Our state is known for its rich literary history, yet unlike many other states, Tennessee does not have an annual award recognizing excellence in Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry written by Tennessee residents.
To establish a state book award has been a goal of Humanities Tennessee for many years. We are especially thrilled to launch this new initiative with our colleagues and friends from the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Together, we will recognize Tennessee authors, support the literary community, and highlight the tremendous talent in our state.
“HT has long prioritized the literary life of Tennessee through programs like the Southern Festival of Books and Chapter16.org. The addition of the Tennessee Book Award will preserve the legacy of Tennessee writers and ensure their work is known for years to come.” ~Tim Henderson, Executive Director, Humanities TN
Monic Ductan, Rachel Louise Martin and Denton Loving honored with first-ever statewide literary awards
Humanities Tennessee announced the winners of the first-ever Tennessee Book Awards.
Monic Ductan won in the fiction category for her short story collection Daughters of Muscadine; Rachel Louise Martin won in non-fiction for her book A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation; and Denton Loving won the poetry category for his poetry anthology Tamp.
The winners will each receive a $2,500 prize, and winners and finalists will speak about their work at a special session at the Southern Festival of Books at 11 a.m. on Sunday, October 27, at the Tennessee State Library and Archives.
“Tennessee is rich with literary talent, and we have dreamed for years of establishing a statewide award to honor our best writers,” said Tim Henderson, Executive Director of Humanities Tennessee. “We are proud to recognize these incredibly talented individuals for their contributions to the cultural life of the state. Our judges had a difficult task, thanks to the high caliber of all the submissions, and we are grateful for their diligent work to identify the best of the best, in keeping with Tennessee’s long and storied literary tradition.”
A statewide panel of teachers, librarians and Humanities Tennessee staffers reviewed all submissions and selected finalists. The winners were chosen by an all-star collection of authors: Haitian-American novelist Edwidge Danticat, award-winning journalist and editor John Jeremiah Sullivan, and acclaimed and prolific poet George Ella Lyon.
ABOUT THE WINNERS AND FINALISTS
Fiction: Monic Ductan, for Daughters of Muscadine
Ductan teaches literature and creative writing at Tennessee Tech University. Her writing has appeared in journals including Oxford American, Good River Review, Southeast Review, Shenandoah, Appalachian Heritage and South Carolina Review. Her essay “Fantasy Worlds” was listed as notable in The Best American Essays 2019.
Fiction finalists were Lauren Thoman for I’ll Stop the World, and Johanna Rojas Vann for An American Immigrant.
Non-Fiction: Rachel Louise Martin, for A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation
Martin is a historian and writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic and Oxford American, among other publications. The author of Hot, Hot Chicken, a cultural history of Nashville hot chicken, and A Most Tolerant Little Town, the forgotten story of the first school to attempt court-mandated desegregation in the wake of Brown v. Board, she is especially interested in the politics of memory and the power of stories to illuminate why injustice persists in America today. She lives in Nashville.
Non-fiction finalists were Margaret Renkl for essay collection The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, and Brooks Lamb for Love for the Land: Lessons from Farmers Who Persist in Place.
Poetry: Denton Loving, for Tamp
Loving lives on a farm near the historic Cumberland Gap, where Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia come together. He is the author of the poetry collections Crimes Against Birds (Main Street Rag) and Tamp (Mercer University Press). He is also the editor of Seeking Its Own Level, an anthology of writings about water (MotesBooks).
Poetry finalists were Shuly Xochitl Cawood for Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough, and Julie Summer for Meridian: Poems.
Meet Our Finalist Judges
FICTION: Edwidge Danticat
Danticat is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, The Farming of Bones, The Dew Breaker, Brother, I’m Dying, Create Dangerously, Claire of the Sea Light, The Art of Death, and Everything Inside, a Reese’s Book Club selection, and National Book Critics Circle Awards winner. She is also the editor of The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States, Best American Essays 2011, Haiti Noir, and Haiti Noir 2.
She has written seven books for children and young adults, Anacaona, Behind the Mountains, Eight Days, The Last Mapou, Mama’s Nightingale, Untwine, My Mommy Medicine, as well as a travel narrative, After the Dance. Her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award, and a 2008 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.
She is a 2009 MacArthur fellow, a 2018 Ford Foundation “Art of Change” fellow, a United States Artists Fellow, a two-time winner of The Story Prize, the winner of the 2018 Neustadt International Prize, the 2019 St. Louis Literary Award, and the 2020 Vilcek Prize for Literature.
NON-FICTION: John Jeremiah Sullivan
Sullivan is an award-winning journalist and editor. He is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine, and the southern editor of The Paris Review. He writes for GQ, Harper’s Magazine, and Oxford American, and is the author of Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter’s Son (2004) and Pulphead: Essays (2011), an anthology of magazine essays.
Sullivan won a Whiting Writers’ Award, two National Magazine Awards, and the Pushcart Prize. He served on the faculty of Columbia University, Sewanee: The University of the South, and other institutions. Sullivan lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
POETRY: George Ella Lyon
Lyon is a poet, writer, teacher, musician, storyteller and social activist with Appalachian roots and a global reach. She has published 10 poetry collections, two adult novels, six novels for young people and 34 children’s picture books, plus stories, songs, plays, scripts and memoirs.
“Where I’m From,” her 1993 poem about personal identity, has become a classroom classic, art projects across Kentucky and the nation (iamfromproject.com) and a writing prompt used by teachers around the world.
Eligibility and Submissions
The inaugural prizes will be awarded to books published in calendar year 2023. Authors must live in Tennessee to be eligible. The postmark deadline for submissions is April 15, 2024.
The submission form and additional information about criteria may be found here.
For more information, please contact Serenity Gerbman at: serenity@humtn.org