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Winners

By definition, the prize recognizes emerging writers. The winners to date have proved to be worthy contenders for long literary careers.

THIS YEAR’S WINNER


2019 – Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

A Kind of Freedom, Sexton’s debut novel, was a 2017 National Book Award Nominee, 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 been published in the New York Times Book Review, Lenny Letter, The Massachusetts Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, on Oprah.com, and in other publications.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Sexton has a degree in creative writing from Dartmouth College and in law from UC Berkeley. She lives in the Bay Area, California, with her family.

Judge: Tayari Jones

Author Website

2018 – Stephen O’Connor

In addition to Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings, Stephen O’Connor is the author of two collections of short fiction, Here Comes Another Lesson and Rescue, and two works of nonfiction, Will My Name Be Shouted Out? and Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed. His work has appeared in a long list of literary journals in addition to numerous magazines and newspapers, including The New Yorker and the New York Times. His story, “Next to Nothing,” was selected by Jennifer Egan for Best American Short Stories 2014. Currently teaching in the Sarah Lawrence MFA writing program, O’Connor has been the recipient of a number of prestigious fellowships. Judge: Elizabeth Cox

Author Website

2017 – Matthew Griffin

Photo credit: Raymie Wolfe

Matthew Griffin won the prize in 2017 for Hide, published by Bloomsbury. In addition to the Crook’s Corner Book Prize, his novel was a Stonewall Honor Book, and was longlisted for the PEN/Bingham Prize for debut fiction. He has taught writing at the University of Iowa and University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His work has appeared in The Guardian, Granta, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. He was born and raised in North Carolina and now lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he teaches at Tulane University. Judge: Tom Franklin.

Author Website


2016 – Tom Cooper

Photo credit: Sara Essex Bradley

Tom Cooper was the 2016 winner for Marauders, which was recognized as a SIBA Book Award Nominee 2016, a Strand Magazine Critics Award Nominee 2015, and a VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize Nominee 2016. Tom Cooper’s short stories have appeared in Oxford American, Mid-American Review, and Gulf Coast, among many other places. His stories have been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. He is at work on several new projects, including television scripts and novels. Judge: Lee Smith.

More About Tom Cooper


2015 – Kim Church

Photo credit: Anthony Ulinkski

Kim Church won the second Crook’s Corner Book Prize in 2015, for her novel, Byrd, which garnered a basketful of other awards, including the Independent Publisher Book Award Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction. Like Wiley Cash, the first CCBP winner, Kim Church was a 2015-16 recipient of a $10,000 N.C. Arts Council fellowship. While working part-time as an attorney, she is currently immersed in her second novel, which is about the 1929 Gastonia, NC textile strike. Judge: Randall Kenan.

Author Website


2014 – Wiley Cash

Photo credit: Mallory Brady Cash
Wiley Cash is the New York Times best-selling author of the novels The Last Ballad, A Land More Kind Than Home, and This Dark Road to Mercy. He currently serves as the writer-in-residence at the University of North Carolina-Asheville and teaches in the Mountainview Low-Residency MFA. He lives with his wife and two young daughters in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Author Website

Primary Sidebar

The 2019 Book Prize Winner

A Kind of Freedom

by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Download THE PRESS RELEASE

The 2020 Book Prize Judge

Charles Frazier grew up in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Cold Mountain (1997), his highly acclaimed first novel, was an international bestseller, won the National Book Award in 1997, and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film by Anthony Minghella in 2003.
More about Charles Frazier

Events

Announcement party January 7, 2019

Thanks to The Franklin Hotel for providing a room for our winner, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton.


Chapel Hill Library panel discussion January 8, 2019

"New South, New Voices: Diverse Authors, Fresh Perspectives."


Readers' Party, September 6, 2018

Readers' Party, September 6, 2018
Readers' Party, September 6, 2018

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