The Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance has announced the finalists for the 2014 SIBA Book Award, and there are several Tar Heel writers and one North Carolina small press among the distinguished list of names.
The SIBA Book Award recognizes great southern literature from the last year. These titles represent “booksellers’ favorite hand-sells of the year in fiction, nonfiction, children’s, young adult, poetry and cooking.”
Fiction finalists include North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee Lee Smith and her novel, Guests on Earth, as well as Jill McCorkle’s Life after Life.
North Carolina native David Sedaris is among the finalists in nonfiction for his collection of essays, Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls.
Finalists in Poetry include North Carolina Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti and his collection, Concertina, as well as Cathy Smith Bowers’ Collected Poems of Cathy Smith Bowers, published by Winston-Salem’s Press 53.
John Grisham is a finalist in two categories: in Fiction, for his novel Sycamore Row, and in Young Adult for Theodore Boone: The Activist.
Winners will be announced July 4. For the complete list, click here.