Fort Myers resident Annabelle Tometich’s compelling recounting of growing up biracial in Southwest Florida in her book, "The Mango Tree," has been awarded the prestigious Southern Book Award.
Her book joins two other Southern Book Award winners this year: "Rednecks," by Taylor Brown (St. Martin’s Press), in Fiction, and "Not Like Other Girls," by Meredith Adamo (Bloomsbury YA), in Young Readers. Winning authors receive a donation in their name to the charity or nonprofit of their choice.
Funny, poignant, sad and uplifting, "The Mango Tree" is the first book by a Filipino American to win the SBP in nonfiction. That aspect made the award much more special for Tometich:
More on The Mango Tree
"To be the first Filipino American to win in the non-fiction category. I mean, I think it speaks volumes to the diversity of voices we have in the South," she said. "The South is not a monolith, you know, it's not the daughters and sons of Confederates. It is such a diverse place with a multitude of perspectives. And I'm really grateful to to be one of them.”
Tometich said she owes a huge debt of gratitude to those independent bookstores that featured and helped promote her book.
“Independent booksellers are absolutely key to this award and to the success of "The Mango Tree," like in general, were it not for Blinking Owl Books here in Fort Myers and MacIntosh Books on Sanibel and Tombolo books in St Petersburg and Books and Books in Miami and The Lynx in Gainesville. And you know, I can go on and on," Tometich said. "Midtown Reader in Tallahassee, those independent stores hosted me for events. They're hand-selling "The Mango Tree" to their patrons. They're spreading the word about this book, and I'm so, so grateful for them. That is something that Amazon cannot do.”
Tometich said she had no second thoughts about where to assign her charitable donation.
"When I realized I had the opportunity to donate this prize money, you know, to a charity of my choosing, immediately I thought, like Fort Myers. Like, what? What can I do here in Fort Myers that will be of the most service and I grew up blocks away from the Quality Life Center," she said. "I was born a couple streets over from where their main campus is, and I think immediately I knew that, you know that hits to the heart of where I come from, and it's a place that's doing a lot of good in this community."
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