2005 SIBA Book Award

Each year, hundreds of booksellers across the South vote on their favorite "handsell" books of the year. These are the "southern" books they have most enjoyed giving to customers; the ones that they couldn't stop talking about. The SIBA Book Award was created to recognize great books of southern origin.

Books are nominated in several categories, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, lifestyle and children's. For a book to be eligible, it must be set in the South, and it must have been published within the 2005 calendar year. In order to promote diversity in the award, no author can win the award in the same category twice.

Nominate a book now!

Nominations for the 2006 award are open until February 1, 2006. You must be a SIBA-member store to nominate a title, but you can nominate as many books in any category you like!

Download the 2005 Award Winners Poster!

Fiction

Ron Rash
Henry Holt & Company
August 2004 $24
0805074872

When a twelve-year-old girl drowns in the Tamassee River and her body is trapped in a deep eddy, the people of the small South Carolina town that bears the river's name are thrown into the national spotlight. The girl's parents want to attempt a rescue of the body; environmentalists are convinced the rescue operation will cause permanent damage to the river and set a dangerous precedent. Torn between the two sides is Maggie Glenn, a twenty-eight-year-old newspaper photographer who grew up in the town and has been sent to document the incident. Since leaving home almost ten years ago, Maggie has done her best to avoid her father, but now, as the town's conflict opens old wounds, she finds herself revisiting the past she's fought so hard to leave behind. Meanwhile, the reporter who's accompanied her to cover the story turns out to have a painful past of his own, and one that might stand in the way of their romance.
Drawing on the same lyrical prose and strong sense of place that distinguished his award-winning first novel, "One Foot in Eden, Ron Rash has written a book about the deepest human themes: the love of the land, the hold of the dead on the living, and the need to dive beneath the surface to arrive at a deeper truth. "Saints at the River confirms the arrival of one of today's most gifted storytellers.

Nonfiction

Celia Rivenbark
St. Martin's Press
January 2004 $19.95
0312312431

"Why couldn't the Sopranos survive living down South? Simple. You can't shoot a guy full of holes after eating chicken and pastry, spoon bread, okra, and tomatoes."

"I laughed so hard reading this book, I began snorting in an unbecoming fashion. I loved it nonetheless. I'll be sending copies to everyone, especially my baby's daddy."--Haven Kimmel, author of"A Girl Named Zippy

Cookbook

Frank Stitt
Artisan Publishers
August 2004 $40
1579652468

R. W. Apple, Jr., of "The New York Times credits third-generation Alabamian Frank Stitt with turning Birmingham into a "sophisticated, easygoing showplace of enticing, southern-accented cooking." His southern peers think his cooking may have a more profound sense of place than any of theirs. His food is rustic and homey, but sophisticated in method.

Now, Alabama's favorite son has written a long-awaited cookbook that features his enticing Provenç al-influenced southern food. More than 150 recipes range from the traditional--Spicy Green Tomato and Peach Relish, Spoonbread, and Pickled Shrimp--to the inspired--Slow-Roasted Black Grouper with Ham and Pumpkin Pirlau and Pork Loin with Corn Pudding and Grilled Eggplant. Desserts such as Bourbon Panna Cotta and Sweet Potato Tart with Coconut Crust and Pecan Streusel elevate the best of the South for cooks everywhere.

Poetry

Maurice Manning
Harcourt
September 2004 $22
0151010498

This collection of highly original narrative poems is written in the voice of frontiersman Daniel Boone and captures all the beauty and struggle of nascent America. We follow the progression of Daniel Boone's life, a life led in war and in the wilderness, and see the birth of a new nation. We track the bountiful animals and the great, undisturbed rivers. We stand beside Boone as he buries his brother, then his wife, and finds comfort in his friendship with a slave named Derry.
Praised for his originality, Maurice Manning is an exciting new voice in American poetry.

The darkest place I've ever been
did not require a name. It seemed
to be a gathering place for the lint
of the world. The bottom of a hollow
beneath two ridges, sunk like a stone.
The water was surely old, the dregs
of some ancient sea, but purified
by time, like a man made better by
his years, his old hurts absorbed into
his soul, his losses like a spring
in his breast.
-from "Born Again"

Children's

Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson
Disney Editions
August 2004 $17.99
0786854456

Treacherous battles with pirates, foreboding thunderstorms at sea, and evocative writing immerse the reader in this story that slowly reveals the secrets and mysteries of the beloved Peter Pan.