On Thursday, April 5th, Nikki Giovanni delivered the 2018 Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The Finalists for the 2018 Southern Book Prize have been announced. Winners will be announced on July 4rh.
Literary Fiction
The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash
The Weight of This World by David Joy
Juvenile Fiction
Serafina and the Splintered Heart by Robert Beatty
Biography and History
The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home by Denise Kierman
The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has announced its Spring 2018 “Okra Picks,” a dozen books that have been published or will be published this Spring that they feel deserve special attention:
Novels:
Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin
Country Dark by Chris Offutt
Southernmost by Silas House
Varina by Charles Frazier
Varina by Charles Frazier debuted on both the New York Times and the Indie Best top ten lists in its first week, and it was #1 in Hardcover Fiction on the April Southern Indie Bestseller list from the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.