Call for Southern Book Prize Nominations
Among the many people honored at the NVNR Awards Dinner at the New Voices New Rooms Conference were this year's Southern Book Prize winners: Dolen Perkins-Valdez for Happy Land (fiction), Silas House for All These Ghosts (nonfiction), and Christy Mandin for Millie Fleur Saves the Night.
"I would not have a career if not for indie booksellers, especially from SIBA and NAIBA," said House in his acknowledgment speech. "So thank you all. You all have always been so kind to me and welcomed me into your stores for twenty-five years now. And there's really no bigger honor than that."
Christy Mandin spoke about how independent booksellers had brought "Millie" farther than she could have dreamed. "You've sold my books. You've recommended them to families. You've put them into the hands of children who might have needed permission that day to be weird, to be exactly who they are. That kind of championing is such a gift to an author. I can dream up the book in my studio, labor over its creation, but I can't create that moment when a bookseller connects with a reader and thinks, oh, I know who needs this book. That's the magic that you make."
Perkins-Valdez, who could not attend, wrote, "I have never received an award that specifically recognized my personal and very emotional ties to the South, as well as my commitment to stories that feature our rich and complicated history. This award is meaningful to me in ways I cannot adequately express."
It is time again for SIBA booksellers to work that "magic" on behalf of their favorite books and authors of this year. Nominations are open for this year's Southern Book Prize.
Nominations must come from a SIBA member bookseller. Nominated books must have been published within the 2026 calendar year and be Southern in nature, either by a Southern author or about the South, preferably both. See the Southern Book Prize winners at The Southern Bookseller Review.