The longlist has been chosen for the 2025 Crook's Corner Book Prize, honoring "the best debut novel set in the American South." The shortlist will be announced in September, and the $5,000 prize winner in January 2026. This year's judge is Clyde Edgerton.
The longlist:
Plum by Andy Anderegg (Hub City)
Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell (Simon & Schuster)
The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff (Simon & Schuster)
Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine (Ballantine Books)
Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher (Blackstone)
Shield the Joyous by Chad Holley (Bull City Books)
Oye by Melissa Mogollon (Hogarth)
Bright and Tender Dark by Joanna Pearson (Bloomsbury)
Pearce Oysters by Joselyn Takacs (Zibby Publishers)
Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura (Macmillan)