Hurston/Wright Legacy Award

The Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards program in the United States honors published Black writers worldwide for literary achievement. Introduced in 2001, the Legacy Award was the first national award presented to Black writers by a national organization of Black writers. ^{[1] [2]} It is granted for fiction, nonfiction and poetry, selected in a juried competition. ^[3]

Each fall, writers and publishers are invited to submit fiction, nonfiction and poetry books published that year. Panels of acclaimed writers serve as judges to select nominees, finalists and winners. A number of merit awards are also presented. ^[4] Nominees are honored at the Legacy Awards ceremony, held the third Friday in October. The awards ceremony is hosted and organized by the Hurston/Wright Foundation.

Merit awards

In addition to the Legacy Awards, the Hurston/Wright board of directors may present Merit awards during the annual Legacy Award ceremony.

• The North Star Award pays homage to the significance of the North Star ^[5] for enslaved Africans, who looked to it as a guide to gaining freedom in the North. It is awarded to individuals whose writing and/or service to the writing community serve as a beacon of brilliant accomplishment and as an inspiration to others.

• The Ella Baker Award, named for the heroic civil rights activist, recognizes writers and arts activists for exceptional work that advances social justice.

• The Madam C.J. Walker Award, named for the pioneering entrepreneur and philanthropist, recognizes exceptional innovation in supporting and sustaining Black literature.

Legacy Award winners

Fiction

Contemplative fiction

Contemplative fiction winners ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Ref.
2005	Tracy Price-Thompson	A Woman's Worth	[7]
2006	Clyde W. Ford	The Long Mile: The Shango Mysteries	[8]

Debut fiction

Debut fiction winners ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Ref.
2002	David Anthony Durham	Gabriel’s Story
2003	Tayari Jones	Leaving Atlanta
2004	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	Purple Hibiscus
2005	Chris Abani	GraceLand	[7]
2006	Denise Nicholas	Freshwater Road	[8]
2007	Aminatta Forna	Ancestor Stones
2008	Kwame Dawes	She's Gone
2016	Sanderia Faye	Mourner's Bench	[9]
2017	JJ Amaworo Wilson	Damnificados	[10]
2018	Ladee Hubbard	The Talented Ribkins
2020	Jeffrey Colvin	Africaville	[11]
2021	Rita Woods	Remembrance
2022	Quntos KunQuest	This Life	[12]
2023	Meron Hadero	A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times: Stories	[13] [14]

General fiction

General fiction winners ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Ref.
2002	Percival Everett	Erasure
2003	Zakes Mda	The Heart of Redness
2004	Mat Johnson	Hunting in Harlem
2005	Maryse Condé	Who Slashed Celanire's Throat?	[7]
2006	Nancy Rawles	My Jim	[8]
2007	Edward P. Jones	All Aunt Hagar's Children
2008	Junot Diaz	The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2009	Uwem Akpan	Say You're One of Them
2010	Percival Everett	I Am Not Sidney Poitier	[15] [16]
2011	Danielle Evans	Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self	[17]
2012	Helen Oyeyemi	Mr. Fox
2013	Esi Edugyan	Half-Blood Blues	[18]
2014	NoViolet Bulawayo	We Need New Names
2015	Laila Lalami	The Moor's Account	[19] [20]
2016	James Hannaham	Delicious Foods	[9]
2017	Colson Whitehead	The Underground Railroad	[10] [21]
2018	Alain Mabanckou	Black Moses
2019	Nafissa Thompson-Spires	Heads of the Colored People	[22] [23] [24]
2020	Curdella Forbes	A Tall History of Sugar	[11]
2021	Percival Everett	Telephone
2022	Percival Everett	The Trees	[12]
2023	James Hannaham	Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta	[13] [14]

Speculative fiction

Speculative fiction winners ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Ref.
2023	T. L. Huchu	Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments	[13] [14]

Nonfiction

General nonfiction

General nonfiction winners ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Ref.
2002	Ken Wiwa	In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son’s Journey to Understand His Father’s Legacy
2003	Elizabeth McHenry	Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies
2004	Wil Haygood	In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr.
2005	Alexis De Veaux	Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde	[7]
2006	John Hope Franklin	Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin	[8]
2007	Wangari Maathai	Unbowed: A Memoir
2008	Edwige Danticat	Brother, I'm Dying
2009	Frank B. Wilderson	Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid
2010	Robin Kelley	Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original	[15] [16]
2011	Isabel Wilkerson	The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration	[17]
2012	Tomiko Brown-Nagin	Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement
2013	Fredrick Harris	The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and Rise and Decline of Black Politics	[18]
2014	Craig Wilder	Ebony & Ivy
2015	Elizabeth Nunez	Not For Everyday Use	[19] [20]
2016	Pamela Newkirk	Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga	[9]
2017	Kali Nicole Gross	Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America	[10]
2018	Tiya Miles	The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits
2019	Imani Perry	May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem	[23] [24]
2020	Albert Woodfox	Solitary: My Story of Transformation and Hope	[11]
2021	Marcia Chatelain	Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America

Historical/Social/Political

Historical/Social/Political nonfiction winners ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Ref.
2022	Howard W. French	Born in Blackness	[12]
2023	Mariame Burnham	By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners	[13] [14]

Memoir/Biography

Memoir/Biography winners ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Ref.
2022	Shanna Greene Benjamin	Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay	[12]
2023	Ross Gay	Inciting Joy	[13] [14]

Poetry

Poetry winners ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Ref.
2007	Patricia Smith	Teahouse of the Almighty
2008	Kyle G. Dargan	Bouquet of Hungers
2009	Myronn Hardy	The Headless Saints
2010	Rita Dove	Sonata Mulattica: Poems	[15] [16] [25]
	Haki R. Madhubuti	Liberation Narratives: New and Collected Poems	[15] [16]
2011	Elizabeth Alexander	Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010	[17]
2012	Evie Shockley	the new black
2013	Lucille Clifton	The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965–2010	[18]
2014	Amaud Jamaul Johnson	Darktown Follies
2015	Claudia Rankine	Citizen: An American Lyric	[19] [20]
2016	Vievee Francis	Forest Primeval	[9]
2017	Donika Kelly	Bestiary	[10]
2018	Evie Shockley	Semiautomatic
2019	Terrance Hayes	American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin	[24]
2020	Ladan Osman	Exiles of Eden	[11]
2021	Rachel Eliza Griffiths	Seeing the Body
2022	Shara McCallum	No Ruined Stone	[12] [26]
2023	Courtney Faye Taylor	Concentrate	[13] [14]

Winners, finalists, and nominees

Fiction

Contemporary fiction

Contemporary fiction winners, finalists, and nominees ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Result	Ref.
2005	Tracy Price-Thompson	A Woman's Worth	Winner	[7]
	Erica Kennedy	Bling	Nominee
	Bridgett M. Davis	Shifting Through Neutral	Nominee
	David E. Talbert	Love on the Dotted Line	Nominee
2006	Clyde W. Ford	The Long Mile: The Shango Mysteries	Winner	[8]
	Benilde Little	Who Does She Think She is?	Nominee

Debut fiction

Debut fiction winners, finalists, and nominees ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Result	Ref.
2002	David Anthony Durham	Gabriel's Story	Winner
	Kuwana Haulsey	The Red Moon	Finalist
	Joyce Palmer	Greenwichtown	Finalist
	Patricia Elam	Breathing Room	Nominee
	Dana Johnson	Break Any Woman Down	Nominee
	Nichelle D. Tramble	The Dying Ground	Nominee
2003	Tayari Jones	Leaving Atlanta	Winner
	Nicole Bailey-Williams	A Little Piece Of Sky	Finalist
	Zelda Lockhart	Fifth Born	Finalist
	Donna Hemans	River Woman	Nominee
	Marc Nesbitt	Gigantic	Nominee
	Nelly Rosario	Song of the Water Saints	Nominee
2004	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	Purple Hibiscus	Winner
	Stephanie Allen	A Place Between Stations	Finalist
	April Reynolds	Knee-Deep in Wonder	Finalist
	Asha Bandele	Daughter	Nominee
	ZZ Packer	Drinking Coffee Elsewhere	Nominee
	Suzan-Lori Parks	Getting Mother's Body	Nominee
2005	Chris Abani	GraceLand	Winner	[7]
	Esi Edugyan	The Second Life of Samuel Tyne	Nominee
	Delores Phillips	The Darkest Child	Nominee
2006	Denise Nicholas	Freshwater Road	Winner	[8]
	Doreen Baingana	Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe	Nominee
	Kalisha Buckhanon	Upstate	Nominee
2007	Aminatta Forna	Ancestor Stones	Winner
	Marie-Elena John	Unburnable	Nominee
	Asali Solomon	Get Down: Stories	Nominee
2008	Kwame Dawes	She's Gone	Winner
	Ravi Howard	Like Trees, Walking	Nominee
	Nathan McCall	Them	Nominee
2016	Sanderia Faye	Mourner's Bench	Winner	[9]
	Naomi Jackson	The Star Side of Bird Hill	Nominee	[9]
	Chigozie Obioma	The Fishermen	Nominee	[9]
2017	JJ Amaworo Wilson	Damnificados	Winner	[10]
	A. Igoni Barrett	Blackass	Nominee	[27]
	Elnathan John	Born on a Tuesday	Nominee	[27]
2018	Ladee Hubbard	The Talented Ribkins	Winner
	Zinzi Clemmons	What We Lose	Nominee
	Rivers Solomon	An Unkindness of Ghosts	Nominee
2020	Jeffrey Colvin	Africaville	Winner	[11]
	Ron A. Austin	Avery Colt is a Snake, a Thief, a Liar	Nominee
	Sion Dayson	As a River	Nominee
2021	Rita Woods	Remembrance	Winner
	Tola Rotimi Abraham	Black Sunday	Nominee
	Steven Wright	The Coyotes of Carthage	Nominee
2022	Quntos KunQuest	This Life	Winner	[12]
	Khadija Abdalla Bajaber	The House of Rust	Nominee
	Sifiso Mzobe	Young Blood	Nominee
	Dawnie Walton	The Final Revival of Opal and Nev	Nominee
2023	Meron Hadero	A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times: Stories	Winner	[13] [14]
	Leila Mottley	Nightcrawling	Nominee	[28]
	Natasha Gordon-Chipembere	Finding La Negrita	Nominee	[28]

General fiction

Fiction winners, finalists, and nominees ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Result	Ref.
2002	Percival Everett	Erasure	Winner
	Maxine Clair	October Suite	Finalist
	Anthony Grooms	Bombingham	Finalist
	Bernice L. McFadden	The Warmest December	Nominee
	Reginald McKnight	He Sleeps	Nominee
	Walter Mosley	Fearless Jones	Nominee
2003	Zakes Mda	The Heart of Redness	Winner
	Victor Lavalle	The Ecstatic	Finalist
	Jewell Parker Rhodes	Douglass’ Women	Finalist
	Elizabeth Nunez	Discretion	Nominee
	Yvonne Vera	Without a Name and Under the Tongue	Nominee
	Crystal Wilkinson	Water Street	Nominee
2004	Mat Johnson	Hunting in Harlem	Winner
	Austin Clarke	The Polished Hoe	Finalist
	Caryl Phillips	A Distant Shore	Finalist
	Barbara Chase-Riboud	Hottentot Venus	Nominee
	Nalo Hopkinson	The Salt Roads	Nominee
	Edward P. Jones	The Known World	Nominee
2005	Maryse Condé	Who Slashed Celanire's Throat?	Winner	[7]
	Edwige Danticat	The Dew Breaker	Finalist
	Zakes Mda	The Madonna of Excelsior	Finalist
	Percival Everett	American Desert	Nominee
	Nuruddin Farah	Links	Nominee
	Walter Mosley	The Man in My Basement	Nominee
2006	Nancy Rawles	My Jim	Winner	[8]
	David Anthony Durham	Pride of Carthage	Finalist
	Tayari Jones	The Untelling	Finalist
	Tananarive Due	Joplin’s Ghost	Nominee
	Caryl Phillips	Dancing in the Dark	Nominee
	Martha Southgate	Third Girl from the Left	Nominee
2007	Edward P. Jones	All Aunt Hagar's Children	Winner
	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie	Half of a Yellow Sun	Finalist
	Calvin Baker	Dominion	Finalist
	Bernice L. McFadden	Nowhere is a Place	Nominee
	Kim McLarin	Jump at the Sun	Nominee
	Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o	Wizard of the Crow	Nominee
2008	Junot Diaz	The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao	Winner
	Maryse Condé	The Story of the Cannibal Woman	Finalist
	Lawrence Hill	Someone Knows My Name	Finalist
	Jan Carew	The Guyanese Wander	Nominee
	Helon Habila	Measuring Time	Nominee
	Helen Oyeyemi	The Opposite House	Nominee
2009	Uwem Akpan	Say You're One of Them	Winner
	Jeffery Renard Allen	Holding Pattern: Stories	Finalist
	Jesmyn Ward	Where the Line Bleeds	Finalist
	Breena Clarke	Stand the Storm	Nominee
	Tananarive Due	Blood Colony	Nominee
	James McBride	Song Yet Sung	Nominee
2010	Percival Everett	I Am Not Sidney Poitier	Winner	[15]
	Bernardine Evaristo	Blonde Roots	Finalist
	Colson Whitehead	Sag Harbor	Finalist
	Chielo Zona Eze	The Trial of Robert Mugabe	Nominee
	Victor Lavalle	Big Machine	Nominee
	Attica Locke	Black Water Rising	Nominee
2011	Danielle Evans	Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self	Winner	[17]
	Bernice L. McFadden	Glorious	Finalist
	Dolen Perkins-Valdez	Wench	Finalist
	Dinaw Mengestu	How to Read the Air	Nominee
	Rosalyn Story	Wading Home: A Novel of New Orleans	Nominee
	Tiphanie Yanique	How to Escape from a Leper Colony	Nominee
2012	Helen Oyeyemi	Mr. Fox	Winner
	Tayari Jones	Silver Sparrow	Finalist
	Colson Whitehead	Zone One	Finalist
	Nuruddin Farah	Crossbones	Nominee
	Danzy Senna	You Are Free	Nominee
	Jesmyn Ward	Salvage the Bones	Nominee
2013	Esi Edugyan	Half-Blood Blues	Winner	[18]
	Yvvette Edwards	A Cupboard Full of Coats	Nominee
	Dana Johnson	Elsewhere, California	Nominee
	Attica Locke	The Cutting Season	Nominee
	Ayana Mathis	The Twelve Tribes of Hattie	Nominee
	Bernice L. McFadden	Gathering of Waters	Nominee
2014	NoViolet Bulawayo	We Need New Names	Winner
	Mitchell S. Jackson	The Residue Years	Finalist
	Jamaica Kincaid	See Now Then	Finalist
	Preston L. Allen	Every Boy Should Have a Man	Nominee
	James McBride	The Good Lord Bird	Nominee
	Courttia Newland	The Gospel According to Cane	Nominee
2015	Laila Lalami	The Moor's Account	Winner	[19] [20]
	Roxane Gay	An Untamed State	Finalist
	Tiphanie Yanique	Land of Love and Drowning	Finalist
	Chris Abani	The Secret History of Las Vegas	Nominee
	Ishmael Beah	Radiance of Tomorrow	Nominee
	Nadifa Mohamed	The Orchard of Lost Souls	Nominee
2016	James Hannaham	Delicious Foods	Winner	[9]
	Angela Flournoy	The Turner House	Finalist	[9]
	Caryl Phillips	The Lost Child	Finalist	[9]
	Paul Beatty	The Sellout	Nominee	[9]
	T. Geronimo Johnson	Welcome to Braggsville	Nominee	[9]
	Chinelo Okparanta	Under the Udala Trees	Nominee	[9]
2017	Colson Whitehead	The Underground Railroad	Winner	[10] [21]
	Amina Gautier	The Loss of All Lost Things	Finalist
	Jacqueline Woodson	Another Brooklyn	Finalist
	Yvvette Edwards	The Mother	Nominee	[27]
	Bernice McFadden	The Book of Harlan	Nominee	[27]
	Zadie Smith	Swing Time	Nominee	[27]
2018	Alain Mabanckou	Black Moses	Winner
	Yewande Omotoso	The Woman Next Door	Finalist
	Jesmyn Ward	Sing, Unburied, Sing	Finalist
	Lesley Nneka Arimah	What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky	Nominee
	Ernest J. Gaines	The Tragedy of Brady Sims	Nominee
	Peter Kimani	Dance of the Jakaranda	Nominee
2019	Nafissa Thompson-Spires	Heads of the Colored People	Winner	[22] [23] [24]
	Wayétu Moore	She Would Be King	Finalist	[23]
	Jamel Brinkley	A Lucky Man	Finalist	[23]
	Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah	Friday Black	Nominee	[23]
	David Chariandy	Brother	Nominee
	Esi Edugyan	Washington Black	Nominee
2020	Curdella Forbes	A Tall History of Sugar	Winner	[11]
	Rion Amilcar Scott	The World Doesn’t Require You	Finalist
	Helen Oyeyemi	Gingerbread	Finalist
	Kalisha Buckhanon	Speaking of Summer	Nominee
	Nicole Dennis-Benn	Patsy	Nominee
	Margaret Wilkerson Sexton	The Revisioners	Nominee
2021	Percival Everett	Telephone	Winner
	Ben Okri	The Freedom Artist	Finalist
	P. Djèlí Clark	Ring Shout	Finalist
	Morgan Christie	These Bodies	Nominee
	Lauren Francis-Sharma	Book of the Little Axe	Nominee
	Alice Randall	Black Bottom Saints	Nominee
2022	Percival Everett	The Trees	Winner	[12]
	Ladee Hubbard	Rib King	Nominee
	Natashia Deon	The Perishing	Nominee
	J.J. Amaworo Wilson	Nazaré	Nominee
	Sadeqa Johnson	Yellow Wife	Nominee
	Alaya Dawn Johnson	Reconstruction: Stories	Nominee
2023	James Hannaham	Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta	Winner	[13] [14]
	Dolen Perkins-Valdez	Take My Hand	Nominee	[28]
	Dionne Irving	The Islands	Nominee	[28]
	Candice Carty-Williams	People Person	Nominee	[28]
	Jacinda Townsend	Mother Country	Nominee	[28]

Speculative fiction

Speculative fiction winners and nominees ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Result	Ref.
2023	T. L. Huchu	Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments	Winner	[13] [14]
	Tochi Onyebuchi	Goliath	Nominee	[28]
	Rita Woods	The Last Dreamwalker	Nominee	[28]

Nonfiction

General nonfiction

Nonfiction winners, finalists, and nominees ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Result	Ref.
2002	Ken Wiwa	In the Shadow of a Saint: A Son’s Journey to Understand His Father’s Legacy	Winner
	A’Lelia Bundles	On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker	Finalist
	Paul Robeson Jr.	The Undiscovered Paul Robeson: An Artist’s Journey, 1898–1939	Finalist
	Michael Datcher	Raising Fences: A Black Man’s Love Story	Nominee
	bell hooks	Salvation: Black People and Love	Nominee
	Dwight McBride	Impossible Witnesses: Truths, Abolitionism, and Slave Testimony	Nominee
2003	Elizabeth McHenry	Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies	Winner
	Karla FC Holloway	Passed On: African American Mourning Stories	Finalist
	Carole Merritt	The Herndons: An Atlanta Family	Finalist
	Lawrence Jackson	Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius	Nominee
	Leon E. Wynter	American Skin: Pop Culture, Big Business, and the End of White America	Nominee
2004	Wil Haygood	In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr.	Winner
	Lynne Duke	Mandela, Mobutu and Me	Finalist
	E. Patrick Johnson	Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity	Finalist
	Valerie Boyd	Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston	Nominee
	Susan Fales-Hill	Always Wear Joy: My Mother Bold and Beautiful	Nominee
	Regina Louise	Somebody’s Someone	Nominee
2005	Alexis De Veaux	Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde	Winner	[7]
	Debra J. Dickerson	The End of Blackness	Finalist
	Howard French	A Continent for the Taking	Finalist
	Elizabeth Alexander	The Black Interior	Nominee
	Sheryll Cashin	The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class Are Undermining the American Dream	Nominee
	Ellis Cose	Bone to Pick: Of Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Reparation and Revenge	Nominee
2006	John Hope Franklin	Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin	Winner	[8]
	Donald Bogle	Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood	Finalist
	Lisa E. Farrington	Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists	Finalist
	Mary Frances Berry	My Face is Black is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations	Nominee
	Dwight A. McBride	Why I Hate Abercrombie & Fitch: Essays on Race and Sexuality	Nominee
	Cheryl A. Wall	Worrying the Line: Black Women Writers, Lineage, and Literary Tradition	Nominee
2007	Wangari Maathai	Unbowed: A Memoir	Winner
	Louis Chude-Sokei	The Last 'Darky': Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora	Finalist
	Kym Ragusa	The Skin Between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty, and Belonging	Finalist
	Christopher John Farley	Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley	Nominee
	Karla F.C. Holloway	BookMarks: Reading in Black and White	Nominee
	Walter C. Rucker	The River Flows On: Black Resistance, Culture, and Identity Formation in Early America	Nominee
	Quincy Troupe	The Architecture of Language	Nominee
2008	Edwige Danticat	Brother, I'm Dying	Winner
	Sylviane A. Diouf	Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America	Finalist
	Sherrilyn Ifill	On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-first Century	Finalist
	Ayaan Hirsi Ali	Infidel	Nominee
	Jabari Asim	The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why	Nominee
	Gerald Horne	The Deepest South: The United States, Brazil and the African Slave Trade	Nominee
2009	Frank B. Wilderson	Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid	Winner
	Ta-Nehisi Coates	The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood	Finalist
	Paula J. Giddings	Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching	Finalist
	Sheryll Cashin	The Agitator’s Daughter: A Memoir of Four Generations of One Extraordinary African- American Family	Nominee
	Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina	Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth- Century Family Moved Out of Slavery and into Legend	Nominee
	Marcus Reeves	Somebody Scream: Rap Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power	Nominee
2010	Robin Kelley	Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original	Winner	[15] [16]
	Betty DeRamus	Freedom by Any Means: True Stories of Cunning and Courage on the Underground Railroad	Finalist
	Wil Haygood	Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson	Finalist
	Gwen Ifill	The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama	Nominee
	James A. Miller	Remembering Scottsboro: The Legacy of an Infamous Trial	Nominee
	William Julius Wilson	More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City	Nominee
2011	Isabel Wilkerson	The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration	Winner	[17]
	Lawrence Jackson	The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics, 1934-1960	Finalist
	Rawn James Jr.	Root and Branch: Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and the Struggle to End Segregation	Finalist
	Tom Burrell	Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority	Nominee
	Thomas Chatterton Williams	Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture	Nominee
	Keith Gilyard	John Oliver Killens: A Life of Black Literary Activism	Nominee
2012	Tomiko Brown-Nagin	Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement	Winner
	Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts	Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America	Finalist
	Binyavanga Wainaina	One Day I Will Write About This Place	Finalist
	Melissa V. Harris-Perry	Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America	Nominee
	Mark Whitaker	My Long Trip Home: A Family Memoir	Nominee
2013	Fredrick Harris	The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and Rise and Decline of Black Politics	Winner	[18]
	Chinua Achebe	There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra	Nominee
	Natalie Hopkinson	Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City	Nominee
	Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot	Exit: The Endings That Set Us Free	Nominee
	Ashraf H. A. Rushdy	American Lynching	Nominee
	Heather Andrea Williams	Help Me To Find My People: The African American Search for Family Lost in Slavery	Nominee
2014	Craig Wilder	Ebony & Ivory	Winner
	Stanley Crouch	Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker	Finalist
	Jesmyn Ward	Men We Reaped	Finalist
	Sheri Booker	Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home	Nominee
	William P. Jones	The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights	Nominee
	Emily Raboteau	Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora	Nominee
2015	Elizabeth Nunez	Not For Everyday Use	Winner	[19] [20]
	Charles M. Blow	Fire Shut Up in My Bones	Finalist
	Charles E. Cobb, Jr.	This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible	Finalist
	Danielle Allen	Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality	Nominee
	Saladin Ambar	Malcolm X at Oxford Union	Nominee
	Bob Herbert	Losing Our Way	Nominee
2016	Pamela Newkirk	Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga	Winner	[9]
	Elizabeth Alexander	The Light of the World	Finalist	[9]
	Gerald Horne	Confronting Black Jacobins: The United States, the Haitian Revolution, and the Origins of the Dominican Republic	Finalist	[9]
	Ron Stodghill	Where Everybody Looks Like Me: At the Crossroads of America's Black Colleges and Culture	Nominee	[9]
	Harriet A. Washington	Infectious Madness: The Surprising Science of How We Catch Mental Illness	Nominee	[9]
	D. Watkins	The Beast Side: Living and Dying While Black in America	Nominee	[9]
2017	Kali Nicole Gross	Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America	Winner	[10]
	Alondra Nelson	The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, And Reconciliation After the Genome	Finalist
	Christina Sharpe	In The Wake: On Blackness and Being	Finalist
	Patricia Bell-Scott	The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice	Nominee	[27]
	Ibram X. Kendi	Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America	Nominee	[27]
	Gary Younge	Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives	Nominee	[27]
2018	Tiya Miles	The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits	Winner
	Noliwe Rooks	Cutting School: Privatization, Segregation, and the End of Public Education	Finalist
	Michael W. Twitty	The Cooking Gene: A Journey through African American Culinary History in the Old South	Finalist
	Danielle Allen	Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.	Nominee
	Sheryll Cashin	Loving: Interracial Intimacy in America and the Threat to White Supremacy	Nominee
	Camille T. Dungy	Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History	Nominee
2019	Imani Perry	May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem	Winner	[23] [24]
	Stephen L. Carter	Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster	Finalist
	Brittney Cooper	Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower	Finalist	[23]
	Wil Haygood	Tigerland: 1968-1969 A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing	Nominee
	Kiese Laymon	Heavy: An American Memoir	Nominee	[23]
	Jeffrey C. Stewart	The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke	Nominee
2020	Albert Woodfox	Solitary: My Story of Transformation and Hope	Winner	[11]
	Clyde Ford	Think Black: A Memoir	Finalist
	Saidiya Hartman	Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals	Finalist
	Ben Crump	Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People	Nominee
	Dani McClain	We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood	Nominee
	Damon Young	What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays	Nominee
2021	Marcia Chatelain	Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America	Winner
	Vincent Brown	Tacky's Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War	Finalist
	Deirdre Mask	The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power	Finalist
	Ijeoma Oluo	Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America	Nominee
	Ainissa Ramirez	The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another	Nominee
	Natasha Trethewey	Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir	Nominee

Historical/Social/Political Nonfiction

Historical/Social/Political Nonfiction winners and nominees ^[6]

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
2022	Howard W. French	Born in Blackness	Winner	[12]
	Daphne Brooks	Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound	Nominee
	Mariame Kaba	We Do This Till We Free Us	Nominee
2023	Mariame Burnham	By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners	Winner	[13] [14]
	Robert O’Meally	Antagonistic Cooperation: Jazz, Collage, Fiction, and the Shaping of African American Culture	Nominee	[28]
	Caleb Gayle	We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power	Nominee	[28]
	Winston James	Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik	Nominee	[28]

Memoir/Biography

Memoir/Biography winners and nominees ^[6]

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
2022	Shanna Greene Benjamin	Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay	Winner	[12]
	Farah Jasmine Griffin	Read Until You Understand	Nominee
	Marlon Peterson	Bird Uncaged	Nominee
2023	Ross Gay	Inciting Joy	Winner	[13] [14]
	Taylor Harris	This Boy We Made	Nominee	[28]
	D. Watkins	Black Boy Smile	Nominee	[28]
	Harrison Mooney	Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery	Nominee	[28]

Poetry

Poetry winners, finalists, and nominees ^[6]

Year	Author	Work	Result	Ref.
2007	Patricia Smith	Teahouse of the Almighty	Winner
	Terrance Hayes	Wind in a Box	Finalist
	Quincy Troupe	The Architecture of Language	Finalist
2008	Kyle G. Dargan	Bouquet of Hungers	Winner
	Remica L. Bingham	Conversion	Nominee
	A. Van Jordan	Quantum Lyrics	Nominee
2009	Myronn Hardy	The Headless Saints	Winner
	Jericho Brown	Please	Nominee
	Yusef Komunyakaa	Warhorses	Nominee
2010	Rita Dove	Sonata Mulattica: Poems	Winner	[15] [25]
	Haki R. Madhubuti	Liberation Narratives: New and Collected Poems	Winner	[15]
	Samiya Bashir	Gospel	Nominee
	Mitchell L. H. Douglas	Cooling Board: A Long-Playing Poem	Nominee
2011	Elizabeth Alexander	Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010	Winner	[17]
	Terrance Hayes	Lighthead	Nominee
	Thomas Sayers Ellis	Skin, Inc: Identity Repair Poems	Nominee
2012	Evie Shockley	the new black	Winner
	Aracelis Girmay	Kingdom Animalia	Nominee
	Tracy K. Smith	Life on Mars	Nominee
2013	Lucille Clifton	The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010	Winner	[18]
	Lillian-Yvonne Bertram	But a Storm is Blowing from Paradise	Nominee
	Monica Hand	me and Nina	Nominee
2014	Amaud Jamaul Johnson	Darktown Follies	Winner
	Yona Harvey	Hemming the Water	Finalist
	A. Van Jordan	The Cineaste: Poems	Finalist
	Remica L. Bingham	What We Ask of Flesh	Nominee
	Adrian Matejka	The Big Smoke	Nominee
	Carl Phillips	Silverchest	Nominee
2015	Claudia Rankine	Citizen: An American Lyric	Winner	[19] [20]
	Geffrey Davis	Revising the Storm	Finalist
	Roger Reeves	King Me	Finalist
	Brian Gilmore	We Don't Know Any Gangsters	Nominee
	Gregory Pardlo	Digest	Nominee
	Willie Perdomo	The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon	Nominee
2016	Vievee Francis	Forest Primeval	Winner	[9]
	Kyle Dargan	Honest Engine	Finalist	[9]
	Ross Gay	Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude	Finalist	[9]
	Robin Coste Lewis	Voyage of the Sable Venus	Nominee	[9]
	Terrance Hayes	How to Be Drawn	Nominee	[9]
	Angela Jackson	It Seems Like a Mighty Long Time	Nominee	[9]
2017	Donika Kelly	Bestiary	Winner	[10]
	francine j. harris	play dead	Finalist
	Phillip B. Williams	Thief in the Interior	Finalist
	Ruth Ellen Kocher	Third Voice	Nominee	[27]
	Sjohnna McCray	Rapture	Nominee	[27]
	Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib	The Crown Ain't Worth Much	Nominee	[27]
2018	Evie Shockley	Semiautomatic	Winner
	Nicole Sealey	Ordinary Beast	Finalist
	Patricia Smith	Incendiary Art	Finalist
	Kwame Dawes	City of Bones	Nominee
	Camille T. Dungy	Trophic Cascade	Nominee
	Shane McCrae	In the Language of My Captor	Nominee
2019	Terrance Hayes	American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin	Winner	[24]
	Kwoya Fagin Maples	Mend	Finalist	[23]
	Asiya Wadud	Crosslight for Youngbird	Finalist	[23]
	Chanda Feldman	Approaching the Fields	Nominee	[23]
	Monica A. Hand	DiVida	Nominee
	Marcus Jackson	Pardon My Heart	Nominee
2020	Ladan Osman	Exiles of Eden	Winner	[11]
	t’ai freedom ford	& More Black	Finalist
	Asiya Wadud	Syncope	Finalist
	Geffrey Davis	Night Angler	Nominee
	Eve L. Ewing	1919	Nominee
	Alison Rollins	Library of Small Catastrophes	Nominee
2021	Rachel Eliza Griffiths	Seeing the Body	Winner
	Tommye Blount	Fantasia for the Man in Blue	Finalist
	Carl Phillips	Pale Colors in a Tall Field	Finalist
	Erica Hunt	Jump the Clock	Nominee
	John Murillo	Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry	Nominee
	Kiki Petrosino	White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia	Nominee
2022	Shara McCallum	No Ruined Stone	Winner	[12] [26]
	Mahogany L. Browne	I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love	Nominee
	Teri Ellen Cross Davis	More Perfect Union	Nominee
	Clemonce Heard	Tragic City	Nominee
	Douglas Kearney	Sho	Nominee
	Yusef Komunyakaa	Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth	Nominee
2023	Courtney Faye Taylor	Concentrate	Winner	[13] [14]
	Cheryl Boyce Taylor	We Are Not Wearing Helmets	Nominee	[28]
	Robin Coste Lewis	To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness	Nominee	[28]
	Renee Gladman	Plans for Sentences	Nominee	[28]
	Isaiah A. Hines	Null Landing	Nominee	[28]
	Roger Reeves	Best Barbarian	Nominee	[28]

References

1. "Hurston/Wright Legacy Award" Archived December 26, 2017, at the Wayback Machine , Hurston/Wright Foundation.
2. "Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Awards 2018 nominees announced" Archived July 24, 2018, at the Wayback Machine , James Murua's Literature Blog, July 4, 2018.
3. "Hurston/Wright Foundation | Hurston/Wright Legacy Award". Hurston/Wright Foundation . Archived from the original on December 26, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
4. "Merit Awards" Archived July 23, 2018, at the Wayback Machine , Hurston Wright Foundation.
5. "North Star to Freedom (U.S. National Park Service)". National Park Service . Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
6. "The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award". African American Literature Book Club . Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
7. "Hurston/Wright Legacies for the Year". Shelf Awareness . November 4, 2005. Archived from the original on December 9, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
8. "Awards: Goncourt, Hurston/Wright, Thurber". Shelf Awareness . November 7, 2006. Archived from the original on October 1, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
9. Lehmann, Bruch (October 25, 2016). "Professor Vievee Francis' 'Forest Primeval' wins Hurston/Wright Legacy Award". Dartmouth University . Retrieved April 29, 2024.
10. "Awards: Hurston/Wright Legacy; World Fantasy; FT/McKinsey Business Book". Shelf Awareness . November 7, 2017. Archived from the original on November 29, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
11. Saka, Rasheeda (October 19, 2020). "Here are the 2020 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award winners". Literary Hub . Archived from the original on September 29, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
12. "Shara McCallum wins the 2022 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry". Peepal Tree Press . October 28, 2022. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
13. "2023 Legacy Award Winners". Hurston/Wright Foundation . Archived from the original on April 29, 2024. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
14. "By Hands Now Known wins The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award". The Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project. October 30, 2023. Archived from the original on February 16, 2024. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
15. "Awards: Hurston/Wright Legacy Winners". Shelf Awareness . December 1, 2010. Archived from the original on October 2, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
16. Reid, Calvin (November 16, 2010). "Kelley, Everett, Dove, Madhubuti Win Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards". Publishers Weekly . Retrieved April 29, 2024.
17. "Winners Named in the Tenth Annual Hurston/Wright Legacy Lit Awards". Publishers Weekly . November 15, 2011. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
18. Brown, DeNeen L. (May 17, 2023). "At D.C. gala, Esi Edugyan, Fredrick C. Harris win Hurston/Wright Legacy awards". Washington Post . Archived from the original on August 7, 2015. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
19. "Awards: Hurston/Wright Legacy; CODE Burt; Readings". Shelf Awareness . October 27, 2015. Archived from the original on February 6, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
20. Brown, DeNeen L. (October 23, 2021). "Laila Lalami, Elizabeth Nunez, Claudia Rankine win 2015 Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards". Washington Post . Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
21. "Awards: Whiting, Stone Winners". Shelf Awareness . March 22, 2018. Archived from the original on March 26, 2022. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
22. Henderson, Amaris Janel (November 19, 2019). "English professor receives Hurston/Wright Legacy Award". Cornell University . Archived from the original on January 28, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
23. Brad and Lissa. "Celebrating the Hurston/Wright Awards | Politics and Prose Bookstore". Politics and Prose. Archived from the original on April 29, 2024. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
24. Reid, Calvin (October 22, 2019). "Thompson-Spires Wins Hurston/Wright 2019 Award for Fiction". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on March 12, 2024. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
25. Bromley, Anne (November 29, 2010). "Rita Dove Wins Hurston/Wright Legacy Award". UVA Today. University of Virginia. Archived from the original on December 4, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
26. "Shara McCallum receives Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry". Penn State University . November 9, 2022. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
27. "John Lewis, Haki Madhubuti, and Carla Hayden to Receive 2017 Legacy Awards". Hurston/Wright Foundation . Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
28. Ali-Coleman, Khadijah Z. (June 28, 2023). "2023 Legacy Awards Nominees". Hurston/Wright Foundation . Archived from the original on April 29, 2024. Retrieved April 29, 2024.

External links

• Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, official website