Have You Read These Books?
The best of Southern Literature, as chosen by the people who would know—Southern Independent Booksellers.

The votes are in! The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has released the finalists for the 2008 SIBA Book Award.  The finalists are:

CHILDREN

1. Aurora County All Stars by Deborah Wiles (Harcourt)
2. Br’er Rabbit Captured by Jean Cassels  (Walker)
3. Chicken Dance, Jacques Couvillon (Bloomsbury)
4. Deep in the Swamp by Donna Bateman  (Charlesbridge)
5. Louisiana’s Song Kerry Madden (Viking)
6. Something Rotten Alan Gratz (Dial Books)

COOKBOOK

1. A Love Affair with Southern Cooking by Jean Anderson (William Morrow)
2. In Praise of Pecans by June Jackson (Bright Sky Press)
3. Soby’s New South Cuisine by Freidank, Sobocinski, Williams, & Peck (Soby’s)

FICTION

1.Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmstead (Algonquin)
2. Down River by John Hart (Thomas Dunne)
3. Garden Spells by Sara Addison Allen (Bantam)
4. Rhett Butler’s People by Donald McCraig (St. Martin’s Press)
5. Thistle & Twigg by Mary Saums (St. Martin’s Minotaur)

NONFICTION

1. Animal Vegetable Miracleby Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins)
2. Boone by Robert Morgan (Shannon Ravenel Books)
3. Somebody’s Going to Die if Lilly Beth Doesn’t Catch that Bouquet by Gayden Metcalfe & Charlotte Hays (Hyperion)

POETRY

1.House on Boulevard Street by David  Kirby (LSU Press)
2. Out of the Garden by Kathryn Kirkpatrick (Mayapple Press)
3. Whatever Remembers Us by Walker & Chambers (Negative Capability)

About the SIBA Book Award:

Each year, hundreds of booksellers across the South vote on their favorite hand-sell books of the year. These are the Southern books they have most enjoyed selling to customers; the ones that they couldn't stop talking about; the ones most often pushed into a customer’s hands with the words “You have got to read this!” The SIBA Book Award was created to recognize great books of Southern origin, as determined by people whose business it is to know great books—the independent booksellers of the South.

Books are nominated in five categories, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, cooking and children's. For a book to be eligible, it must be set in the South, and it must have been published within the calendar year. Only SIBA-member booksellers can submit nominations  and vote on the selection of finalists.  In 2008, for the first time, winners will be chosen from the list of finalists by a jury of SIBA booksellers, instead of by popular vote.  

Taking the SIBA Book Award to a New Level:

2008 is a landmark year for the SIBA Book Award, marking its transition to a new level of visibility and public awareness.  Since it was first begun in 1999, the SIBA Book Award has become one of the most successful initiatives of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. Today, nearly ten years later, the list of award-winners represents some of the finest examples of Southern literature, and the award has become a fully entrenched respected entity among Southern booksellers and publishers. Beginning in 2008, the SIBA Book Awards Ceremony will be held as part of the Decatur Book Festival on Labor Day Weekend in Decatur, GA. The festival, which attracts upwards of 60,000 attendees each year, is open to the public and promises to garner increased exposure for the awards and the award-winning books and authors. SIBA will have a presence at the Decatur Book Festival with as many independents booksellers as can participate. The Decatur Book Festival will host a private reception for the authors and SIBA’s core members before the public awards ceremony, and the awards themselves will be included in the general festival publicity.

For more information about the award, please visit SIBA’s website for southern literature: www.authorsroundthesouth.com, or contact Executive Director Wanda Jewell at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Since it was first begun in 1999, the SIBA Book Award has become one of the most successful initiatives of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. Today, nearly ten years later, the list of award-winners represents some of the finest examples of Southern literature, and the award has become a fully entrenched respected entity among Southern booksellers and publishers. SIBA feels that is now time to take the SIBA Book Award to the next level.

SIBA has always maintained that the primary goal of the SIBA Book Award is to help its bookstore members sell more books. But for this to happen, the Award needs to continually raise its profile until it holds a place in the hearts of readers analagous to that of the Newbery or Caldecott medal, whose announcements are greeted with near-universal interest. A successful book award needs to capture the attention not just of publishers and eligible authors, or the booksellers who are the soul of the nomination and selection process, but also the reading public at large—the book club organizers and librarians, educators and book reviewers, and the avid readers from all walks of life. In order to further the goal of raising the visibility of the SIBA Book Award, and, hopefully, book sales for the nominated, finalist and winning titles, SIBA is taking two steps in 2008:

Your membership gives you entrance each fall to a trade show floor alive with books - over 300 tables manned by sales representatives who work in your part of the country and who are familiar with both the rewards and the difficulties of selling books in the Southeast. You will be associating with nearly six hundred booksellers who enjoy the intimacy of a regional association where it is easy to discuss what works for them in bookselling and eager to learn what works for you.

The trade show schedule is packed with workshops and panels. You will meet many authors signing their books, speaking, or giving readings from their newly published books.The trade show is southern in its friendliness, social gatherings, and intimacy encouraging many informal exchanges of ideas.

Show Information is updated as it is confirmed