization.

This year’s judge was Tayari Jones, whose most recent novel, An American Marriage, was a 2018 Oprah’s Book Club Selection and was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction, among many other honors. About the winning book, Jones says, “I can’t wait to see what Sexton writes next.”

The Crook’s Prize, established as a collaboration between the iconic Southern restaurant, Crook’s Corner Bar & Café in Chapel Hill, NC, and the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation, was inspired by the prestigious book awards long given by famous “literary cafés” in Paris. Submissions are open for next year’s Prize. For details, visit www.crookscornerbookprize.com.

Media contact: Cindy Hamel, cindyhsellars@gmail.com, 917-544-1793

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September 9, 2018

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The Crook’s Corner Book Prize, awarded annually for the best debut novel set in the American South, will be chosen this year by Tayari Jones. Her most recent novel, An American Marriage, has been widely acclaimed and is a 2018 Oprah Winfrey Book Club selection.

The $5000 prize, inspired by the prestigious book awards given by famous Parisian literary cafés, is co-sponsored by the iconic Southern restaurant, Crook’s Corner Café and Bar, in Chapel Hill, NC. “No one has a tougher time getting published and gaining recognition than first-time novelists,” says Anna Hayes, president of the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation. “Our goal is to offer a timely boost to new talent.” Although eligible books must be set predominantly in the South, the prize is open to writers from anywhere.

Hayes describes this year’s three Shortlist books as “powerful explorations of some of our country’s most difficult issues, with particular application to the South.”

THE SHORTLIST

The Talented Ribkins
by Ladee Hubbard

(Melville House)

An updated history of a magically-gifted, African American family whose talents, once used to protect black activists in the 1960s, have led family members along diverse trails since those days. A graduate of Princeton University, Hubbard has a PhD in folklore and mythology from UCLA and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

A Kind of Freedom
by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
(Counterpoint Press)

A study of three generations of one black family in New Orleans, reflecting the evolving complexities of race in America. Sexton studied creative writing at Dartmouth College and law at UC Berkeley. Born and raised in New Orleans, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

How to Survive a Summer
by Nick White
(Blue Rider Press)

A story of the troubling consequences from a tragic long-ago summer at a gay conversion camp. White, a native of Mississippi, earned a PhD in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is an assistant professor of English at Ohio State University.

This year’s winner will be announced on January 7, 2019.

Media contacts: Cindy Hamel at Cindy Hamel PR 917-544-1793 or cindyhsellars@gmail.com.

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January 8, 2018

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STEPHEN O’CONNOR WINS $5000 CROOK’S CORNER BOOK PRIZE

Chapel Hill, NC, January 8, 2018— Stephen O’Connor’s Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings, published by Viking, has won this year’s Crook’s Corner Book Prize for best debut novel set in the American South. The book is O’Connor’s first full-length fiction. He was in Chapel Hill to accept the award at the announcement party at Crook’s Corner Café & Bar.

Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings is a contemporary imagining of the connection between Jefferson and the enslaved woman who was the mother of six of his children, provoking questions about how to reconcile his idealistic proclamation that “All men are created equal” with his lifelong ownership of slaves. O’Connor’s fictional immersion into the lives of Jefferson and Hemings is informed by meticulous historical research, as well as a mix of fantasy and dreamscape that occasionally transports the characters out of their century and into such venues as the Manhattan subway. Nothing less than a re-invention of the historical novel, the book is a psychological tour de force, offering possible ways of understanding the complicated link between Jefferson and Hemings.

In addition to two collections of short fiction, O’Connor’s work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, as well as in a broad variety of literary journals, magazines, and newspapers, including The New Yorker and the New York Times. His nonfiction books have explored issues relating to teaching children in inner city schools, and the history of the “orphan trains” of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries that transported parentless children from New York City to families in the Midwest. O’Connor currently teaches in the Sarah Lawrence MFA writing program.

Elizabeth Cox, this year’s book prize judge, says she was “knocked out by this book,” in which the author’s inventiveness serves to augment “the sense of moral weight carried throughout this story.” Cox is the prize-winning author of poetry, short story collections, and five novels, the latest of which, A Question of Mercy, was published in 2016.

The prize, established as a collaboration between the iconic Southern restaurant, Crook’s Corner Bar & Café and the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation, was inspired by the prestigious book awards long given by famous “literary” cafés in Paris. “Our purpose is to encourage emerging writers in today’s challenging publishing environment,” says Anna Hayes, president of the foundation. “As far as we know, this is the only café or restaurant-sponsored literary prize in the U.S., but we are hoping to start a trend.” The prize is open to self-published as well as traditionally published authors. Winners receive a $5000 cash prize and, in the tradition of the Café de Flore in Paris, a complimentary glass of wine at Crook’s each day of his/her prize year.

Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings was one of three books on the shortlist, which included Rabbit Cake, by Annie Hartnett (Tin House) and The Infinite (HarperCollins), by Nicholas Mainieri. Previous judges are Jill McCorkle, Randall Kenan, Lee Smith, and Tom Franklin.

Submissions are open for next year’s prize. Eligible books must be the author’s first published novel for adult readers, published between January 1, 2017 and May 15, 2018. Regardless of the author’s residence, the book must be set predominantly in the American South. For details, visit www.crookscornerbookprize.com.

Media contact: Cindy Hamel, cindyhsellars@gmail.com, 917-544-1793 or Katharine Walton, katharinewalton@mindspring.com, 919-357-4400

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