Southern Books Competition

Recognizing Outstanding Book Design, Typography, and Production in the South

Entry Fee

$50.00 per title

Submission Deadline

May 1, 2026

Eligible Publications

2025 – 2026

About the Competition

The Southeastern Library Association (SELA) cordially invites you to submit a book title that has been published between 2025 and 2026 to the Southern Books Competition. This year the Competition is focusing on University Press imprints.

The Southeastern Library Association Southern Books Competition is a long-standing tradition, now celebrating its seventieth year. This award is designed to recognize and honor book titles that have been designed, printed and/or published in the South. Each title will be reviewed by a panel of independent judges who have broad book and librarianship knowledge. Book titles will be judged on the design, topography, and quality of production of the books.

All winners will be added to the list of the winning titles that is maintained by the Southeastern Library Association and available on the SELA website. One copy of all winning book titles will also be housed in a permanent archive that is maintained at the Valdosta State University Library/Archives.

How to Enter

If you wish to submit a book title(s) to the Southern Books Competition, please send one (1) copy of each book title entered to the address listed below. An entry fee of $50.00 per book title entered is required. Entry fees may be paid online at selaonline.org/awards/sbcf. All entries should be post-marked no later than May 1, 2026.

Mail Entries & Checks To:

SELA Administrative Services
2205-K Oak Ridge Rd., Box 213
Oak Ridge, NC 27310

Checks should be payable to the Southeastern Library Association. Please reference the SELA Southern Books Competition.

Contact Information

Peggy Kain
SELA Southern Books Competition Chair
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
pkain@uab.edu

Previous Winners

  • Overall Excellence
    Creole World: Photographs of New Orleans and the Latin Caribbean Sphere
    Richard Sexton — The Historic New Orleans Collection
  • Award of Excellence: Photography
    Riot: Witness to Anger and Change
    Edwin E. Meek — Yoknapatawpha Press
  • Award of Excellence: Dust Jacket and Cover
    Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle
    Kristen Green — HarperCollins Publishers
  • Award of Excellence: Soft Cover
    Lost Miami: Stories and Secrets Behind Magic City Ruins
    David Bulit — The History Press
  • Award of Excellence: Hard Cover
    Jesse Stuart: Immortal Kentuckian
    James M. Gifford and Erin R. Kazee — Jesse Stuart Foundation
  • Honorable Mention: Photography
    Edisto River: Black Water Crown Jewel
    Larry Price — Joggling Board Press

  • Best Overall
    Eat Drink Delta: A Hungry Traveler's Journey through the Soul of the South
    Susan Puckett — University of Georgia Press
  • Overall Excellence: Hard Cover
    Island Time: An Illustrated History of St. Simon's Island, Georgia
    Jingle Davis — University of Georgia Press
  • Overall Excellence: Hard Cover
    Southern Wonder: Alabama's Surprising Biodiversity
    R. Scot Duncan — University of Alabama Press
  • Overall Excellence: Soft Cover
    The Larder: Food Studies Methods from the American South
    Edited by John T. Edge, Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt, and Ted Ownby — University of Georgia Press
  • Outstanding Photographic Guide Book
    Atlanta's Oakland Cemetery: An Illustrated History and Guide
    Ren and Helen Davis — University of Georgia Press
  • Outstanding Hard Cover Dust Jacket
    Love, In Theory: Ten Stories
    E.J. Levy — University of Georgia Press
  • Honorable Mention: Soft Cover
    Altamaha: A River and Its Keeper
    James Holland — University of Georgia Press

  • Award of Excellence: Typography
    Drifting into Darien: A Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River
    Janisse Ray — University of Georgia Press
  • Award of Excellence: Fright Night
    Invasive Pythons in the United States: Ecology of an Introduced Predator
    Michael E. Dorcas and John D. Wilson — University of Georgia Press
  • Honorable Mention
    Motorcycling Alabama: 50 Ride Loops Through the Heart of Dixie
    David Haynes — University of Alabama Press
  • Honorable Mention: Cover
    A Mess of Greens: Southern Gender and Southern Food
    Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt — University of Georgia Press
  • Honorable Mention: Photos
    The Civil War in Georgia: A New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion
    Edited by John C. Inscoe — University of Georgia Press

  • Overall Excellence
    Furnishing Louisiana: Creole and Acadian Furniture, 1735–1835
    Jack D. Holden, H. Parrott Bacot, Cybèle T. Gontar — The Historic New Orleans Collection
  • Overall Excellence: Soft Cover
    From Mud to Jug: The Folk Potters and Pottery of Northeast Georgia
    John A. Burrison — University of Georgia Press
  • Overall Excellence: Soft Cover
    Marion Manley: Miami's First Woman Architect
    Catherine Lynn and Carie Penabad — University of Georgia Press
  • Award of Excellence: Dust Jacket and Cover
    Unfinished Blues: Memoirs of a New Orleans Music Man
    Harold Battiste, Jr. — The Historic New Orleans Collection
  • Award of Excellence: Photography
    Jack London, Photographer
    Jeanne Campbell Reesman, Sara S. Hodson, and Philip Adam — University of Georgia Press
  • Honorable Mention: Reference
    The Breeding Bird Atlas of Georgia
    Edited by Todd M. Schneider, Giff Beaton, Timothy S. Keyes, and Nathan A. Klaus — University of Georgia Press
  • Honorable Mention: Typographical Design
    The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook
    Edited by Sara Roahen and John T. Edge — University of Georgia Press

  • Overall Excellence
    Headwaters: A Journey on Alabama Rivers
    Beth Maynor Young — University of Alabama Press
  • Award of Excellence
    Lines from Neuchâtel
    Peter Meinke — University of Tampa Press
  • Award of Excellence
    In the Spirit: The Photography of Michael P. Smith from the Historic New Orleans Collection
    Edited by Erin Greenwald — Historic New Orleans Collection
  • Special Award
    Lankes: His Woodcut Miniatures
    J.J. Lankes — Tampa Book Arts Studio, University of Tampa Press
  • Honorable Mention: Overall Design
    America's Main Street Hotels: Transiency and Community in the Early Auto Age
    John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle — University of Tennessee Press
  • Honorable Mention: Book Illustration
    Lowcountry Voodoo: Beginners Guide to Tales, Spells and Boo Hags
    Terrance Zepke — Pineapple Press
  • Honorable Mention: Paperback Cover
    Proven Plants: Southern Gardens
    Erica Glasener — Cool Springs Press

  • Overall Excellence
    A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards, 1858–1861
    Curated by John H. Lawrence, John T. Magill, and Pamela D. Arceneaux — The Historic New Orleans Collection
  • Award of Excellence: Dust Jacket
    The White Bride: Poems
    Sarah Maclay — University of Tampa Press
  • Honorable Mention: Photos
    Room at the Table: A Collection of Recipes from the Premier Bed and Breakfasts of Kentucky
    Robin Victor Goetz — McClanahan Publishing House
  • Honorable Mention: Typographical Design
    The Historical Atlas of West Virginia
    Frank S. Riddel — West Virginia University Press

  • Overall Excellence
    Stephen Rolfe Powell: Glassmaker
    University of Kentucky Press
  • Award of Excellence
    Peachtree Creek
    David R. Kaufman — University of Georgia Press
  • Award of Excellence
    Clay Lancaster's Kentucky
    David Birchfield — University of Kentucky Press
  • Award of Excellence
    Democracy Restored
    Timothy J. Crimmins & Anne H. Farrisee — University of Georgia Press
  • Award of Merit
    Scarlett's Sisters: Young Women in the Old South
    Anya Jabour — University Press of North Carolina
  • Book Cover: Cloth Design
    Solitary Goose — Sydney Landon Plum, University of Georgia Press
    The Pale of Settlement — Margot Singer, University of Georgia Press
  • Book Cover: Paperback Design
    Dragonflies and Damselflies of Georgia and the Southwest
    Giff Beaton — University of Georgia Press

  • Overall Excellence
    James Archambeault's Historic Kentucky
    University of Kentucky Press
  • Overall Excellence
    Georgia Quilts: Piecing Together a History
    Edited by Anita Zaleski Weinraub — University of Georgia Press
  • Award of Excellence
    Spit Bath
    Greg Downs — University of Georgia Press
  • Award of Merit
    Printmaking in New Orleans
    Jessie J. Poesch — Historic New Orleans Collection
  • Book Cover: Cloth Design
    Spit Baths — Greg Downs, University of Georgia Press
  • Book Cover: Paperback Design
    Neat Pieces: The Plain-Style Furniture of Nineteenth-Century Georgia — University of Georgia Press
    Hey Bug Doctor! — University of Georgia Press

  • Overall Excellence
    Touching the Trees: Lessons from the Forest
    Joan Maloof — University of Georgia Press
  • Award of Excellence
    Cartographics: Meditations on Travel
    Marjorie Agosin — University of Georgia Press
  • Award of Excellence
    Tracking Desire: A Journey after Swallow-tailed Kites
    Susan Gerulean — University of Georgia Press
  • Award of Merit
    Florida's Birds: A Field Guide and Reference
    David S. Maehr & Herbert W. Kale II — Pineapple Press
  • Honorable Mention
    Diary of a Dream: My Journey in Thoroughbred Racing
    George Rowland — Eclipse Press

  • Overall Excellence
    Ossabaw: Evocations of an Island
    Jack Leigh, James Kilgo, and Alan Campbell — University of Georgia Press
  • Award of Excellence
    Georgia's Amazing Coast: Natural Wonders from Alligators to Zoeas
    David Bryant and George Davidson — University of Georgia Press
  • Book Cover: Paperback Design
    A British Eyewitness at the Battle of New Orleans: The Memoir of Royal Navy Admiral Robert Aitchison 1808–1827
    Gene A. Smith — Historic New Orleans Collection
  • Book Cover: Hardcover Design
    Boogers and Boo-Daddies: The Best of Blair's Ghost Stories — University of Georgia Press
    Surrender Child: A Birth Mother's Journey — Karen Salyer McElmurray, University of Georgia Press

Registration & Payment

Deadline for submission: May 1, 2026

Pay Here!