Dominion
A Novel
by Addie E. Citchens
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Pub Date Aug 19 2025 | Archive Date Sep 19 2025
Description
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.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
“A wise, sophisticated, and impressively crafted novel of secrets, longing, and strength.” —Angela Flournoy, author of The Wilderness
“This is one hell of a novel. Dominion is about two women who see what they want to see, until they no longer can. The storytelling is layered and beautiful and ugly at the same time, and beneath the story there is the other story about small communities and secrets and powers and how feeling like you have to live up to unspoken expectations can destroy you and everyone around you from the inside out. It captures church community and the South and the gulf between the haves and have-nots with precision and keen observations. This novel will grab you in the gut and hold you there. It’s absolutely outstanding. Once I entered this world I didn’t want to leave.” —Roxane Gay, author of Opinions
“This is the rarest and finest kind of storytelling, where both the tradition and innovation get plucked by the most audacious artistry I’ve experienced in a long, long time. You read this and see there’s literally nothing narratively Citchens can’t do with her skill, her will. We have never in our reading lives experienced such an imagination, a gumption, a breathing Mississippi, and a craftsperson this locked in at this stage of her career. My god, we are lucky.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
“In Dominion, Addie E. Citchens teaches us how ceremony works. She shows us how much it matters whose voices take center stage, which questions we ask, and whose stories we avoid. And the costs of not listening to our own voices and the prophetic wisdom of Black women and girls. Somehow Citchens worked a horror and healing into the same tightly woven work of brilliance. I laughed and cried with and even prayed over these characters. I could not stop turning the pages. And the ceremony worked. Nothing is the same now. Addie E. Citchens is a world-changing writer.” —Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde
“It’s rare that a debut author produces a work of such tenderness and ferocity, but that’s what Addie Citchens has done in her unforgettable Dominion. Rich with metaphor and thrumming power, it tells a vivid and unforgettable story of two Mississippi Black women. If Citchens didn’t exist, the South would invent her. But she does exist and our common literary soil is enriched because of it.” —Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of The American Daughters
“I loved this brilliant novel. Dominion is a must-read. Addie Citchens tackles misogyny with urgency, humor, authenticity, and unflinching honesty. Citchens has crafted an unforgettable work of art that exalts the beauty and strength of Black womanhood against the backdrop of the patriarchy. Thought-provoking and entertaining, this incandescent novel will stay with readers.”—Annell López, author of I’ll Give You a Reason
“Mississippi is a mystifying language. In Dominion, Addie E. Citchens speaks it with a dazzling tongue. The book is at once ancestral and newborn, drunk with sugary grits beauty and sobering with a Black woman’s truth. Citchens shows us that, in a world roamed by two-legged beasts whose robes are stitched with the blood and ruin of willful women, getting happy and getting free are vast contradictions.” —Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
“Looka here, Dominion is the Black-ass book we needed—from the collective storytelling to the language to the big love we have for one another. Addie E. Citchens tells stories like my aunts and uncles playing spades, toggling unexpectedly between subtlety and explosiveness, with a side of good ol’ shit-talking and a deep knowing.” —Steven Dunn, author of Potted Meat
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9780374609337 |
PRICE | $27.00 (USD) |
PAGES | 240 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews

Yet another PHENOMENAL novel for 2025. I truly don't know if I'll be able to do this book justice in this review, it's been a couple of days since I finished reading and my mind just...wow. Addie E. Citchens has crafted something truly unforgettable with Dominion, this book impacted me on such a deep level that I can't explain in words.
Dominion, a typical Southern town in Mississippi, is ruled by the Winfrey family. Reverend Winfrey is the town's prophet, revered as a king among kings, and he rules with an iron fist alongside his First Lady, Priscilla. His five sons are his legacy, and he expects greatness above all else. The greatest of them all, Wonderboy, is the next coming of Christ...supposedly. Wonderboy is the embodiment of perfection itself, sacred to the town of Dominion. This story is not told through him, though, but rather his mother and girlfriend--the two women that love him most in the world. It's through their eyes that we watch the cracks begin to show that may lead to the downfall of the men they love most. Although, there are three sides to every story....and the truth will come out eventually. What would you sacrifice to keep your loved ones safe? Would they do the same for you? Is love truly worth losing yourself and your identity?
I couldn't stop myself from reading this entire book in one day. I was stuck watching in horror as the drama unfolded, my stomach churning and my brow furrowed. Citchens weaves in so many pertinent social issues into this story, and refuses to shy away from the grotesque truth. Systemic racism, toxic masculinity, evangelicalism, and the other ropes that bind us in fear and oppression. Dominion is absolute and unyielding.
If you're going to read ANY of my recommendations this year, let it be this novel. Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest feedback!
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