Here’s why each of the 2025 Townsend Prize finalists could win

The Atlanta Writers Club and the Georgia Writers Museum have announced the finalists for their 2025 Townsend Prize for Fiction. The biennial book prize for literary fiction by a Georgia writer honors founding editor of Atlanta magazine and celebrated champion of Southern writers Jim Townsend, who died in 1981 at 48. Previous winners include literary heavyweights like Alice Walker (1984), Ha Jin (2002) and Kathryn Stockett (2010).

Here are this year’s 10 finalists — and why we think they could bring home the prize.

Denene Millner, One Blood (Forge Books, 2023)

Taking place between 1965 and 2004, One Blood follows three generations of Black women navigating racism, classism, misogyny and family secrets. The book explores the meaning of family as Lolo, Grace and Rae struggle for autonomy, pride and confidence throughout the turbulent second half of the 20th century.

Why it could win:  Millner, who has published 31 books, has huge reach and a wide-ranging career as a journalist, New York Times bestselling author and children’s book publisher. One Blood was widely and well reviewed.

Chika Unigwe, The Middle Daughter (Dzanc Books, 2023)

The Middle Daughter is a modern Nigerian imagining of the Hades and Persephone myth. Told from the perspectives of three sisters (the oldest of whom is dead) and the middle daughter’s abusive husband, the novel explores the conflict between the standards and demands of modern life and the characters’ traditional Igbo culture.

Why it could win: Unigwe is a previous winner of the Nigerian Prize for Literature. The Middle Daughter received many positive reviews, including from Oprah Daily and authors Paula Hawkins and Aminatta Forna.

Anissa Gray, Life and Other Love Songs (Berkley, Penguin, 2023)

This novel explores secrets and intergenerational trauma among the members of a Black family in Detroit: father Oz, mother Deborah and daughter Trinity. Opening eight years after Oz disappears, Life and Other Love Songs traces the family’s history and uncovers the truth behind Oz’s childhood relocation to Michigan from Alabama.

Why it could win: Life and Other Love Stories has received critical acclaim, with favorable reviews in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Entertainment Weekly and Essence.

Julia Franks, The Say So (Hub City Press, 2023)

Based in part on the author’s own experience, The Say So follows two women, Edie and Luce, experiencing unplanned pregnancy a generation apart. Through their experiences with adoption, Franks illustrates the pressures women face regarding motherhood and asks how much those pressures have changed across the decades.

Why it could win: Franks’ previous works have been broadly celebrated, winning her numerous awards — including the 2018 Townsend Prize — and The Say So got good reviews in Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Ra’Niqua Lee, For What Ails You (ELJ Editions, 2023) 

In this Atlanta-centric collection of flash fiction, Lee, a self-described “hood feminist,” explores the lives of Southern Black femmes, paying particular attention to style and lyric language. Ghosts, mermaids, Stone Mountain and MARTA all make appearances within these 48 stories, which ask sometimes-unsettling questions about trauma, racism and gender.

Why it could win: Lee is a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts and was the winner of the Georgia Writers Association’s 2021 John Lewis Writing Grant for fiction. The collection’s focus on Atlanta could also give it a leg up.

John M. Williams, End Times (Sartoris Literary Group, 2023) 

End Times is a darkly comic coming-of-age story that centers on “brother and sister soulmates” Jon Karl and Summer Odom, orphans who must dodge predators in their small town of Douvale, Georgia. With grotesque characters in the tradition of Flannery O’Connor, Williams explores life in small Southern towns and the desperation of some to escape them.

Why it could win: End Times is a distinctly Southern novel, which could boost Williams’ chances. His first novel won him the Georgia Writers Association’s 2003 Georgia Author of the Year award.

Gordon Johnston, Seven Islands of the Ocmulgee: River Stories (Mercer University Press, 2023) 

This collection of seven short stories was inspired by the author’s canoe trips down Georgia’s Ocmulgee River. Johnston, who was an artist-in-residence at the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, shows a dedication and expertise regarding the landscape that is his subject, investigating the interplay between the natural world, civilization and time within compelling, interconnected stories.

Why it could win: Seven Islands of the Ocmulgee examines Georgia’s landscape, history and culture, and Johnston’s scholarly research into the region could push him past the finish line.

Kimberly Brock, The Fabled Earth (Harper Muse, 2024)

Set on Cumberland Island in 1932 and 1959, The Fabled Earth takes place on the periphery of the ultra-wealthy Carnegie family’s summer mansion. This Southern Gothic novel follows several characters whose interconnected stories ultimately uncover a long-buried secret, exploring folklore, class and small-town gossip along the way.

Why it could win: The Fabled Earth was well reviewed in Publishers Weekly and Booklist, and Brock — whose second book was also a finalist for the Townsend Prize — was the Georgia Writers Association’s 2013 Georgia Author of the Year winner. The novel’s Cumberland Island setting may also prove a boon.

Peter Selgin, A Boy’s Guide to Outer Space (Regal House Publishing, 2024)

A Boy’s Guide to Outer Space follows “Half,” a young boy living in 1963 in a Connecticut company town. Struggling with his mother’s alcohol abuse and his stepbrother’s mental illness, Half befriends the “Man in Blue,” a strange local misfit. His friendship with the Man in Blue teaches Half to look past his limitations in this coming-of-age novel.

Why it could win: Selgin’s previous novels have won numerous awards, including the University of Georgia’s Flannery O’Connor Award for Fiction.

Barbara Tucker, Lying In (Colorful Crow Publishing, 2024)

This novel, set in rural Appalachian Virginia in the autumn of 1918, follows Telly, a disfigured traveling nurse who looks after women who are “lying in” after delivering babies. Telly’s courage is tested when her current patient, whose husband is missing and children are neglected, becomes infected with a mysterious illness.

Why it could win: A retired teacher with 10 books under her belt, Tucker is a bit of a dark horse, as Lying In was not covered in the national literary press. Still, with a win, this small-press novel could make an outsized splash.

The winner of the 2025 Townsend Prize for Fiction will be announced on April 16 in a ceremony and gala event at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center.

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Rachel Wright has a Ph.D. from Georgia State University and an MA from the University College Dublin, both in creative writing. Her work has appeared in The Stinging Fly and elsewhere. She is currently at work on a novel.