Georgia Writers Museum to co-sponsor the Townsend Prize

Published 2:49 pm Wednesday, September 13, 2023

With unanimous agreement by its respective boards, on July 20 it became official that the Georgia Writers Museum and the Atlanta Writers Club would become co-owners of the prestigious Townsend Prize for Fiction, considered the most coveted award by Georgia’s literary fiction writers.

“We are honored that the Atlanta Writers Club approached us with the opportunity to share in the ownership, sponsorship, and administration of this highly esteemed award,” said Lou Benjamin, president of Georgia Writers Museum.

“We have great respect for the amazing work of Georgia Writers Museum and view them as the perfect partner in bringing this special honor to the very best of Georgia’s literary fiction writers,” said George Weinstein, executive director of the Atlanta Writers Club.

In May 2021, the Atlanta Writers Club became the steward of the Townsend Prize for Fiction. Established in 1981 in memory of Jim Townsend, founding editor of Atlanta magazine and mentor to a generation of remarkable Southern authors, the Prize was formerly administered by The Chattahoochee Review under the purview of Georgia State University’s Perimeter College before it was inherited by the Atlanta Writers Club, a long-time sponsor of the Prize. 

Awarded every two years, the Prize honors the best literary fiction written by a Georgia author since the last award. A selection committee that includes members of Georgia’s literary community considers all qualified contenders for the cash prize and a trophy. The list is narrowed to ten finalists, which are then read by three out-of-state judges for the final decision.

Previous Townsend winners have included Alice Walker, Terry Kay, Philip Lee Williams, and Georgia Poet Laureate, Judson Mitcham. The Prize is awarded in an elegant ceremony attended by writers and fiction lovers throughout the South. The next Prize winner will be jointly announced by the Georgia Writers Museum and Atlanta Writers Club in the Spring of 2025.