Annabelle Tometich, has been awarded the Southern Book Prize in Nonfiction. Annabelle spent eighteen years as a food critic for her hometown newspaper before writing her debut memoir. The Mango Tree revolves around her mother’s 2015 arrest for shooting a BB gun at a couple she claimed were stealing her mangoes. Parts of her story sound so unbelievable they must be true.
The New York Times Book Review described how Tometich “…writes scene and dialogue with the metronomic precision of a seasoned broadsheet reporter, her ledes and kickers often bearing a sly, precocious slant.” She has won multiple awards for her stories which have appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, and Food & Travel Writing.