Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence — Complete Winners List

18 years of winners · Baton Rouge Area Foundation · Since 2007 · ← Back to award page


2024	Swift River	Essie Chambers	Simon & Schuster
2023	Temple Folk	Aaliyah Bilal	Simon & Schuster
2022	Mother Country	Jacinda Townsend	Graywolf Press
2021	The Sweetness of Water	Nathan Harris	Little, Brown and Company
2020	Everywhere You Don't Belong	Gabriel Bump	Algonquin Books
2019	Lot: Stories	Bryan Washington	Riverhead Books
2018	A Lucky Man: Stories	Jamel Brinkley	Graywolf Press
2017	The Talented Ribkins	Ladee Hubbard	Melville House
2016	The Birds of Opulence	Crystal Wilkinson	University Press of Kentucky
2015	Welcome to Braggsville	T. Geronimo Johnson	William Morrow
2014	The Residue Years	Mitchell S. Jackson	Whiting Foundation
2013	The Cutting Season	Attica Locke	Harper
2012	We Are Taking Only What We Need	Stephanie Powell Watts	Ecco
2011	How to Read the Air	Dinaw Mengestu	Riverhead Books
2010	Big Machine	Victor LaValle	—
2009	Holding Pattern: Stories	Jeffery Renard Allen	Graywolf Press
2008	Like Trees, Walking	Ravi Howard	Amistad
2007	A Killing in This Town	Olympia Vernon	Grove Press