Ryann Stevenson has won the 2021 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize for his manuscript Human Resources, which will be published next June by Milkweed Editions. Stevenson also receives $10,000.
Judge Henri Cole said about Human Resources: "The controlled anxiety of the present is captured brilliantly by this wary, lucid book. We live in an era when our humanness is worn down--by virtual beings, bots, synced devices, battery life, data, radiation, sulfates, and lead--so we must practice mindfulness to keep from losing track of who we are. This brave, tough book suggests that flowering maples, yoga, orcas, and the hands of our mothers might help us preserve our innocence. Human Resources is a lyric transcript of what it is to be a citizen at a punishing time."
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Finalists have been chosen for the Southern Book Prize, representing "bookseller favorites from 2021 that are Southern in nature--either about the South or by a Southern writer." Voting by the public has begun at SouthernBookPrize.com, and winner will be announced February 14. The finalists are:
Fiction:
The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington (Algonquin Books)
Mother May I by Joshilyn Jackson (Morrow)
Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia (Flatiron Books)
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)
When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash (Morrow)
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins (St. Martin's Press)
Nonfiction:
Black, White, and the Grey by Mashama Bailey (Lorena Jones Books)
Bress 'n' Nyam by Matthew Raiford (Countryman Press)
Bring Your Baggage and Don't Pack Light by Helen Ellis (Doubleday)
Fight Songs by Ed Southern (Blair)
Graceland, at Last by Margaret Renkl (Milkweed Editions)
How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith (Little, Brown)
Children's:
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston (Balzer + Bray)
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray)
Ground Zero by Alan Gratz (Scholastic Press)
Kate in Waiting by Becky Albertalli (Balzer + Bray)
Keep Your Head Up by Aliya King Neil (Denene Millner Books/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
The Key to You and Me by Jaye Robin Brown (HarperTeen)