Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Special to the Advance

The Monroeville Literary Festival will present the 2025 Truman Capote Prize to short-story writer and Brewton native Suzanne Hudson at the Old Courthouse Museum in Monroeville on Feb. 28, 2025.

The annual award recognizes Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of Literary Non-Fiction or the Short Story.
Hudson is the author of two literary novels, In a Temple of Trees and In the Dark of the Moon. Her short fiction has been anthologized in almost a dozen books, including Stories from the Blue Moon Café and The Shoe Burnin’: Stories of Southern Soul. Her short story collection Opposable Thumbs was a finalist for a John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Her latest work of short stories, All the Way to Memphis, brings characters from the South to life in a way any reader will know and love.
“Being awarded the Truman Capote Prize is a lot like coming home,” Hudson remarks. “Having grown up just down the road in Brewton, having had sports rivalries with Monroe County High School and having even shared a mascot (Tigers, mine being of the T.R. Miller variety), having shared a Methodist minister in Tom Butts, the sense of extended community makes this honor that much more special.”
Hudson lives with her husband, author Joe Formichella, near Fairhope.
Hudson’s award will be presented on Friday afternoon, February 28, 2025. She and other award winners will be honored at a reception/dinner that evening. Tickets for the dinner are on sale now and can be purchased at Eventbrite through the Festival website, MonroevilleLiteraryFestival.com, or by calling the museum at 251-575-7433.
The festival, a project of the Monroe County Museum, will bring best-selling writers and readers together in the Literary Capital of Alabama Thursday, Feb. 27 through Saturday, March 1. Most events take place in the courtroom of the Old Courthouse Museum, famous as the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird. All readings, discussions and award ceremonies are free, but advanced paid tickets are required for the awards dinner and Saturday lunch.
A full schedule of events and registration details are available at MonroevilleLiteraryFestival.com or by calling the museum at 251-575-7433 or by email at info@MonroevilleLiteraryFestival.com.