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46th NAACP Image Awards Nominees - Outstanding Literary Work


Troy

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46th NAACP Image Awards will be presented February 6, 2015
 
The Literature winner were announced Thursday, February 5, 2015, and are highlighted below.
 
Location: Pasadena Civic Auditorium 300 E. Green Street Pasadena, CA 91101
Date:  LIVE! Friday, February 6, 2014 on TV One
Red Carpet – 8/7c, Image Awards 9/8c
 
the-naacp-image-awards.jpg
 
Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction  
A Wanted WomanEric Jerome Dickey (Penguin Random House) 
An Untamed StateRoxane Gay (Grove/Atlantic – Black Cat) 
Another Woman’s Man – Shelly Ellis (Kensington Publishing Corp.) 
Momma: GoneNina Foxx (Brown Girls Publishing) 
The Prodigal SonKimberla Lawson Roby (Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group) 
 
Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction 
Bad Feminist – Roxane Gay (Harper Perennial/HarperCollins) 
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption – Bryan Stevenson (Spiegel & Grau) 
Place not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America – Sheryll Cashin (Beacon Press) 
The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act – Clay Risen (Bloomsbury Press) 
Who We Be: The Colorization of America Jeff Chang (St. Martin’s Press) 
 
Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author  
Forty AcresDwayne Alexander Smith (Atria Books) 
Queen Sugar – Natalie Baszile (Pamela Dorman Books/Penguin Random House) 
Remedy For A Broken Angel – Toni Ann Johnson (Nortia Press) 
The 16th Minute of Fame: An Insider’s Guide for Maintaining Success Beyond 15 Minutes of Fame – Darrell Miller (Dunham Books) 
Time of the Locust – Morowa Yejide (Atria Books) 
 
Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/ Auto Biography  
Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine – Louis Sullivan with David Chanoff (University of Georgia Press) 
Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling (with Great Hair) Rosie Perez (Crown Archetype) 
Life In Motion Misty Copeland (Touchstone) 
Mayor for Life – Marion Barry, Omar Tyree (Strebor Books) 
Stand Up Straight and Sing! – Jessye Norman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) 
 
Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional 
101 Scholarship Applications: What It Takes to Obtain a Debt-Free College EducationGwen Richardson (Cushcity Communications) 
10-Day Green Smoothie CleanseJ.J. Smith (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster) 
Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice System – Robbin Shipp, Nick Chiles (Agate Bolden) 
Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life – Joe Brewster, Michele Stephenson, Hilary Beard (Spiegel & Grau) 
 
Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry  
Citizen: An American Lyric Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press) 
DigestGregory Pardlo (Four Way Books) 
The New Testament – Jericho Brown (Copper Canyon Press) 
The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013?Derek Walcott, Selected by Glyn Maxwell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) 
We Didn’t Know Any Gangsters – Brian Gilmore (Cherry Castle Publishing, LLC) 
 
Outstanding Literary Work – Children  
Beautiful MoonTonya Bolden (Author), Eric Velasquez (Illustrator) (Abrams/Abrams Books for Young Readers) 
Little Melba and Her Big Trombone – Katheryn Russell-Brown (Author), Frank Morrison (Illustrator) (Lee & Low Books) 
Malcolm Little Ilyasah Shabazz (Author), AG Ford (Illustrator) (Simon & Schuster) 
Searching for Sarah RectorTonya Bolden (Abrams/Abrams Books for Young Readers) 
Dork Diaries 8: Tales From A Note-So-Happily Ever After – Rachel Renee Russell with Nikki Russell and Erin Russell (Simon & Schuster) 
 
Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens  
Because They Marched: The People’s Campaign for Voting Rights That Changed America – Russell Freedman (Holiday House) 
Brown Girl DreamingJacqueline Woodson (Nancy Paulsen Books) 
Revolution – Deborah Wiles (Scholastic Press) 
The Freedom Summer Murders – Don Mitchell (Scholastic Press) 
The Red PencilAndrea Davis Pinkney (Author), Shane Evans (Illustrator) (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) 
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There was a time I complained about the NAACP image awards; not about the award itself, but the nominees.  It seemed to be a popularity contest, which I thought marginalized the better books available, that needed more attention.  I thought the NAACP with their platform could do a better job of pulling together a list.  Here is a typical conversations from almost a decade ago.

 

But I was griping during a time when there was a LOT more attention paid to Black books.  I also have a much better understanding on why the popularity aspect of this show is important--it draws more people.  

 

In 2014, the NAACP Image Awards is our, National Book Awards, Pulitzer and Nobel all rolled into one.  Their Literary Awards are far-and-away the best thing we have going and I applaud their efforts without reservation or conditions. 

 

Also Gwen Richardson author of 101 Scholarship Applications: What It Takes to Obtain a Debt-Free College Education, is my partner on compiling the Power List Best-selling Books -- Congrats Gwen!

 

Here are the winners from previous years (I'm not sure when the literary awards started)

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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THIS   IS  THE    LITERARY  AWARDS  NOT    THE NAACP  AWARD   THAT   NBA   FORMER  OWNER DONALD  STERLING  GOT/I  WAS  GOING  TO   SUGGEST    MORE  IDIOTS  FOR  THE  NAACP AWARD,SINCE  DONALD STERLING, AND  I  BELIEVE  REPUBLICAN     CONDOLEEZA  RICE  GOT AWARDS,    MAYBE  CHARLES  BARKLEY,  HERMAN  CAIN,  DR. BEN  CARSON,,  DR.  CARSON  IS A  MEDIA WHORE,  I WAS  THINKING   HE  OWNED C-SPAN   NEWS CHANNEL,SEEMS  HE  ALWAYS   ON.....

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Harry, I hear you man, and truth be told I agree with you.  At the end of the day very few entities are celebrating the literary accomplishments of Black folks, and those that do get very little support.

 

So since the NAACP is behind the biggest Black book event in the country I will support them even if they fall short of perfection in my eyes.  I'd rather the literary awards exist than dry up like so many other platform that support our books.

 

In fact, with our support perhaps the NAACP will improve, and be free of dependency on funding from overt racists.

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I saw Roxane Gay in Tampa this past Thursday very funny woman (I'll post a cell phone video, shortly).  I'm 1/2 way through her book Bad Feminist but I gave it to my kid to read.  I just could not relate to many of the pop culture references (I simply don;t watch that many TV shows).

 

I just posted our interview with Jeff Chang (Chris you'd love this guy) He exalts Hip-Hop like none other.

Jeff-Chang.jpeg 

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I have yet to pick up any of his books because I have always felt some kind of way about the appropriation of the culture. While a lot of hip hop was influenced by Saturday morning cartoons the idea of Asians identifying with the struggle I don't buy. Like whites, when hip hop is no longer a novelty they can return to their culture and move away. The perception of who they are is not a collective identity.

Good insight and honestly I shouldn't diss the cat when my own paper chase pulled me away from literature, but I am just a bit of a hypocrite in this one.

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Hey Chris I hear you.  That sentiment is one reason I don't embrace hip-hop in the same fashion I did 25 years ago.  I watched a video of Jeff talking about the impact of Hip-Hop he was making all of your points, taking it to an even higher level.

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Folks have been complaining about the Academy failing to recognize Black people this year. Most notably, Selma failed to get a nomination for Best Actor or Best Director.  Everyone was excited about Ava DuVernay, not just being not just the first Black woman to be nominated, but the first Black women to actually WIN the "prestigious" award.

 

People also complained about a the lack of diversity (read: lack of Black people), at the National Book Awards.  Black people even ceased upon a dumb joke by the host of the National Book Awards ceremony as proof of the insensitivity of white folks.

 

This is why we have to change the way we think about the awards we give to ourselves.  We have to hold the NAACP Image Awards, for example, as high as any award we can bestow or receive.

 

But in order to accomplish this will take some major deprogramming.

 

Look, the entire culture perceives EVERYTHING we do as less worthy. That is understandable, the dominant culture always defines the standards, from beauty to art.

 

The problem is we can't continue to buy into it.  We HAVE to define our own standards and if the dominant cultures accepts it fine, if they don't that is fine too.  It is a free country, more or less.

 

Now I'm not naive enough to ignore the potential for great financial gain by winning one of the white dominated awards.  Sure the winner of an Academy Award, or a National Book Award, stands to exponentially increase their earning potential.  But again, that is because the entire culture make this so, and we fall in line with this mentality.

 

i don;t need a crystal ball to know that Selma will almost certainly win the NAACP Image Award for best picture.  Will that make any of us feel better knowing that Selma will almost certainly not win an Academy Award in the same, or any category?  

 

The answer to that question will tell you how far we have to go.

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Last night, Thursday, February 5, 2015, The 46th NAACP Image Awards announced the winners for the 45 non-televised categories at gala dinner at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium hosted by Affion Crockett and Chris Spencer.
 
The Winners From Last Night Are Highlighted Above
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