(Asheville, NC) – Southern independent booksellers have cast their votes for the Finalists for the 2018 Southern Book Prize. Thirty titles across eight different categories have been selected as representing the best in Southern literature. Prize categories are determined by the publisher-submitted BISAC categories of the 100+ titles originally nominated for the Southern Book Prize.

“This is a great list of books,” commented Wanda Jewell, Executive Director of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. “It shows the wide range and depth of Southern literature.”

Finalists go to juried panels of booksellers who will then decide on the winners in each category. Winners will be announced on July 4, “Independents Day.”

SEE ALL CATEGORIES AND FINALISTS

Fifteen-year-old Gradle Bird has lived her entire life with her Grandpa, Leonard, at a seedy motel and truck stop off Georgia’s I-16. But when Leonard moves her to a crumbling old house rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Ms. Annalee Spivey, Gradle is plunged into a lush, magical world much stranger and more dangerous than the one she came from.

Here she meets Sonny Joe Stitch, a Siamese Fighting Fish connoisseur overdosed on testosterone, a crippled, Bible-thumping hobo named Ceif “Tadpole” Walker, and the only true friend she will ever know, a schizophrenic genius, music-man, and professional dumpster-diver, D-5 Delvis Miles. As Gradle falls deeper into Delvis’s imaginary and fantastical world, unsettling dangers lurk, and when surfaced, Gradle discovers unforeseen depths in herself and the people she loves the most.

Gradle Bird is an unusual tale of self-discovery and redemption that explores the infirmities of fatherly love, the complexities of human cruelty, and the consequences of guilt, proving they are possible to overcome no matter how dark and horrible the cause.

Pages: 256
Pub Date: 06-15-2017
Softcover: 17.95 978-1-63393-263-0
Hardcover: 28.95 978-1-63393-265-4
Ebook: 7.99 978-1-63393-264-7

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.C. Sasser started her professional career at age twelve, working as a dishwasher, waitress, and cook at a truck stop off Georgia’s I-16. Over her life, she has worked as an envelope licker, tortoise tagger, lifeguard, Senate page, model, editor, water-polo coach, marine biologist, plant grower, software consultant, and 6-Sigma Black Belt. Gradle Bird, was a short list finalist in the 2015 William Faulkner-William Wisdom novel competition, and her other writing credits include the short story and screenplay, The Pigeon Catcher (Ceiba Productions 2002). She lives in an old barn on Edisto Island, SC with her husband, Thomas, along with their two sons, T.C. and Robert Esten, and two dogs, Cro and Blue Moon June. Gradle Bird is her first novel.   Visit author website