Check out the 2024 lists of Books All Geor­gians and Books All Young Geor­gians Should Read!

From Feb­ru­ary to Novem­ber, we’ll fea­ture a book from each 2024 list and pro­vide resources to help you get the most out of your read­ing experience.

Explore Books All Geor­gians Should Read lists from pre­vi­ous years.

Explore Books All Young Geor­gians Should Read lists from pre­vi­ous years.

In 2004, the South­ern Region­al Coun­cil entered into a part­ner­ship with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia Libraries to admin­is­ter the award in part­ner­ship with the Dekalb Coun­ty Pub­lic Library’s Geor­gia Cen­ter for the Book and Pied­mont College’s Lil­lian E. Smith Center.

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 admin­is­tered by The Chat­ta­hoochee Review and Geor­gia State University’s Perime­ter Col­lege in part­ner­ship with the Geor­gia Cen­ter for the Book since the 1990s before it was inher­it­ed by the Atlanta Writ­ers Club, a spon­sor of the Prize for years. Award­ed every two years, the Prize hon­ors the best piece of lit­er­ary fic­tion writ­ten by a Geor­gia author dur­ing the time since the last award.

Con­nect­ing the 2,369 miles of U.S. Route 1 from Ft. Kent, Maine, to Key West, Flori­da, the Route 1 Reads ini­tia­tive is a part­ner­ship between 16 affil­i­ate Cen­ters for the Book to pro­mote books that illu­mi­nate impor­tant aspects of their states or com­mon­wealths for read­ers trav­el­ling this mean­der­ing high­way. The ini­tia­tive was launched at the 2015 Nation­al Book Fes­ti­val in Wash­ing­ton, D.C.

Every year, a list of books rep­re­sent­ing the lit­er­ary her­itage of the 50 states, the Dis­trict of Colum­bia, Puer­to Rico and the U.S. Vir­gin Islands is dis­trib­uted by the Library of Congress’s Cen­ter for the Book dur­ing the Nation­al Book Fes­ti­val. Each book is select­ed by a local Cen­ter for the Book or state library and most are for chil­dren and young read­ers. Books may be writ­ten by authors from the state, take place in the state, or cel­e­brate the state’s cul­ture and her­itage. Check out Geor­gia’s picks, as well as those of the oth­er states, at this link.