The book
"This is one hell of a novel. It’s absolutely outstanding. Once I entered this world I didn’t want to leave." ―Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist
In the town of Dominion, Mississippi, Reverend Sabre Winfrey, Jr. is more than a preacher. From his pulpit at the Seven Seals Baptist Church to the airwaves of his local radio station, he exerts influence over every aspect of society. By his side is his wife Priscilla, who types up his sermons and raises their five sons, favouring the youngest, Wonderboy.
Handsome and adored, Wonderboy is destined to carry on his father’s legacy. But, after a violent altercation with a stranger, Wonderboy’s actions send shockwaves through the community. Told through the perspectives of the women who love these two men, this Morrisonian, God-troubled novel illuminates the pervasive sins of the patriarchy, and the bargains women strike to survive them.
A vivid and unforgettable story that exalts the beauty and strength of Black womanhood, Dominion is the incandescent debut from one of America’s most exciting writers.
Finalist for the LA Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
Longlisted for the 2026 PEN/FAULKNER Award for Fiction
Longlisted for the Centre For Fiction First Novel Award
Finalist for the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction
A Must-read: People, NPR, Vulture, Literary Hub, The Millions, Goodreads
A Publishers Weekly Writer to Watch
The author
Addie E. Citchens
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 Programme 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", and other publications. Her blues history work features prominently in Mississippi Folklife, and she has been heard on The Mississippi Arts Hour on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. She was the inaugural recipient of the Farrar, Strauss and Giroux Writer's Fellowship, and her short story "That Girl" won the O. Henry Prize. Dominion is her first novel.