Author's Book about Racism in Forsyth County Wins National Award

A book by author Jonathan Grant has won an award from the Independent Book Publishers Association.

The 2013 Benjamin Franklin Award for popular fiction was bestowed on Brambleman at IBPA’s annual meeting in New York City on May 29. The novel is about a mob that expelled 1,000 African-Americans from Forsyth County, Georgia early last century and is a sequel to The Way It Was in the South.

"Winning meant a lot because I put so much into that book," Grant told Patch. "It took 10 years to write, and from conception to awards ceremony, nearly two decades. When my category came up and they announced that the winner was Brambleman, I kind of froze. Then I told myself, '“you should get up and go to the stage.”'

Grant, a former Evansdale Elementary (located in Tucker, Ga.) PTA president, is also the author of Chain Gang Elementary. He lives near Embry Hills and was a Tucker Youth Soccer Association coach for 12 seasons. Last year, he presented the Tucker-Reid Cofer Library with hardcover first editions of his work.

This article first appeared on Tucker Patch.