Townsend Prize Finalists Announced Ahead of April 16 Gala in Atlanta

BY CLAYTON RAMSEY

The Atlanta Writers Club and Georgia Writers Museum announce the following 10 novels and short story collections have been selected by the reading committee to be the finalists for the 2025 Townsend Prize for Fiction:

Denene Millner, One Blood (Forge Books, 9.5.23)

Chika Unigwe, The Middle Daughter (Dzanc Books, 4.4.23)

Anissa Gray, Life and Other Love Songs (Berkley, Penguin, 4.11.23)

Julia Franks, The Say So (Hub City Press, 6.6.23)

Ra’Niqua Lee, For What Ails You (ELJ Editions, 11.6.23)

John M Williams, End Times (Sartoris Literary Group, 9.15.23)

Gordon Johnston, Seven Islands of the Ocmulgee: River Stories (Mercer U Press, 2.7.23)

Kimberly Brock, The Fabled Earth (Harper Muse, 10.1.24)

Peter Selgin, A Boy’s Guide to Outer Space (Regal House Publishing, 11.12.24)

Barbara Tucker, Lying In (Colorful Crow Publishing, 5.15.24)

The Townsend Prize was started in 1981 to honor the legacy of Jim Townsend, founding editor of Atlanta magazine – the model of the modern city magazine – and mentor to a generation of iconic Southern writers like Pat Conroy, Terry Kay and Anne Rivers Siddons. Administered since the 1990s by Georgia Perimeter College (now Georgia State University Perimeter College) and The Chattahoochee Review, the stewardship of the Prize passed in 2021 to the Atlanta Writers Club. In the spring of 2023, Georgia Writers Museum joined the AWC as a partner in the Prize administration.

The 2025 Townsend Prize for Fiction ceremony will be held April 16 at the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center in Atlanta when the winner of the Prize will be announced. To register for the gala event, contact Georgia Writers Museum (georgiawritersmuseum.org) or Atlanta Writers Club (atlantawritersclub.org).