Southern Book Prize Schedule Accelerated for Fall
SIBA is condensing the timeline for the Southern Book Prize to announce winners in the 4th quarter. The new schedule is as follows:
Oct 1: Nominations Close
Oct 2: Finalists Announced
Oct 2-Nov 15: Booksellers and Readers Vote on Finalists
Nov 16: Winners Announced
The schedule shift means booksellers will be able to promote both the finalists and the winners—each one a Southern bookseller favorite—at the height of the holiday shopping season. In the past, the Southern Book Prize vote has taken place over several months, with Winners being announced the following year in February. Now books will receive the award in the year they were published.
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 current Southern Book Prize winners at The Southern Bookseller Review.