Dominion by Citchens, Addie E.

Long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
Winner of the O. Henry Prize for "That Girl"
An Indies Introduce Pick
A Publishers Weekly Writer to Watch
A Must-Read: Literary Hub, The Millions, Garden & Gun

In this taut Southern family drama, the sins of a favorite son rock a small Mississippi town.

Reverend Sabre Winfrey, Jr., shepherd of the Seven Seals Missionary Baptist Church, believes in God, his own privilege, and enterprise. He owns the barbershop and the radio station, and generally keeps an iron hand on every aspect of society in Dominion, Mississippi. He and his wife, Priscilla, have five boys; the youngest, Emanuel, is called Wonderboy--no one sings prettier, runs as fast, or turns as many heads. But Wonderboy, his father, and all the structures in place that keep them on top are not as righteous as they seem to be. And when Wonderboy is caught off guard by an encounter with a stranger, he finds himself confronted by questions he'd never imagined. His response sends shock waves through the entire community.

Priscilla and Diamond, two women who love these men, bear witness to their charms and bear the brunt of their choices. Through their eyes and their stories, Dominion offers an intricate, intimate view of how secrets control us, how shame stifles us, how silence implicates us, and how even love plays a role in the everyday violence and casual sins of the powerful.

A brilliantly crafted Black Southern family drama told with the captivating force, humor, and tenderness carried in the hearts of these women, Addie E. Citchens's Dominion wrestles with the many brutal, sinister ways in which we are shaped by fear and patriarchy, and studies how we might yet choose to break free.

Author: Addie E. Citchens
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 08/19/2025
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.76lbs
Size: 8.49h x 5.67w x 0.94d
ISBN: 9780374609337

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 04/01/2025 pg. 1
Publishers Weekly 06/16/2025
Booklist 08/01/2025
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2025

About the Author
Addie E. Citchens was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and lives in New Orleans. A graduate of Jackson State University, she studied in the Florida State University Creative Writing Program and the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, the Oxford American's "Best of the South," Midnight & Indigo's speculative fiction anthology, and other publications. Her blues history work features prominently in Mississippi Folklife, and she has been heard on the Arts Hour on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. She was the inaugural recipient of the FSG Writer's Fellowship. Dominion is her first novel.