Essie Chambers is the winner of the 2025 Ernest Gaines Award | Baton Rouge

To honor celebrated Louisiana writer Ernest Gaines, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation presents one of the most prestigious literary prizes given to Black American writers, the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. The award serves to inspire and recognize rising African American fiction writers of excellence at a national level. 

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation will give the 18th annual honor to Essie Chambers for her novel “Swift River” at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 21, at the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center, 100 Lafayette St., Baton Rouge. Community members can attend the event by registering at ernestjgainesaward.org/rsvp.

The book award, initiated by donors of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, comes with a monetary award of $15,000 to support and enable the writer to focus on their craft.

From Swift River to the Mississippi River 

Chambers’ debut novel features teenager Diamond Newberry as she navigates the summer of 1987 in her hometown of Swift River, Massachusetts. Set in a forgotten mill town, the book acknowledges a haunted place where industry has died, Chambers says.

Diamond is the only Black girl in a rural town, and she lives with her white mother. They are both ostracized, harassed and mocked for being “other” in the town.

Then, Diamond receives a letter from a lost cousin who was close to her father. Through this connection, Diamond learns about the strong Black women who came before her, helping establish a rootedness and confidence which shapes her character. Through letters and flashbacks, Chambers weaves a multi-generational tale of trauma and resilience. 

She illustrates a place where people are suffering, struggling and haunted by the former industry and its remnants, but the town still has a river running through it. Chambers says that it’s the right setting for a story about a family and a girl who are haunted by past trauma. 

‘It is the greatest honor of my life’

Massachusetts native Chambers had a successful career in television and film production, including producing the award-winning 2022 documentary, “Descendant,” but writing a novel was her earliest and most persistent dream.

She says “Swift River” took 10 years to write and changed as she changed through the years. 

“I had this wonderful creative job, and I helped other people tell their stories, but I was neglecting my own story,” Chambers said. “I really wrote around the edges of my life. The story came to me in pieces. I think the characters were always with me, but it didn’t come together until I committed myself to being a writer.”

Chambers expresses gratitude and humility when it comes to being a part of the distinguished community of Ernest Gaines award winners. For her, though, the award is really a push to keep going and to keep writing. 

“Mr. Gaines had such a profound impact on me as a reader and a writer, so to be part of his legacy and join this community of writers who I admire so deeply, it is the greatest honor of my life,” she said. “There’s something so beautiful about being honored, not just for the book, but for my promise as a writer, and it feels like an investment in the person I’m going to become and the future stories that I’m going to tell. And it’s just the most generous kind of encouragement and motivation.”

Chambers’ narrative voice is clear and direct in “Swift River,” yet she integrates moments of poetry and fantasy into her prose. There is a richness in the language that imbues the story with depth and substance.

Chambers will visit Baton Rouge and observe another town that a river runs through. 

‘Talking across time’ 

The judging panel for the Ernest J. Gaines Award is comprised of poets, professors, short story writers and novelists. Anthony Grooms, Edward P. Jones, Opal Moore, Francine Prose and Patricia Towers read many submissions this year, but “Swift River” was the consensus winner. 

Moore, a poet and retired literature professor from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, says “Swift River” resonated with her because of the three interlocking stories told through letters and flashbacks. 

“You have these women talking across time, and that’s such a great subject because, no matter what we do, it’s very difficult for many people to take their imagination beyond the era that they’re living in,” Moore said. “I felt like that was a really powerful way to talk about how women find each other — how younger women find these stories of older women. Their story seems so remote until you live with them for a moment.”

Moore also appreciated how the characters in “Swift River” represented the ways Black people came through time, working toward things for upcoming generations, but those sacrifices and stories often aren’t seen by the descendants.

She noted that Chambers captured the important work that is necessary in figuring out who came before us.

Another appeal of “Swift River” was the engaging storytelling. Moore says the storytelling has many doors for people to enter into it — through a love story, a mother/daughter relationship, a search for racial identity or a journey to discover your heritage.

Moore will facilitate the conversation with Chambers at the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence presentation on Oct. 21 at the Manship Theatre. 

For more information, visit ernestjgainesaward.org.