The Townsend Prize selection process involved 50 nominated books from authors in Georgia. Millner's winning novel, One Blood, traces four generations of Black mothers and their trials and secrets.

For nearly five years, Filippo Bernardini allegedly impersonated people in the book publishing industry, stealing unpublished manuscripts and notes, including from a Pulitzer Prize winner.

A league of unfortunate writers had their books come out in the height of the coronavirus crisis — there are even several online support groups for authors who published mid-pandemic.