By Kelley Bozeman

Bobbie Ann Mason

"It seems a little strange to me for one or two books to be selected from all the good books published each year. I'm humbled to have my work even considered for such an honor."

-- Bobbie Ann Mason, University of Kentucky Writer in Residence

Aug. 9, 2002 (Lexington, Ky.) -- "Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail," a collection of short stories by University of Kentucky Writer in Residence Bobbie Ann Mason, has won the 2002 Southern Book Award for fiction.

This is Mason's second Southern Book Award. She also won in 1994 for her novel "Feather Crowns.'' Her other works include "Shiloh and Other Stories'' and "In Country.''

"It seems a little strange to me for one or two books to be selected from all the good books published each year. I'm humbled to have my work even considered for such an honor," said Mason.

"Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail" is available in hardcover from Random House, $22.95, and in paperback from Modern Library, $11.95.

The nonfiction winner is "At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America'' by Philip Dray (Random House, $35).

The awards will be presented Oct. 12 at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, Tenn.

The Southern Book Awards have been presented annually since 1991. Past winners include Larry Brown, Josephine Humphreys, Ernest Gaines, John Berendt and Diane McWhorter.