RICHMOND, VIRGINIA – The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce the winners of the 28th Annual Virginia Literary Awards, the Commonwealth’s premier event honoring Virginia writers and their contributions to literature.

Presented by Dominion Energy and supported by Carole and Marcus Weinstein, the Sept. 20 celebration was hosted by New York Times best-selling author and award-winning filmmaker Adriana Trigiani. Also honored was acclaimed musician Damien Geter with an honorary Patron of Letters degree for his powerful fusion of classical music and Black diaspora influences, creating works that further the cause for social justice. The Library’s highest honor, the degree is awarded by the Library Board to individuals who have made an outstanding contribution in the realm of arts, history, humanities, or information, library or archival science. 

“Each year we look forward to celebrating the voices that have left lasting impacts on Virginia’s literary and cultural communities,” said Librarian of Virginia Dennis T. Clark. “We’re proud that this celebration not only honors outstanding achievements, but also supports our ongoing commitment to offering vital archival resources and enriching programs that serve communities across the Commonwealth.”

The literary award winners, who each received a crystal book award and monetary prize, are as follows:

• NONFICTION AWARD: Justene Hill Edwards | Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank
• FICTION AWARD: Isabel Banta | Honey
• POETRY AWARD: Jennifer Chang | An Authentic Life
• CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AWARD: Carter Higgins | Round and Round the Year We Go
• PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD FOR NONFICTION: Evan Friss | The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
• PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD FOR FICTION: David Baldacci | A Calamity of Souls
• ART IN LITERATURE: THE MARY LYNN KOTZ AWARD: Deborah Parker | Becoming Belle da Costa Greene: A Visionary Librarian Through Her Letters

The Library presented the awards in front of over 250 attendees at its annual dinner and gala. Additional award sponsors included the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and William & Mary Libraries. The annual gala also raised significant funds for the Library’s conservation, education and community outreach initiatives.

"We are incredibly grateful to the Literary Awards sponsors, especially longtime supporters Dominion Energy and Carole and Marcus Weinstein," said Scott Dodson, Executive Director of the Library of Virginia Foundation. "Every year, this event brings together authors representing the finest in Virginia literature as well as community and business leaders. Together, we are raising awareness and support for the Library’s role as a public square convening people from all backgrounds and experiences to preserve and share the stories of Virginia." 

Additional event sponsorships included Atlantic Union Bank, Christian & Barton, Joseph Papa Public Relations, McGuireWoods, MercerTrigiani, Troutman Pepper, and Virginia Humanities.

Information on each winner and honoree is as follows:

• Damien Geter – 2025 Patron of Letters degree recipient –  is owner of DG Music, Sans Fear Publishing and serves as interim music director and artistic advisor at the Portland Opera as well as the Richmond Symphony’s composer-in-residence through 2026. A bass-baritone, he has sung with opera companies around the country, including the Metropolitan Opera. In May 2025, the world premiere of Geter’s new major opera, “Loving v. Virginia,” concluded the Virginia Opera’s 50th anniversary season. Based on the true story of Mildred and Richard Loving and their landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down state laws banning interracial marriage, the opera is co-commissioned by the Virginia Opera and the Richmond Symphony, and co-produced by the Virginia Opera and the Minnesota Opera. Another new opera of Geter’s, “Delta King’s Blues,” commissioned by IN Series, will also premiere in 2025. His song, “Amanirenas,” commissioned by soprano Karen Slack for her African Queens art song program, is touring nationally.
• Justene Hill Edwards – 2025 nonfiction award winner for “Savings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman’s Bank” –  is an associate professor of history at the University of Virginia. She is also the author of “Unfree Markets: The Slaves’ Economy and the Rise of Capitalism in South Carolina” and has won numerous fellowships and awards, most recently an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Mellon New Directions Fellowship and the Harold F. Williamson Prize from the Business History Conference. In 2024, she was awarded an inaugural Dean’s Research Fellowship by the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia. Hill Edwards is on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Civil War Era, Enterprise & Society and the University of Virginia Press. She also serves as a trustee of the Midland School, the Shockoe Institute and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.
• Isabel Banta – 2025 fiction award winner for “Honey” – is a writer, book publicist and indie bookseller based in Brooklyn. She graduated from the University of Virginia. “Honey” is her debut novel.
• Jennifer Chang – 2025 poetry award winner for “An Authentic Life”– is the poetry editor of New England Review and teaches at the Bennington Writing Seminars and the University of Texas in Austin. Her most recent poetry collection, “An Authentic Life,” was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other books include “The History of Anonymity” and “Some Say the Lark,” which received the 2018 William Carlos Williams Award. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including American Poetry Review, The Believer, Best American Poetry, The New Yorker, A Public Space and Yale Review. She has been honored with fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo and the Elizabeth Murray Artists Residency, as well as the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine.
• Carter Higgins – 2025 children’s literature award winner for “Round and Round the Year We Go” – is the author of many books for young readers, including “Everything You Need for a Treehouse,” “Some of These Are Snails” and the chapter book series “Audrey L and Audrey W.” Her first book as both author and illustrator, “Circle Under Berry,” was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, Smithsonian Magazine and the Wall Street Journal. She is also an Emmy Award–winning visual effects and motion graphics artist and spent a decade as a school librarian.
• Evan Friss – 2025 People’s Choice nonfiction award winner for “The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore” – is a professor of history at James Madison University. His latest book, “The Bookshop,” is a New York Times bestseller, one of Time magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2024, a “Best Book of the Year” according to the Christian Science Monitor and The New Yorker, and the winner of the Goodreads Choice Award.
• David Baldacci – 2025 People’s Choice fiction award winner for “Calamity of Souls” – has published 49 novels for adults, all of which have been national and international bestsellers, and several have been adapted for film and television. His books are published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. He has also published seven novels for young readers. A lifelong Virginian, Baldacci received a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, after which he practiced law in Washington, D.C. Baldacci and his wife, Michelle, established the Wish You Well Foundation®, which supports family and adult literacy programs in the United States. In 2008 the foundation partnered with Feeding America to launch Feeding Body & Mind, which has collected and distributed more than 1 million new and gently used books to families in need through food banks.
• Deborah Parker – 2025 Art in Literature: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award winner for “Becoming Belle da Costa Greene: A Visionary Librarian Through Her Letters” – is Professor of Italian Emerita at the University of Virginia. Her other books include “Commentary and Ideology: Dante in the Renaissance,” “Bronzino: Renaissance Painter as Poet” and “Michelangelo and the Art of Letter Writing.” Her most recent book, “Becoming Belle da Costa Greene,” was published last fall by Villa I Tatti: The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Parker co-authored “Belle Greene and Literature” for the Morgan Library & Museum exhibition catalog “Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy.” Michael Dirda, columnist for the Washington Post’s Book World, listed “Becoming Belle da Costa Greene” among his recommendations for holiday gift books, Harvard University Press listed it among its best books of 2024, and John McWhorter, opinion columnist for the New York Times, mentioned it in a recent column.

Photos of the winners and honoree can be found at this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/q2h3ztclw31bsqm4en01x/ANCSEVRm1rnAxHMjYvLTyzA?rlkey=hfzkltpsl651c9k9d0ac5y3uu&dl=0

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ABOUT THE VIRGINIA LITERARY AWARDS 

In 1997, the Library of Virginia established its annual Virginia Literary Awards program to honor Virginia writers and celebrate their contributions to the literary landscape of our state and nation. Given to Virginia authors in the categories of fiction and poetry — and to nonfiction and children’s literature authors for works about a Virginia subject as well — the awards are presented at an annual celebration that has become the Library’s signature event and an eagerly anticipated cultural tradition in Richmond. While the main award recipients are selected by independent panels of judges, the Library also invites book lovers and readers to vote for their favorite works for the People’s Choice Awards for Fiction and Nonfiction. In addition, the Library presents its highest honor, the Patron of Letters degree, during this event. In the past, the Library has also bestowed a Literary Lifetime Achievement Award to recognize the enduring influence of an outstanding Virginia writer, with past winners including Earl Hamner, Lee Smith, Jan Karon, Tom Robbins, Charles Wright, Barbara Kingsolver, Rita Dove, John Grisham, Tom Wolfe and David Baldacci. 

ABOUT THE LIBRARY OF VIRGINIA AND THE FOUNDATION

The Library of Virginia is the leading source of information on Virginia’s history, government and people. The Library’s collections, containing more than 134 million items, document and illustrate the lives of both famous Virginians and ordinary citizens. Our online resources draw nearly 2 million website visits per year, and our on-site records, exhibitions and events bring in thousands of visitors annually. The Library is located in downtown Richmond near Capitol Square at 800 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23219. Learn more at www.lva.virginia.gov. 

The Library of Virginia Foundation supports the Library of Virginia and its mission by raising private financial support, managing its endowment, and helping to bring Virginia’s history and culture to life. Learn more at lvafoundation.org.