Wendy Welch, author of “The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap” has been nominated for the Library of Virginia's Literary Award in Non-fiction.

The Library of Virginia Literary Awards are given to outstanding Virginia authors in the areas of poetry, fiction, nonfiction (and, in the case of nonfiction, also by any author about a Virginia subject), and literary lifetime achievement.

“There’s a lot of people out there who live gentle, quiet lives,” Welch said. “To write a story about a gentle quiet life and have so many people like it is kind of indescribable.”

The book’s first printing was for 30,000 books, and a second printing was needed in six weeks. 

Past winners include Barbara Kingsolver, Annette Gordon-Reed, Debra Nystrom, Lisa Spaar, Carrie Brown, Helon Habila, Deborah Eisenberg, Wesley Hogan, Scott Nelson, Melvin Ely, James I. Robertson Jr., Charles Wright, Constance Merritt, and R. T. Smith.

Welch and her husband, Jack, run Tales of the Lonesome Pine Used Book and Café in the town of Big Stone Gap.  Published in October 2012 by St. Martin’s Press, “Little Bookstore” has been featured in Redbook, Country Woman, People, Huffington Post, Washington Post, The LA Times, and on NPR’s Weekend Edition, among other places.