Finalists and Winners of the Library of Virginia Annual Literary Awards
The Library of Virginia Literary Awards are given to outstanding Virginia authors in the areas of poetry, fiction, nonfiction (and, in the case of nonfiction, also by any author about a Virginia subject), and literary lifetime achievement.
Listed below are the authors that have been honored in past Literary Awards. Learn more about the 2012 finalists.
Fiction | Non-Fiction | Poetry | Lifetime Achievement | People’s Choice
Fiction * Winner
| Title and Author | Annual Awards |
|---|---|
| Nothing Can Make Me Do This, David Huddle | 15th Annual Awards* |
| Welcome to Americastan, Jabeen Akhtar | 15th Annual Awards |
| The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach | 15th Annual Awards |
| Honorable mention: Mercy Creek, Matt Matthews | 15th Annual Awards |
| Mattaponi Queen, Belle Boggs | 14th Annual Awards* |
| Compass Rose, John Casey | 14th Annual Awards |
| Ford County, John Grisham | 14th Annual Awards |
| Temporary Lives: Stories, Ramola D | 13th Annual Awards |
| The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver | 13th Annual Awards * |
| The New Valley, Josh Weil | 13th Annual Awards |
| People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks | 12th Annual Awards |
| Train to Trieste, Domnica Radulescu | 12th Annual Awards * |
| Success Stories, David A. Taylor | 12th Annual Awards |
| The Rope Walk, Carrie Brown | 11th Annual Awards |
| Measuring Time, Helon Habila | 11th Annual Awards |
| What the Thunder Said, Janet Peery | 11th Annual Awards * |
| Thanksgiving Night: A Novel, Richard Bausch | 10th Annual Awards |
| Twilight of the Superheroes, Deborah Eisenberg | 10th Annual Awards * |
| The Quick-Change Artist: Stories, Cary Holladay | 10th Annual Awards |
| March: A Novel, Geraldine Brooks | 9th Annual Awards * |
| Little Criminals: Short Stories Kurt Rheinheimer | 9th Annual Awards |
| Holy Skirts René Steinke | 9th Annual Awards |
| Confinement Carrie Brown | 8th Annual Awards * |
| How I Left the Great State of Tennessee and Went on to Better Things Joe Jackson | 8th Annual Awards |
| A Year and a Day Leslie Pietrzyk | 8th Annual Awards |
| The Stories of Richard Bausch Richard Bausch | 7th Annual Awards |
| The Known World Edward P. Jones | 7th Annual Awards * |
| True Cross T. R. Pearson | 7th Annual Awards |
| Hello to the Cannibals: A Novel Richard Bausch | 6th Annual Awards * |
| The Gypsy Man Robert Bausch | 6th Annual Awards |
| The House on Belle Isle and Other Stories Carrie Brown | 6th Annual Awards |
| Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague Geraldine Brooks | 5th Annual Awards |
| Dugan Under Ground Tom De Haven | 5th Annual Awards * |
| I, Roger Williams Mary Lee Settle | 5th Annual Awards |
| The Hatbox Baby: A Novel Carrie Brown | 4th Annual Awards * |
| Graveyard of the Atlantic Alyson Hagy | 4th Annual Awards |
| The Dress Lodger Sheri Holman | 4th Annual Awards |
| Someone To Watch Over Me Richard Bausch | 3rd Annual Awards |
| The Story of A Million Years David Huddle | 3rd Annual Awards |
| Pictures of a Dying Man Agymah Kamau | 3rd Annual Awards * |
| The Hearts of Soldiers Joan Vannorsdall Schroeder | 3rd Annual Awards |
| The Half-Life of Happiness: A Novel John Casey | 2nd Annual Awards |
| Wingtips: Stories by Avery Chenoweth | 2nd Annual Awards |
| Jacob’s Ladder: A Story of Virginia During The War Donald McCaig | 2nd Annual Awards * |
| News of the Spirit Lee Smith | 1st Annual Awards |
| The Way to Cobbs Creek Dabney Stuart | 1st Annual Awards |
| Black Zodiac Charles Wright | 1st Annual Awards * |
Non-Fiction * Winner
| Title and Author | Annual Awards |
|---|---|
| Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade, Maurie D. McInnis | 15th Annual Awards* |
| Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War, Tony Horwitz | 15th Annual Awards |
| Brown's Battleground: Students, Segregationists, and the Struggle for Justice in Prince Edward County, Virginia, Jill Titus | 15th Annual Awards |
| The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot | 14th Annual Awards* |
| To Serve the Living: Funeral Directors and the African American Way of Death, Suzanne E. Smith | 14th Annual Awards |
| Bible Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked About Book of All Time, Kristin Swenson | 14th Annual Awards |
| Abigail Adams, Woody Holton | 13th Annual Awards * |
| Soul of a People, David A. Taylor | 13th Annual Awards |
| Louis D. Brandeis: A Life, Melvin I. Urofsky | 13th Annual Awards |
| This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, Drew Gilpin Faust | 12th Annual Awards |
| The Heminges of Monticello: An American Family, Annette Gordon-Reed | 12th Annual Awards * |
| Remarkable Trees of Virginia, Nancy Ross Hugo and Jeff Kirwan | 12th Annual Awards |
| Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America, Wesley C. Hogan | 11th Annual Awards * |
| Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp & Camille Kingsolver | 11th Annual Awards |
| Cradle of America: Four Centuries of Virginia History, Peter Wallenstein | 11th Annual Awards |
| Archie and Emelie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age, Donna M. Lucey | 10th Annual Awards |
| Sold American: Consumption and Citizenship, 1890-1945, Charles F. McGovern | 10th Annual Awards |
| Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, The Untold Story of an American Legend, Scott Reynolds Nelson | 10th Annual Awards* |
| At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past A. Roger Ekirch | 9th Annual Awards* |
| A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America James Horn | 9th Annual Awards |
| A World on Fire: A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race Joe Jackson | 9th Annual Awards |
| His Excellency: George Washington Joseph J. Ellis | 8th Annual Awards |
| Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s through the Civil War Melvin Patrick Ely | 8th Annual Awards * |
| Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma Camilla Townsend | 8th Annual Awards |
| In the Presence of Mine Enemies Edward L. Ayers | 7th Annual Awards |
| An Expendable Man: The Near-Execution of Earl Washington, Jr. Margaret Edds | 7th Annual Awards |
| A Murder in Virginia: Southern Justice on Trial Suzanne Lebsock | 7th Annual Awards * |
| Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederate Capital Nelson Lankford | 6th Annual Awards |
| A Blessed Company: Parishes, Parsons, and Parishioners in Anglican Virginia, 1690-1776 John K. Nelson | 6th Annual Awards |
| Managing White Supremacy: Race, Politics, and Citizenship in Jim Crow Virginia J. Douglas Smith | 6th Annual Awards * |
| Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity Jennifer Ackerman | 5th Annual Awards |
| John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court R. Kent Newmyer | 5th Annual Awards * |
| Lift Up Thy Voice: The Grimke Family's Journey from Slaveholders to Civil Rights Leaders Mark Perry | 5th Annual Awards |
| Eye of the Storm Charles F. Bryan Jr. and Nelson Langford | 4th Annual Awards |
| Five Sisters: The Langhornes of Virginia James Fox | 4th Annual Awards |
| Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland: A Carroll Saga Ronald Hoffman | 4th Annual Awards * |
| German Boy: A Refugee’s Story Wolfgang W. E. Samuel | 4th Annual Awards |
| What The River Means Elizabeth Hodges | 3rd Annual Awards |
| The Rise and Fall Of the American Whig Party Michael F. Holt | 3rd Annual Awards |
| Forced Founders Woody Holton | 3rd Annual Awards |
| Robert Gwathmey Michael Kammen | 3rd Annual Awards * |
| Confederates in the Attic Tony Horwitz | 2nd Annual Awards |
| Slave Counterpoint Philip Morgan | 2nd Annual Awards * |
| We Mean To Be Counted Elizabeth Varon | 2nd Annual Awards |
| William Styron: A Life James L. W. West III | 2nd Annual Awards |
| Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings Annette Gordon-Reed | 1st Annual Awards |
| Stonewall Jackson James I. Robertson Jr. | 1st Annual Awards * |
| From Calabar to Carter’s Grove Lorena Walsh | 1st Annual Awards |
Poetry * Winner
| Title and Author | Annual Awards |
|---|---|
| World Tree, David Wojahn | 15th Annual Awards * |
| Touch, Henri Cole | 15th Annual Awards |
| Hawks on Wires, Dave Smith | 15th Annual Awards |
| Honorable mention: Nine Acres, Nathaniel Perry | 15th Annual Awards |
| Poor-Mouth Jubilee, Michael Chitwood | 14th Annual Awards * |
| The Eternal City, Kathleen Graber | 14th Annual Awards |
| Heterotopia, Lesley Wheeler | 14th Annual Awards |
| Continental Shelf, Fred D’Aguiar | 13th Annual Awards |
| Home Remedies, Sarah Kennedy | 13th Annual Awards |
| Bad River Road, Debra Nystrom | 13th Annual Awards * |
| Figure Studies: Poems, Claudia Emerson | 12th Annual Awards |
| The Pear as one Example: New & Seleted Poems 1984-2008, Eric Pankey | 12th Annual Awards |
| Satin Cash, Lisa Russ Spaar | 12th Annual Awards * |
| Blessings and Inclemencies: Poems, Constance Merritt | 11th Annual Awards |
| Outlaw Style: Poems, R. T. Smith | 11th Annual Awards * |
| Littlefoot, Charles Wright | 11th Annual Awards |
| What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison, Camille Dungy | 10th Annual Awards |
| Fire Baton, Elizabeth Hadaway | 10th Annual Awards * |
| Ornithologies, Joshua Poteat | 10th Annual Awards |
| Late Wife: Poems Claudia Emerson | 9th Annual Awards |
| Reliquaries by Eric Pankey | 9th Annual Awards |
| Family Preserve: Poems Dabney Stuart | 9th Annual Awards * |
| American Smooth: Poems Rita Dove | 8th Annual Awards |
| In the Dark Ruth Stone | 8th Annual Awards * |
| Buffalo Yoga Charles Wright | 8th Annual Awards |
| Torn Sky Debra Nystrom | 7th Annual Awards * |
| Brightwood: Poems R. T. Smith | 7th Annual Awards |
| The Saint of Letting Small Fish Go Eliot Khalil Wilson | 7th Annual Awards |
| The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems Gregory Orr | 6th Annual Awards |
| Shadow of Heaven: Poems Ellen Bryant Voigt | 6th Annual Awards |
| A Short History of the Shadow Charles Wright | 6th Annual Awards * |
| Icon and Evidence Margaret Gibson | 5th Annual Awards |
| Messenger: Poems R. T. Smith | 5th Annual Awards * |
| Alluvial Katherine Soniat | 5th Annual Awards |
| The Drowned City Jennifer Atkinson | 4th Annual Awards |
| Texas School Book Depository: Prose Poems Cathryn Hankla | 4th Annual Awards |
| Cenotaph: Poems Eric Pankey | 4th Annual Awards * |
| Summer Lake: New and Selected Poems David Huddle | 3rd Annual Awards |
| Hammerlock Tim Seibles | 3rd Annual Awards |
| Late Leisure: Poems Eleanor Ross Taylor | 3rd Annual Awards * |
| The River Hills & Beyond: Poems Lou V. Crabtree | 2nd Annual Awards * |
| On Long Mountain Elizabeth Seydel Morgan | 2nd Annual Awards |
| Gift of Jade Margaret Ward Moreland | 2nd Annual Awards |
| Title and Author | Annual Awards |
|---|---|
| Tom Robbins | 15th Annual Awards |
| Earl Hamner | 14th Annual Awards |
| Lee Smith | 13th Annual Awards |
| John Grisham | 12th Annual Awards |
| Rita Dove | 11th Annual Awards |
| Tom Wolfe | 10th Annual Awards |
| William Styron | 9th Annual Awards |
| Merrill D. Peterson | 8th Annual Awards |
| George Garrett | 7th Annual Awards |
| Louis D. Rubin, Jr. | 6th Annual Awards |
| Mary Lee Settle | 5th Annual Awards |
| Booker T. Washington | 4th Annual Awards |
| Anne Spencer | 3rd Annual Awards |
| Edgar Allan Poe | 2nd Annual Awards |
| Ellen Glasgow | 1st Annual Awards |
| Title and Author | Annual Awards |
|---|---|
| Fiction: The Sixth Man by David Baldacci Nonfiction: Lost Communities of Virginia by Terri Fisher and Kirsten Sparenborg |
15th Annual Awards (2012) |
| Fiction: In the Company of Others, by Jan Karon Nonfiction: The Horse in Virginia, by Julie Campbell |
14th Annual Awards (2011) |
| Fiction: Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls Nonfiction: Haunted Plantations of Virginia by Beth Brown |
13th Annual Awards (2010) |
| Fiction: The Legal Limit by Martin Clark Nonfiction: The Place to Be: Washington, CBS, and the Glory Days of Television News by Roger Mudd |
12th Annual Awards (2009) |
| Fiction: Puss 'n Cahoots by Rita Mae Brown Nonfiction: Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Woody Holton |
11th Annual Awards (2008) |
| Fiction: Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani Nonfiction: Jamestown: The Buried Truth by William M. Kelso |
10th Annual Awards (2007) |
| Fiction: St. Dale by Sharyn McCrumb Nonfiction: Clapton's Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument by Allen St. John |
9th Annual Awards (2006) |
| Fiction: Hour Game by David Baldacci Nonfiction: Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival by Dean King |
8th Annual Awards (2005) |
| Fiction: The Known World by Edward P. Jones Nonfiction: Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy by Elizabeth R. Varon |
7th Annual Awards (2004) |