Established in 2000 by novelist Barbara Kingsolver, the Bellweather Prize rewards writers who novels deal topics of social responsibility.

It is also somewhat unusual in that it recognized unpublished manuscripts. The winner receives $25,000 and a guarantee to be published by a major publisher.

The Bellweather Prize is awarded every two years.

Here are the past winners:

2000: Kissing the Virgin’s Mouth, by Donna Gershten

2002: The Book of Dead Birds, by Gayle Brandeis

2004: Correcting the Landscape, by Marjorie Kowolski Cole

2006: Mudbound, by Hillary Jorden

2008: The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, by Heidi Durrow

btw, the reading suggetsion was for Mudbound, which my colleauge claims kept her awake half the night reading. She simply could not stop reading until she finished the story.