# Southern Book Prize

Southern Book Prize (formerly the SEBA Book Award and SIBA Book Award) is a literary award given by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA). It was first awarded in 1999. Nominated books must be Southern in nature or by a Southern author, have been published the previous year, and have been nominated by a SIBA-member bookstore or one of their customers. Voting categories include fiction, Nonfiction, poetry, cooking and children's literature. In 2016, the award was renamed the Southern Book Prize and awarded in honor of southern writer Pat Conroy, who died in March 2016.
The first awards were given in 1999. From 1999 through 2007 winners were chosen by popular vote through an online voting mechanism. Starting in 2008, winners were chosen from the list of finalists by a jury of SIBA booksellers. Since 2019 candidates have been nominated by Southern indie booksellers before the ballot of finalists in three categories is voted on by bookstore customers. According to SIBA, 1800 ballots were cast to select the winners of the 2023 prize.

## Winners
### Southern Book Prize

SIBA Book Award winners :
| Year | Category | Author | Title |
| 1999 | Children | Debra Frasier | Out of the Ocean |
| 1999 | Fiction | Tim Gautreaux | The Next Step in the Dance |
| 1999 | Nonfiction | Tony Horwitz | Confederates in the Attic |
| 1999 | Poetry | Andrew Glaze | Someone Will Go On Owing |
| 2000 | Children | Ann Heiskell Rickey | Bugs & Critters I Have Known |
| 2000 | Fiction | Fred Chappell | Look Back All the Green Valley |
| 2000 | Nonfiction | Janisse Ray | Ecology of a Cracker Childhood |
| 2000 | Poetry | Rodney Jones | Elegy for the Southern Drawl |
| 2001 | Children | Kate DiCamillo | Because of Winn-Dixie |
| 2001 | Fiction | Tony Earley | Jim the Boy |
| 2001 | Nonfiction | Rick Bragg | Somebody Told Me |
| 2001 | Poetry | Peter Meinke | Zinc Fingers |
| 2002 | Children | J.J. Reneaux | How Animals Saved the People |
| 2002 | Fiction | Doug Marlette | The Bridge |
| 2002 | Nonfiction | Rick Bragg | Ava’s Man |
| 2003 | Children | Carl Hiaasen | Hoot |
| 2003 | Cookbook | Sara Foster | The Foster’s Market Cookbook |
| 2003 | Fiction | Sue Monk Kidd | The Secret Life of Bees |
| 2003 | Nonfiction | Pat Conroy | My Losing Season |
| 2003 | Poetry | Kathryn Stripling Byer | Catching Light |
| 2004 | Children | Melinda Long | How I Became a Pirate |
| 2004 | Cookbook | Edna Lewis | The Gift of Southern Cooking |
| 2004 | Fiction | Clyde Edgerton | Lunch at the Piccadilly |
| 2004 | Nonfiction | Deborah Ford | The GRITS Guide to Life |
| 2004 | Poetry | Fred Chappell (ed.) | Locales |
| 2005 | Children | Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson | Peter and the Starcatchers |
| 2005 | Cookbook | Frank Stitt | Frank Stitt’s Southern Table |
| 2005 | Fiction | Ron Rash | Saints at the River |
| 2005 | Nonfiction | Celia Rivenbark | We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier |
| 2005 | Poetry | Maurice Manning | A Companion for Owls |
| 2006 | Children | Nikki Giovanni (with Bryan Collier) | Rosa |
| 2006 | Cookbook | Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays | Being Dead is No Excuse |
| 2006 | Fiction | Joshilyn Jackson | Gods in Alabama |
| 2006 | Nonfiction | John Grogan | Marley & Me |
| 2006 | Poetry | Darnell Arnoult | What Travels with Us |
| 2007 | Children | Watt Key | Alabama Moon |
| 2007 | Cookbook | Amy Sedaris | I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence |
| 2007 | Fiction | Charles Frazier | Thirteen Moons |
| 2007 | Nonfiction | Charles J. Shields | Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee |
| 2007 | Poetry | Susan Meyers | Keep and Give Away |
| 2008 | Children | Donna Bateman with Brian Lies (illus.) | Deep in the Swamp |
| 2008 | Cookbook | Jean Anderson | A Love Affair with Southern Cooking |
| 2008 | Fiction | Sarah Addison Allen | Garden Spells |
| 2008 | Nonfiction | Barbara Kingsolver | Animal, Vegetable, Miracle |
| 2008 | Poetry | David Kirby | The House On Boulevard Street |
| 2009 | Children | Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery | Two Bobbies |
| 2009 | Cookbook | Martha Hall Foose | Screen Doors and Sweet Tea |
| 2009 | Fiction | Ron Rash | Serena |
| 2009 | Nonfiction | Rick Bragg | The Prince of Frogtown |
| 2009 | Poetry | Kevin Young | Dear Darkness |
| 2009 | Young Adult | Kristin Cashore | Graceling |
| 2010 | Children | Hester Bass | The Secret World of Walter Anderson |
| 2010 | Cookbook | Ted Lee and Matt Lee | The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern |
| 2010 | Fiction | Kathryn Stockett | The Help |
| 2010 | Nonfiction | Rick Bragg | The Most They Ever Had |
| 2011 | Children | Kathryn Erskine | Mockingbird |
| 2011 | Cookbook | Gena Knox | Southern My Way: Simple Recipes, Fresh Flavors |
| 2011 | Fiction | Ron Rash | Burning Bright |
| 2011 | Nonfiction | Jim Minick | The Blueberry Years: A Memoir of Farm and Family |
| 2011 | Poetry | Janisse Ray | A House of Branches |
| 2011 | Young Adult | Deborah Wiles | Countdown |
| 2012 | Children | Mary Quattlebaum | Jo MacDonald Saw a Pond |
| 2012 | Cookbook | Sheri Castle | The New Southern Garden Cookbook |
| 2012 | Fiction | John Hart | Iron House |
| 2012 | Nonfiction | Robert Morgan | Lions of the West |
| 2012 | Poetry | John Lane | Abandoned Quarry |
| 2012 | Young Adult | A. J. Hartley | Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact |
| 2013 | Children | William Joyce | The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore |
| 2013 | Cookbook | Cheryl Day | The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook |
| 2013 | Fiction | Wiley Cash | A Land More Kind Than Home |
| 2013 | Nonfiction | Jay Erskine Leutze | Stand Up That Mountain: The Battle to Save One Small Community in the Wilderness Along the Appalachian Trail |
| 2013 | Poetry | Kathryn Stripling Byer | Descent |
| 2013 | Young Adult | Sheila Turnage | Three Times Lucky |
| 2014 | Children | J. E. Thompson | The Girl from Felony Bay |
| 2014 | Cooking | John Currence | Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey: Recipes from My Three Favorite Food Groups and Then Some |
| 2014 | Fiction | Susan Crandall | Whistling Past the Graveyard |
| 2014 | Nonfiction | Sheri Fink | Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital |
| 2014 | Poetry | Cathy Smith Bowers | The Collected Poems of Cathy Smith Bowers |
| 2014 | Young Adult | Sarah Dessen | The Moon and More |
| 2015 | Children | Jacqueline Woodson | Brown Girl Dreaming |
| 2015 | Cooking | Sean Brock | Heritage |
| 2015 | Fiction | Sue Monk Kidd | The Invention of Wings |
| 2015 | Nonfiction | Beth Macy | Factory Man |
| 2015 | Young Adult | Alan Gratz with Brett Helquist (illus.) | League of Seven |

### Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize

Southern Book Prize winners :
| Year | Category | Author | Title |
| 2016 | Cookbook | Alice Randall | Soul Food Love |
| 2016 | Fiction | M. O. Walsh | My Sunshine Away |
| 2016 | History & Life Stories | Steve Inskeep | Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab |
| 2016 | Literary | Ron Rash | Above the Waterfall |
| 2016 | Mystery | Brian Panowich | Bull Mountain |
| 2016 | Nonfiction | Richard Grant | Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta |
| 2016 | Thriller | Greg Isles | The Bone Tree |
| 2016 | Young Adult | David Arnold | Mosquitoland |
| 2016 | Youngsters | Robert Beatty | Serafina and the Black Cloak |
| 2017 | Biography, Autobiography & Memoir | J. Drew Lanham | The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature |
| 2017 | Cooking | Vivian Howard | Deep Run Roots: Stories & Recipes from My Corner of the South |
| 2017 | Creative Nonfiction | J. D. Vance | Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis |
| 2017 | Fiction (Coming of Age) | Ann Patchett | Commonwealth |
| 2017 | Fiction (Family Life) | Mary Alice Monroe | A Lowcountry Christmas |
| 2017 | Fiction (Historical) | Robert Morgan | Chasing the North Star |
| 2017 | Fiction (Literary) | Julia Franks | Over the Plain Houses |
| 2017 | Juvenile | Donna Gephart | Lily and Dunkin |
| 2017 | Southern Stories & Stories by Southerners | Fannie Flagg | The Whole Town's Talking |
| 2017 | Thriller | John Hart | Redemption Road |
| 2018 | Biography & History | Coretta Scott King | Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy |
| 2018 | Fiction (Literary) | Wiley Cash | The Last Ballad |
| 2018 | Fiction (Women & Family | Gabrielle Zevin | Young Jane Young |
| 2018 | Juvenile Fiction | Renée Ahdieh | Flame in the Mist |
| 2018 | Juvenile Fiction | Cassie Beasley | Tumble & Blue |
| 2018 | Mystery, Thriller, Suspense | J. C. Sasser | Gradle Bird |
| 2018 | Nonfiction | Michael Eric Dyson | Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America |
| 2018 | Southern Fiction | Lisa Wingate | Before We Were Yours |
| 2019 | Children's | Jo Hackl | Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe |
| 2019 | Fiction | David Joy | The Line that Held Us |
| 2019 | Nonfiction | Rick Bragg | The Best Cook in the World |
| 2020 | Children's | Roshani Chokshi | The Gilded Wolves |
| 2020 | Fiction | Jessica Handler | The Magnetic Girl |
| 2020 | Nonfiction | Cassandra King Conroy | Tell Me a Story: My Life With Pat Conroy |
| 2021 | Children's | Derrick Barnes with Gordon C. James | I Am Every Good Thing |
| 2021 | Fiction | Carter Sickels | The Prettiest Star |
| 2021 | Nonfiction | Natasha Trethewey | Memorial Drive |
| 2022 | Children's | Aliya King Neil with Charly Palmer (illus.) | Keep Your Head Up |
| 2022 | Fiction | Wiley Cash | When Ghosts Come Home |
| 2022 | Nonfiction | Margaret Renkl | Graceland, At Last |
| 2023 | Children's | Antwan Eady with Gracey Zhang (illus.) | Nigel and the Moon |
| 2023 | Fiction | Silas House | Lark Ascending |
| 2023 | Nonfiction | Mary Laura Philpott | Bomb Shelter |