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.
In addition to the Legacy Awards, the Hurston/Wright board of directors may present Merit awards during the annual Legacy Award ceremony.
Year | Author | Work |
---|---|---|
2002 | David Anthony Durham | Gabriel’s Story |
2003 | Tayari Jones | Leaving Atlanta |
2004 | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Purple Hibiscus |
2005 | Chris Abani | GraceLand |
2006 | Denise Nicholas | Freshwater Road |
2007 | Aminatta Forna | Ancestor Stones |
2008 | Kwame Dawes | She's Gone |
2016 | Sanderia Faye | Mourner's Bench |
2017 | JJ Amaworo Wilson | Damnificados |
2018 | Ladee Hubbard | The Talented Ribkins |
2020 | Jeffrey Colvin | Africaville |
2021 | Rita Woods | Remembrance |
Year | Author | Work |
---|---|---|
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? |
2006 | Nancy Rawles | My Jim |
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 |
2011 | Danielle Evans | Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self |
2012 | Helen Oyeyemi | Mr. Fox |
2013 | Esi Edugyan | Half-Blood Blues |
2014 | NoViolet Bulawayo | We Need New Names |
2015 | Laila Lalami | The Moor's Account |
2016 | James Hannaham | Delicious Foods |
2017 | Colson Whitehead | The Underground Railroad |
2018 | Alain Mabanckou | Black Moses |
2019 | Nafissa Thompson-Spires | Heads of the Colored People |
2020 | Curdella Forbes | A Tall History of Sugar |
2021 | Percival Everett | Telephone |
Year | Author | Work |
---|---|---|
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 |
2006 | John Hope Franklin | Mirror to America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin |
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 |
2011 | Isabel Wilkerson | The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration |
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 |
2014 | Craig Wilder | Ebony & Ivy |
2015 | Elizabeth Nunez | Not For Everyday Use |
2016 | Pamela Newkirk | Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga |
2017 | Kali Nicole Gross | Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America |
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 |
2020 | Albert Woodfox | Solitary: My Story of Transformation and Hope |
2021 | Marcia Chatelain | Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America |
Year | Author | Work |
---|---|---|
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 |
Haki R. Madhubuti | Liberation Narratives: New and Collected Poems | |
2011 | Elizabeth Alexander | Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990–2010 |
2012 | Evie Shockley | the new black |
2013 | Lucille Clifton | The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965–2010 |
2014 | Amaud Jamaul Johnson | Darktown Follies |
2015 | Claudia Rankine | Citizen: An American Lyric |
2016 | Vievee Francis | Forest Primeval |
2017 | Donika Kelly | Bestiary |
2018 | Evie Shockley | Semiautomatic |
2019 | Terrance Hayes | American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin |
2020 | Ladan Osman | Exiles of Eden |
2021 | Rachel Eliza Griffiths | Seeing the Body |
Year | Author | Work |
---|---|---|
2005 | Tracy Price-Thompson | A Woman's Worth |
2006 | Clyde W. Ford | The Long Mile: The Shango Mysteries |
Winner:
Nominees:
Winner:
Nominees:
Winner:
Nominees:
Winner:
Nominees:
Winner:
Nominees:
Winner:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Nominees
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner:
Finalists:
Nominees:
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winners
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalist
Nominee
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Winner
Finalists
Nominees
Zora Neale Hurston was an American author, anthropologist, and documentary filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-20th-century American South and published research on hoodoo and Caribbean Vodou. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote over 50 short stories, plays, and essays.
The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "there are no categories, no nominees, and therefore no losers."
Percival Everett is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. He has described himself as 'pathologically ironic' and has played around with numerous genres such as western fiction, mysteries, thrillers, satire and philosophical fiction. His books are often satirical, aimed at exploring race and identity issues in the United States.
Laila Lalami is a Moroccan-American novelist, essayist, and professor. After earning her licence ès lettres degree in Morocco, she received a fellowship to study in the United Kingdom (UK), where she earned an MA in linguistics.
Kim McLarin is an American novelist, best known for Growing Up X: A Memoir by the Daughter of Malcolm X, co-authored with Ilyasah Shabazz, and Jump at the Sun. Her works include contemporary novels, short stories and non-fiction.
Tracy Price-Thompson is an American speaker, novelist, editor, and retired United States Army Engineer Officer. She is a decorated veteran of the Gulf War.
Jeffery Renard Allen is an American poet, essayist, short story writer and novelist. He is the author of two collections of poetry, Harbors and Spirits and Stellar Places, and four works of fiction, the novel Rails Under My Back, the story collection Holding Pattern a second novel, Song of the Shank, and his most recent book, the short story collection “Fat Time and Other Stories”. He is also the co-author with Leon Ford of “An Unspeakble Hope: Brutality, Forgiveness, and Building A Better Future for My Son”.
Doreen Baingana is a Ugandan writer. Her short story collection, Tropical Fish, won the Grace Paley Award for Short Fiction in 2003 and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for best first book, Africa Region in 2006. Stories in it were finalists for the Caine Prize in 2004 and 2005. She was a Caine Prize finalist for the third time in 2021 and has received many other awards listed below.
Esi Edugyan is a Canadian novelist. She has twice won the Giller Prize, for her novels Half-Blood Blues (2011) and Washington Black (2018).
Jesmyn Ward is an American novelist and a professor of English at Tulane University, where she holds the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship in the Humanities. She won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel Salvage the Bones and won the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction for her novel Sing, Unburied, Sing. She also received a 2012 Alex Award for the story about familial love and community in facing Hurricane Katrina. She is the only woman and only African American to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice. All of Ward's first three novels are set in the fictitious Mississippi town of Bois Sauvage. In her fourth novel, Let Us Descend, the main character Annis, perhaps inhabits an earlier Bois Sauvage when she is taken shackled from the Carolina coast and put to work on a Mississippi sugar plantation near New Orleans.
Zelda Lockhart is a contemporary African-American writer, speaker, teacher and researcher. Her latest novel is https://www.harpercollins.com/products/trinity-zelda-lockhart?variant=40902291947554 July 2023 release. She is the director of https://lavensonpressstudios.com/ and https://herstorygardenstudios.com/. Her recent books include Diamond Doris: The True Story of the World’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief by Doris Payne with Zelda Lockhart (2019), and https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Full-Length-Manuscript-Turning-Literary/dp/0978910265 (2017). She is the author of three novels: Fifth Born (2003), https://www.amazon.com/Cold-Running-Creek-Zelda-Lockhart/dp/0978910206/ref=sr_1_1?crid=81W2DY4E4FAU&keywords=cold+running+creek&qid=1683822245&s=books&sprefix=cold+running+creek%2Cstripbooks%2C96&sr=1-1 (2006), and https://www.amazon.com/Fifth-Born-II-Hundredth-Turtle/dp/0978910249 (2010). Her first novel was published to critical acclaim and was a finalist for an award—for a debut novel—from the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Foundation. Her novels emphasize the struggles, sexual trauma, and triumphs of African and Native American women historically and contemporarily. Her research focuses on inquiries into intergenerational healing and the ways creating personal experience-based literature while consuming personal experience-based literature has the potential to be emotionally, psychologically, and socially transformative for individuals. Areas of interest are Black women and girls, Native populations, people of color, LGBT individuals and financially disenfranchised people. In her position as director of LaVenson Press and Her Story Garden Studios, Lockhart seeks to create a space where women can "self-define through writing and publishing." She is currently Associate Professor of Creative Writing and African American Literature at North Carolina Central University
Agate Publishing is an independent small press book publisher based in Evanston, Illinois. The company, incorporated in 2002 with its first book published in 2003, was founded by current president Doug Seibold. At its inception, Agate was synonymous with its Bolden imprint, which published exclusively African-American literature, an interest of Seibold's and a product of his time working as executive editor for the defunct African-American publisher Noble Press.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez is an American writer, best known for her debut novel Wench: A Novel (2010), which became a bestseller.
The Moor's Account is a novel by Laila Lalami. It was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction finalist in 2015.
Bernice L. McFadden is an American novelist. She has also written humorous erotica under the pseudonym Geneva Holliday. Author of fifteen novels, she is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Men We Reaped is a memoir by the African-American writer Jesmyn Ward. The book was published by Bloomsbury in 2013. The memoir focuses on Ward's own personal history and the deaths of five Black men in her life over a four-year span between 2000 and 2004. Men We Reaped won the Heartland Prize for non-fiction, and was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Nonfiction.
Yvvette Edwards FRSL is a British novelist born in London, England, of Caribbean heritage. Her first novel, A Cupboard Full of Coats, was published in 2011 to much acclaim and prize nominations that included the Man Booker Prize longlist and the Commonwealth Book Prize shortlist. Edwards followed this debut work five years later with The Mother (2016), a novel that "reinforces her accomplishment". She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.
Glory Edim is an American writer and entrepreneur. She is best known as the founder of the reading network Well-Read Black Girl. Edim received the 2017 Innovator's Award at the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for her work.
Marcia Chatelain is an American academic who serves as the Penn Presidential Compact Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2021, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History for her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, for which she also won the James Beard Award for Writing in 2022. Chatelain was the first black woman to win the latter award.