Submissions: Open | Deadline May 15, 2025

About the 11th Annual Book Prize Winner

Crooks Corner Book Prize 11th Annual Longlist Announced

Photo Credit: Elena Mudd | elenamudd.com

Bobby Finger

Bobby Finger’s debut novel The Old Place was published 2022 by Penguin Random House. It was selected by Vanity Fair as one of the best books of the year in 2022. He has a new novel coming out from Penguin Random House in June 2024, called Four Squares. His bylines have appeared in outlets including New York, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair.

Bobby Finger graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 before moving to New York City, where he worked as a copywriter at an advertising agency before transitioning into becoming a full-time pop culture writer and podcaster. In 2016, he co-founded the podcast Who? Weekly, based on a newsletter and focused on B-list celebrities. Hugely popular, it may be best summed up by its tagline: “Everything you need to know about the celebrities you don’t.” The podcast quickly amassed a large group of fans known affectionately as ‘Wholigans’.

12TH Annual SHORTLIST

12TH Annual Longlist

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 BOOK PRIZE WINNER

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

THE 9TH ANNUAL BOOK PRIZE WINNER

Things We Lost to the Water
by Eric Nguyen
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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

THE 2021 BOOK PRIZE WINNER

LIBRARY PANEL

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…
More about Ron Rash

THE 2020 BOOK PRIZE WINNER

Atlas of Reds and Blues

by Devi S. Laskar
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