The BCALA Literary Award Winning Books
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First presented at the Second National Conference of African American Librarians in 1994, the BCALA Literary Awards acknowledge outstanding works of fiction and nonfiction for adult audiences by African American authors.
Monetary awards are presented in the following categories: First Novelist, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Honor Book citations are also awarded in fiction and nonfiction without any accompanying monetary remuneration.
The BCALA also hosts an annual conference, the National Conference of African American Librarians.
7 Books Honored in 2010
Winner Fiction
Buying Time (Angela Evans Series No. 1)
List Price: $16.99
Goldman House Publishing (Nov 01, 2009)
Fiction, Paperback, 370 pages
ISBN: 9780981562711Publisher: Goldman House Publishing
Read Our Review of Buying Time (Angela Evans Series No. 1)
Book Description:
a deftly-plotted thriller that combines the best of Lisa Scottoline and Robert Crais. Find a comfortable chair and plan to stay up late. Highly recommended. Sheldon Siegel, N.Y. Times Bestselling Author Waverly Sloan is a down-on-his-luck lawyer. But just when hes about to hit rock bottom, he stumbles upon a business with the potential to solve all of his problems. In Waverlys new line of work, he comes to the aid of people in desperate need of cash. But theres a catch. His clients must be terminally ill and willing to sign over rights to their life insurance policies before they can collect a dime. Waverly then finds investors eager to advance them thousands of dollarsincluding a hefty brokers fee for himselfin exchange for a significant return on their investment once the clients take their last breath. The stakes get higher when Waverly brokers the policy of the cancer-stricken wife of Lawrence Erickson, a high-powered lawyer whos bucking to become the next U.S. Attorney General. When Waverlys clients start dying sooner than they should, both Waverly and Ericksonwho has some skeletons of his own to hideare unwittingly drawn into a perilous web of greed, blackmail and murder.
a deftly-plotted thriller that combines the best of Lisa Scottoline and Robert Crais. Find a comfortable chair and plan to stay up late. Highly recommended. Sheldon Siegel, N.Y. Times Bestselling Author Waverly Sloan is a down-on-his-luck lawyer. But just when hes about to hit rock bottom, he stumbles upon a business with the potential to solve all of his problems. In Waverlys new line of work, he comes to the aid of people in desperate need of cash. But theres a catch. His clients must be terminally ill and willing to sign over rights to their life insurance policies before they can collect a dime. Waverly then finds investors eager to advance them thousands of dollarsincluding a hefty brokers fee for himselfin exchange for a significant return on their investment once the clients take their last breath. The stakes get higher when Waverly brokers the policy of the cancer-stricken wife of Lawrence Erickson, a high-powered lawyer whos bucking to become the next U.S. Attorney General. When Waverlys clients start dying sooner than they should, both Waverly and Ericksonwho has some skeletons of his own to hideare unwittingly drawn into a perilous web of greed, blackmail and murder.
Winner First Novelist
My Sister’s Veil
List Price: $15.99
Xlibris (Jul 23, 2011)
Fiction, Paperback, 212 pages
ISBN: 9781436325684Publisher: Author Solutions
Book Description:
PREFACE
MY SISTERS VEIL(a poem)
Tonis Veil:
A beautiful face is never enough
To guarantee love, success, and trust.
Torn and conflicted by what they see and say
Maybe theyre right
Its better their way.
They always win,
So of course we would choose
To perpetrate a look
That will never lose.
Ill just take it to the twelfth degree
So it appears self righteously
To be me.
So bury the mirror,
And who you really see.
And bury the hatred
Of who you really be.
Then its easy to forget the grief
And promise yourself
You can become
A respectable
Thief!
Terris Veil:
Restless and young
With nothing to lose.
Thrown into your world
Unblemished, unbruised.
Ready to grow, and trust and learn,
But guns fill your hands before you discern
The value of life, community and respect
A simple way to mask your intellect.
Apprentice of self-destruction,
A king with no crown
Frustrated and confused,
By the systematic run around.
Yet a gnarly lesson awaits to prove
Its by your own hand
You win or you lose!
Tinas Veil:
Abandoned and ashamed
Afraid and unloved
I hid my pain
As innocently as a dove.
The Lord answers prayers
So invisible Ill be
cause my blllack and nappy
Embarrasses thee.
If only but
For a genuine veil,
Id lose myself
In self-medicated hell.
But no need to worry,
No need to fret
Their yaki hair and blue contacts
Are easy to get.
Spare not a dime
For value and worth
Designer labels and gold
To our pride gives birth.
So strut on high, and lively, and proud
As you die slowly
With a legacy
Broken and loud!
PREFACE
MY SISTERS VEIL(a poem)
Tonis Veil:
A beautiful face is never enough
To guarantee love, success, and trust.
Torn and conflicted by what they see and say
Maybe theyre right
Its better their way.
They always win,
So of course we would choose
To perpetrate a look
That will never lose.
Ill just take it to the twelfth degree
So it appears self righteously
To be me.
So bury the mirror,
And who you really see.
And bury the hatred
Of who you really be.
Then its easy to forget the grief
And promise yourself
You can become
A respectable
Thief!
Terris Veil:
Restless and young
With nothing to lose.
Thrown into your world
Unblemished, unbruised.
Ready to grow, and trust and learn,
But guns fill your hands before you discern
The value of life, community and respect
A simple way to mask your intellect.
Apprentice of self-destruction,
A king with no crown
Frustrated and confused,
By the systematic run around.
Yet a gnarly lesson awaits to prove
Its by your own hand
You win or you lose!
Tinas Veil:
Abandoned and ashamed
Afraid and unloved
I hid my pain
As innocently as a dove.
The Lord answers prayers
So invisible Ill be
cause my blllack and nappy
Embarrasses thee.
If only but
For a genuine veil,
Id lose myself
In self-medicated hell.
But no need to worry,
No need to fret
Their yaki hair and blue contacts
Are easy to get.
Spare not a dime
For value and worth
Designer labels and gold
To our pride gives birth.
So strut on high, and lively, and proud
As you die slowly
With a legacy
Broken and loud!
Honor Book Fiction
Sag Harbor
List Price: $18.00
Vintage (Jun 15, 2015)
Fiction, Paperback, 352 pages
ISBN: 9780307455161Publisher: Penguin Random House
Book Description:
A warm, funny, and supremely original new novel from one of the most acclaimed writers in America.
The year is 1985. Benji Cooper is one of the only black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. He spends his falls and winters going to roller-disco bar mitzvahs, playing too much Dungeons and Dragons, and trying to catch glimpses of nudity on late-night cable TV. After a tragic mishap on his first day of high schoolwhen Benji reveals his deep enthusiasm for the horror movie magazine Fangoriahis social doom is sealed for the next four years.
But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of African American professionals have built a world of their own. Because their parents come out only on weekends, he and his friends are left to their own devices for three glorious months. And although hes just as confused about this all-black refuge as he is about the white world he negotiates the rest of the year, he thinks that maybe this summer things will be different. If all goes according to plan, that is.
There will be trials and tribulations, of course. There will be complicated new handshakes to fumble through, and state-of-the-art profanity to master. He will be tested by contests big and small, by his misshapen haircut (which seems to have a will of its own), by the New Coke Tragedy of 85, and by his secret Lite FM addiction. But maybe, with a little luck, things will turn out differently this summer.
In this deeply affectionate and fiercely funny coming-of-age novel, Whiteheadusing the perpetual mortification of teenage existence and the desperate quest for reinventionlithely probes the elusive nature of identity, both personal and communal.
A warm, funny, and supremely original new novel from one of the most acclaimed writers in America.
The year is 1985. Benji Cooper is one of the only black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. He spends his falls and winters going to roller-disco bar mitzvahs, playing too much Dungeons and Dragons, and trying to catch glimpses of nudity on late-night cable TV. After a tragic mishap on his first day of high schoolwhen Benji reveals his deep enthusiasm for the horror movie magazine Fangoriahis social doom is sealed for the next four years.
But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of African American professionals have built a world of their own. Because their parents come out only on weekends, he and his friends are left to their own devices for three glorious months. And although hes just as confused about this all-black refuge as he is about the white world he negotiates the rest of the year, he thinks that maybe this summer things will be different. If all goes according to plan, that is.
There will be trials and tribulations, of course. There will be complicated new handshakes to fumble through, and state-of-the-art profanity to master. He will be tested by contests big and small, by his misshapen haircut (which seems to have a will of its own), by the New Coke Tragedy of 85, and by his secret Lite FM addiction. But maybe, with a little luck, things will turn out differently this summer.
In this deeply affectionate and fiercely funny coming-of-age novel, Whiteheadusing the perpetual mortification of teenage existence and the desperate quest for reinventionlithely probes the elusive nature of identity, both personal and communal.
Honor Book Fiction
Carried By Six
List Price: $17.95
Seaforth Press (Oct 01, 2009)
Fiction, Paperback, 294 pages
ISBN: 9781935534181Publisher: Seaforth Press
Book Description:
Returning home from his janitors job early one morning, Obie Bullockleader of a Philadelphia anti-violence groupstumbles upon a crime scene: someone has just slit the throat of a police officer. Armed with the officers recovered revolver, Obie, an Iraq war vet, corners and kills the masked assassin, who turns out to be the youngest brother of a powerful, but imprisoned drug dealer. Demands for revenge follow, sparking the fast-paced action while simultaneously examining the lives of a working-class family struggling to survive in the projects of Philadelphia. Character-based, authentic, and gripping, this novel exposes the difficulties and danger of working to rid a neighborhood of drugs and violence so that future generations can grow up safe and secure.
Returning home from his janitors job early one morning, Obie Bullockleader of a Philadelphia anti-violence groupstumbles upon a crime scene: someone has just slit the throat of a police officer. Armed with the officers recovered revolver, Obie, an Iraq war vet, corners and kills the masked assassin, who turns out to be the youngest brother of a powerful, but imprisoned drug dealer. Demands for revenge follow, sparking the fast-paced action while simultaneously examining the lives of a working-class family struggling to survive in the projects of Philadelphia. Character-based, authentic, and gripping, this novel exposes the difficulties and danger of working to rid a neighborhood of drugs and violence so that future generations can grow up safe and secure.
Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation
In Search Of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past
List Price: $27.50
Crown (Jan 27, 2009)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 448 pages
ISBN: 9780307382405Publisher: Penguin Random House
Book Description:
Unlike most white Americans who, if they are so inclined, can search their ancestral records, identifying who among their forebears was the first to set foot on this countrys shores, most African Americans, in tracing their familys past, encounter a series of daunting obstacles. Slavery was a brutally efficient nullifier of identity, willfully denying black men and women even their names. Yet, from that legacy of slavery, there have sprung generations whove struggled, thrived, and lived extraordinary lives.
For too long, African Americans family trees have been barren of branches, but, very recently, advanced genetic testing techniques, combined with archival research, have begun to fill in the gaps. Here, scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., backed by an elite team of geneticists and researchers, takes nineteen extraordinary African Americans on a once unimaginable journey, tracing family sagas through U.S. history and back to Africa.
Those whose recovered pasts collectively form an African American peoples history of the United States include celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Don Cheadle, Chris Tucker, Morgan Freeman, Tina Turner, and Quincy Jones; writers such as Maya Angelou and Bliss Broyard; leading thinkers such as Harvard divinity professor Peter Gomes, the Reverend T. D. Jakes, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot; and famous achievers such as astronaut Mae Jemison, media personality Tom Joyner, decathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Ebony and Jet publisher Linda Johnson Rice.
More than a work of history, In Search of Our Roots is a book of revelatory importance that, for the first time, brings to light the lives of ordinary men and women who, by courageous example, blazed a path for their famous descendants. For a reader, there is the stirring pleasure of witnessing long-forgotten struggles and triumphsbut theres an enduring reward as well. In accompanying the nineteen contemporary achievers on their journey into the past and meeting their remarkable forebears, we come to know ourselves.
Unlike most white Americans who, if they are so inclined, can search their ancestral records, identifying who among their forebears was the first to set foot on this countrys shores, most African Americans, in tracing their familys past, encounter a series of daunting obstacles. Slavery was a brutally efficient nullifier of identity, willfully denying black men and women even their names. Yet, from that legacy of slavery, there have sprung generations whove struggled, thrived, and lived extraordinary lives.
For too long, African Americans family trees have been barren of branches, but, very recently, advanced genetic testing techniques, combined with archival research, have begun to fill in the gaps. Here, scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., backed by an elite team of geneticists and researchers, takes nineteen extraordinary African Americans on a once unimaginable journey, tracing family sagas through U.S. history and back to Africa.
Those whose recovered pasts collectively form an African American peoples history of the United States include celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Don Cheadle, Chris Tucker, Morgan Freeman, Tina Turner, and Quincy Jones; writers such as Maya Angelou and Bliss Broyard; leading thinkers such as Harvard divinity professor Peter Gomes, the Reverend T. D. Jakes, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot; and famous achievers such as astronaut Mae Jemison, media personality Tom Joyner, decathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Ebony and Jet publisher Linda Johnson Rice.
More than a work of history, In Search of Our Roots is a book of revelatory importance that, for the first time, brings to light the lives of ordinary men and women who, by courageous example, blazed a path for their famous descendants. For a reader, there is the stirring pleasure of witnessing long-forgotten struggles and triumphsbut theres an enduring reward as well. In accompanying the nineteen contemporary achievers on their journey into the past and meeting their remarkable forebears, we come to know ourselves.
Winner Nonfiction
The Breakthrough: Politics And Race In The Age Of Obama
by Gwen Ifill
List Price: $24.95
Knopf (Jan 20, 2009)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 288 pages
ISBN: 9780385525015Publisher: Penguin Random House
Read Our Review of The Breakthrough: Politics And Race In The Age Of Obama
Book Description:
In The Breakthrough, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obamas stunning presidential victory and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.
Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama (all interviewed for this book), and also covers numerous up-and-coming figures from across the nation. Drawing on exclusive interviews with power brokers such as President Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, his son Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict, the race/ gender clash, and the "black enough" conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history.
The Breakthrough is a remarkable look at contemporary politics and an essential foundation for understanding the future of American democracy in the age of Obama.
In The Breakthrough, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obamas stunning presidential victory and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.
Ifill argues that the Black political structure formed during the Civil Rights movement is giving way to a generation of men and women who are the direct beneficiaries of the struggles of the 1960s. She offers incisive, detailed profiles of such prominent leaders as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and U.S. Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama (all interviewed for this book), and also covers numerous up-and-coming figures from across the nation. Drawing on exclusive interviews with power brokers such as President Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, his son Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., and many others, as well as her own razor-sharp observations and analysis of such issues as generational conflict, the race/ gender clash, and the "black enough" conundrum, Ifill shows why this is a pivotal moment in American history.
The Breakthrough is a remarkable look at contemporary politics and an essential foundation for understanding the future of American democracy in the age of Obama.
Honor Book Nonfiction
Freedom Struggles: African Americans and World War I
List Price: $36.00
Harvard University Press (Sep 30, 2011)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 336 pages
ISBN: 9780674062054Publisher: Harvard University Press
Book Description:
For many of the 200,000 black soldiers sent to Europe with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, encounters with French civilians and colonial African troops led them to imagine a world beyond Jim Crow. They returned home to join activists working to make that world real. In narrating the efforts of African American soldiers and activists to gain full citizenship rights as recompense for military service, Adriane Lentz-Smith illuminates how World War I mobilized a generation.Black and white soldiers clashed as much with one another as they did with external enemies. Race wars within the military and riots across the United States demonstrated the lengths to which white Americans would go to protect a carefully constructed caste system. Inspired by Woodrow Wilsons rhetoric of self-determination but battered by the harsh realities of segregation, African Americans fought their own war for democracy, from the rebellions of black draftees in French and American ports to the mutiny of Army Regulars in Houston, and from the lonely stances of stubborn individuals to organized national campaigns. African Americans abroad and at home reworked notions of nation and belonging, empire and diaspora, manhood and citizenship. By wars end, they ceased trying to earn equal rights and resolved to demand them.This beautifully written book reclaims World War I as a critical moment in the freedom struggle and places African Americans at the crossroads of social, military, and international history.
For many of the 200,000 black soldiers sent to Europe with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, encounters with French civilians and colonial African troops led them to imagine a world beyond Jim Crow. They returned home to join activists working to make that world real. In narrating the efforts of African American soldiers and activists to gain full citizenship rights as recompense for military service, Adriane Lentz-Smith illuminates how World War I mobilized a generation.Black and white soldiers clashed as much with one another as they did with external enemies. Race wars within the military and riots across the United States demonstrated the lengths to which white Americans would go to protect a carefully constructed caste system. Inspired by Woodrow Wilsons rhetoric of self-determination but battered by the harsh realities of segregation, African Americans fought their own war for democracy, from the rebellions of black draftees in French and American ports to the mutiny of Army Regulars in Houston, and from the lonely stances of stubborn individuals to organized national campaigns. African Americans abroad and at home reworked notions of nation and belonging, empire and diaspora, manhood and citizenship. By wars end, they ceased trying to earn equal rights and resolved to demand them.This beautifully written book reclaims World War I as a critical moment in the freedom struggle and places African Americans at the crossroads of social, military, and international history.
