Judy Gaines Young Book Award

The Judy Gaines Young Book Award is given annually by Transylvania University to honor the author of a book of distinction written in the Appalachian region in the previous two or three years. The award was endowed in 2015 by Dr. Byron Young, a Lexington-area professor and neurologist, in honor of his late wife.

The program is currently coordinated by Transylvania Professor of English Martha Billips and Poet-in-Residence Maurice Manning.

Winners

 * 2015 – Holly Goddard Jones for The Next Time You See Me
 * 2016 – Amy Greene for Long Man
 * 2017 – Crystal Wilkinson for The Birds of Opulence
 * 2018 – Kathleen Driskell for Next Door to the Dead
 * 2019 – Silas House for Southernmost
 * 2020 – Frank X Walker for Last Will, Last Testament
 * 2021 – Robert Gipe for the Canard County trilogy (Trampoline, Weedeater, and Pop)
 * 2022 – Jeff Worley

2015

 * Ron Houchin for The Man Who Saws Us in Half 
 * George Ella Lyon for Many-Storied House
 * Jeff Daniel Marion for Letters to the Dead
 * Allison Seay for To See the Queen
 * Lee Smith for Guests on Earth

2016

 * Robert Gipe for Trampoline (first nomination)
 * T. J. Jarrett for Zion
 * Jeremy B. Jones for Bearwallow
 * Denton Loving for Crimes Against Birds
 * George Ella Lyon for What Forest Knows

2017

 * Lee Smith for Dimestore 

2018

 * Darnell Arnoult for Galaxie Wagon 
 * Robert Gipe for Trampoline (second nomination)
 * Mark Powell for Small Treasons
 * Mary Ann Taylor-Hall for Out of Nowhere