In honor of "one of the South's most beloved writers," the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance is changing the name of its SIBA Book Awards to the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize.
"We have long wanted a sexier more marketable name for our book awards, and nothing is sexier than Mr. Conroy," SIBA executive director Wanda Jewell said. She added that Conroy "has been a force for good in the world of southern books and literature and we want to acknowledge that. He has not just written some of our favorite books, he has been incredibly generous in his support of readers, of booksellers, and of other writers. The world of southern literature is a rich place today because of the encouragement he extends to new authors and the commitment he has always shown towards the southern literary community."
In addition to renaming the award, SIBA has expanded its award categories in a way that allows categories to be "driven by the nominations," rather than trying to peg all nominations into categories like fiction, nonfiction and children's. Thus, this year's categories, each of which is named for one of Conroy's books or, in the case of young people's literature, a book about Conroy:
The Great Santini Fiction Prize
The Prince of Tides Literary Prize
Beach Music Mystery Prize
Lords of Discipline Thriller Prize
The Death of Santini Nonfiction Prize
The Water Is Wide History & Life Stories Prize
The Pat Conroy Cookbook Prize
Poppy's Pants, Jr. Youngsters Prize (Ages 0-9)
Poppy's Pants Young Adult Prize (Ages 10+)
This year, more than 140 books have been nominated. SIBA members will vote on the longlist this month, and finalists will be announced in April. Finalists will be sent to a jury of booksellers in each category, who will then choose the winning book for their category. Winners will be announced on July 4, "Independents Day."
In February, Doubleday said that Conroy, who is 70, has pancreatic cancer and is undergoing treatment.
