Jacinda Townsend’s sophomore novel, Mother Country, has won the 2022 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence
Jacinda Townsend's sophomore novel, Mother Country, has won the $15,000 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence, which is presented annually by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. The award is given to honor the late Ernest Gaines, a Louisiana native whose stories gave voice to African Americans in rural areas. Read the release.
“[Mr. Gaines’s] A Lesson Before Dying was one of the books that most taught me how to weave searing social justice with the pleasure of storytelling, so it is a special honor to be part of this long tradition of excellence in African-American literature,” stated Townsend.
Townsend is also the author of Saint Monkey, which won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize. Saint Monkey was also the 2015 Honor Book of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Townsend is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Jacinda will be honored in a ceremony on January 19, 2023. RSVP here.
Watch the 2021 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence including author Nathan Harris in a conversation with award judge Tony Grooms, plus cameos from past winners.
Ernest J. Gaines with his wife, Dianne.
“My wife, Dianne, and I are very happy to be a part of this exciting project established by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to recognize the best newly published African-American writers from across the country.”
About the award
The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence honors Louisiana’s revered storyteller, Ernest J. Gaines, and serves to inspire and recognize rising African-American fiction writers of excellence at a national level. The book award, initiated by donors of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, is now in its 16th year and has become nationally recognized in its role of enhancing visibility of emerging African-American fiction writers while also expanding the audience for this literature. The annual award of a $15,000 cash prize is to support and enable the writer to focus on writing.
The 2023 panel of judges are themselves renowned contributors to the literary world. They are Anthony Grooms, Edward P. Jones, Elizabeth Nunez, Francine Prose and Patricia Towers.
The Baton Rouge Area Foundation sponsors the winner’s travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to receive the prize at a ceremony, where the author reads an excerpt from the selected work of fiction. A reception follows. The evening is free, open to the public and attracts a diverse audience.
The literary award winner also participates in educational activities at selected area schools and after-school programs in keeping with the Gaines Award's interest in emphasizing the role of literature and arts in education. Through small creative writing workshops with the winning author, students are encouraged to pursue reading, delve into their own creativity, and to consider becoming an author.