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Crooks Corner Book Prize 11th Annual Longlist Announced

6th Annual Crook’s Corner Book Prize Shortlist Announced

September 9, 2018

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.

Crook’s Corner Book Prize Readers’ Party, September 6, 2018

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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11TH ANNUAL BOOK PRIZE WINNER

The Old Place
by Bobby Finger
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11th Annual Announcement Party

2024 Announcement Party at The Crunkleton— Winner Bobby Finger with this year’s judge Wiley Cash and CCBP president Anna Hayes

11th Annual Readers' Party

Author Jill McCorkle and Algonquin Books co-founder Shannon Ravenel join CCBP Readers attending this year’s Thank You party.

10th Annual Virtual Announcement Party

WATCH REPLAY HERE

HOSTED BY

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Shadows of Pecan Hollow
by Caroline Frost
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THE 10TH ANNUAL SHORTLIST

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Things We Lost to the Water
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HOSTED BY

THE 10TH ANNUAL BOOK PRIZE JUDGE

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.
More about Ben Fountain

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THE 2022 BOOK PRIZE JUDGE

Ron Rash is the author of the PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestselling novel Serena, in addition to the critically acclaimed novels The Risen, Above the Waterfall, The Cove, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight…
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Atlas of Reds and Blues

by Devi S. Laskar
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