South Bend native Tess Gunty's 'The Rabbit Hutch' wins in the Indiana Authors Awards

INDIANAPOLIS — South Bend native Tess Gunty ’s “The Rabbit Hutch” won one of the nine awards announced Wednesday, Aug. 21 for the 2024 Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Awards .

Selected from 52 shortlisted works published in the last two years across nine categories, a press release said, the winning titles were written by a diverse collection of authors, several of whom currently live in Indiana.

Published Aug. 2, 2022, Gunty’s debut novel takes place in a fictional town modeled on South Bend , Vacca Vale, Ind., where the fictional Zorn Automobiles departed long ago, plunging the manufacturing city into “dying city” and “Rust Belt” status.

The story focuses on the residents of the La Lapinière apartments (better known as The Rabbit Hutch), an affordable housing complex, particularly Blandine Watkins, a young woman who recently aged out of foster care.

Plagued by the structures, people and places that not only failed her but actively harmed her, all Blandine wants is a true bodily escape in this novel that also delves deeply into mysticism. "The Rabbit Hutch" also explores other such themes as the foster system, an inappropriate sexual relationship, development at the expense of nature and a traumatic mother-child relationship, among others.

“The Rabbit Hutch” won the 2022 National Book Award for fiction, as well as the Waterstones debut fiction prize and the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize.

Born and raised in South Bend and an alumna of Marian High School, Gunty graduated in 2015 from the University of Notre Dame, where she won several awards for her writing. She also has a master’s degree in creative writing from New York University.

It also has been optioned for adaptation as a TV series.

After previously living in Los Angeles , she now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“The Rabbit Hutch” won in the fiction category. This year’s other winners include the following:

■ George Kalamaras ’ “To Sleep in the Horse’s Belly: My Greek Poets and the Aegean Inside Me” for poetry

■ Edward Fujawa ’s “Vanished Indianapolis” for nonfiction

■ Brittany Means ’ “Hell If We Don’t Change Our Ways” for debut

■ Rebecca McKanna ’s “Don’t Forget the Girl” for genre

■ Janna Matthies ’ “Here We Come!” for children’s

■ Maurice Broaddus ’ “Unfadeable” for middle grade

■ Kekla Magoon ’s “The Minus-One Club” for young adult

■ Jennifer Blackmer ’s “Predictor” for drama

In addition, Susan Neville won the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Tony Brewer won the Literary Champion Award.

Conferred every other year and established in 2009, the awards are supported by Glick Philanthropies and overseen by Indiana Humanities.

Each winner receives $5,000, a hand-crafted limestone-and-steel award and the opportunity to make a $500 donation to an Indiana library of their choice.

Winners also have the opportunity to participate in an annual statewide speaker program and connect with readers, teachers and students.

For more information, visit indianaauthorsawards.org .

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: South Bend native Tess Gunty's 'The Rabbit Hutch' wins in the Indiana Authors Awards