2018 Willie Morris Award Shortlist Announced
Jul 30, 2019
The Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction has announced its 2019 shortlist. The annual award is given to a writer whose work is set in the South, exemplifies the tenets of Southern literature—quality of prose, originality, and authenticity of setting and characters—and reflects, in the words of its namesake, Willie Morris, “hope for belonging, for belief in a people’s better nature, for steadfastness against all that is hollow or crass or rootless or destructive.” The award comes with a $10,000 cash prize and an all-expense paid trip for the winner to New York City for the reception and ceremony, which will be held on Monday, October 21. The award is sponsored by Reba and Dave Williams. This year’s finalists are:
- Minrose Gwin, Promise (William Morrow)
- Silas House, Southernmost (Algonquin)
- Tayari Jones, An American Marriage (Algonquin)
- Tiffany Quay Tyson, The Past is Never (Skyhorse Publishing)
