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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.

Eric Nguyen

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 TinHouse Writers Workshop. He is the editor-in-chief of diaCRITICS.org. and lives in Washington, DC.

Author website: ericpnguyen.com

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.