Black Caucus American Library Association Literary Awards
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 host an annual conference, the National Conference of African American Librarians.
11 Books Honored in 2025
Winner 1st Novelist Award
All We Were Promised: A Novel
by Ashton Lattimore
1-time National Bestseller, Adult Fiction (Hardcover)
List Price: $30.00Ballantine Books (Apr 02, 2024)
Fiction, Hardcover, 368 pages
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One of the Best Books of the Year: The Washington Post, NPR, She Reads
Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she’d expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she’s locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives.
Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past reappears: Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress, and she’s desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her, in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists, they soon discover that fighting for Evie’s freedom may cost them their own.
Winner Fiction
James: A Novel
by Percival Everett
14-time National Bestseller, Adult Fiction (Hardcover)
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Adult Fiction (Hardcover)
- Best Audiobook 2025: Best Literary Fiction & Classics
- 3 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2024
- 2025 BCALA Literary Award
Doubleday Books (Mar 19, 2024)
Fiction, Hardcover, 320 pages
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A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and ferociously funny, told from the enslaved Jim’s point of view. - From the "cult literary icon" (Oprah Daily), Pulitzer Prize Finalist, and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
While many narrative set pieces of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remain in place (floods and storms, stumbling across both unexpected death and unexpected treasure in the myriad stopping points along the river’s banks, encountering the scam artists posing as the Duke and Dauphin…), Jim’s agency, intelligence and compassion are shown in a radically new light.
Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a "cult literary icon" (Oprah Daily), and one of the most decorated writers of our lifetime, James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first century American literature.
Honor Book Fiction
Model Home
by Rivers Solomon
List Price: $28.00MCD (Oct 01, 2024)
Fiction, Hardcover, 304 pages
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Welcome to Rivers Solomon’s dark and wondrous Model Home, a new kind of haunted-house novel.
The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the lily-white gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. The neighbors acted nice enough, but right away bad things, scary things—the strange and the unexplainable—began to happen in their house. Maybe it was some cosmic trial, a demonic rite of passage into the upper-middle class. Whatever it was, the Maxwells, steered by their formidable mother, stayed put, unwilling to abandon their home, terrors and trauma be damned.
As adults, the siblings could finally get away from the horrors of home, leaving their parents all alone in the house. But when news of their parents’ death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to Texas with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present, and to find out what happened while they were away. It was not a “natural” death for their parents … but was it supernatural?
Rivers Solomon turns the haunted-house story on its head, unearthing the dark legacies of segregation and racism in the suburban American South. Unbridled, raw, and daring, Model Home is the story of secret histories uncovered, and of a queer family battling for their right to live, grieve, and heal amid the terrors of contemporary American life.
Honor Book Fiction
Swift River
by Essie Chambers
9-time National Bestseller, Adult Fiction (Hardcover)
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Adult Fiction (Hardcover)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2025 BCALA Literary Award
Simon & Schuster (Jun 04, 2024)
Fiction, Hardcover, 304 pages
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It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere they go. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: she’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so that they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on.
But when Diamond receives a letter from a relative she’s never met, key elements of Pop’s life are uncovered, and she is introduced to two generations of African American Newberry women, whose lives span the 20th century and reveal a much larger picture of prejudice and abandonment, of love and devotion. As pieces of their shared past become clearer, Diamond gains a sense of her place in the world and in her family. But how will what she’s learned of the past change her future?
A story of first friendships, family secrets, and finding the courage to let go, Swift River is a sensational debut about how history shapes us and heralds the arrival of a major new literary talent.
Winner Nonfiction
Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America
by Joy-Ann Reid
7-time National Bestseller, Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- 2 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 1 Book Club’s Reading List
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2025 BCALA Literary Award
Mariner Books (Feb 06, 2024)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 352 pages
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The host of MSNBC’s The ReidOut and New York Times bestselling author of The Man Who Sold America traces the extraordinary lives and legacy of civil rights icons Medgar and Myrlie Evers, situating Medgar Evers’s assassination as a catalyzing moment in American history.
Myrlie Louise Beasley met Medgar Evers on her first day of college. They fell in love at first sight, married just one year later, and Myrlie left school to focus on their growing family.
Medgar became the field secretary for the Mississippi branch of the NAACP, charged with beating back the most intractable and violent resistance to black voting rights in the country. Myrlie served as Medgar’s secretary and confidant, working hand in hand with him as they struggled against public accommodations and school segregation, lynching, violence, and sheer despair within their state’s “black belt.” They fought to desegregate the intractable University of Mississippi, organized picket lines and boycotts, despite repeated terroristic threats, including the 1962 firebombing of their home, where they lived with their three young children.
On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers became the highest profile victim of Klan-related assassination of a black civil rights leader at that time; gunned down in the couple’s driveway in Jackson. In the wake of his tragic death, Myrlie carried on their civil rights legacy; writing a book about Medgar’s fight, trying to win a congressional seat, and becoming a leader of the NAACP in her own right.
In this groundbreaking and thrilling account of two heroes of the civil rights movement, Joy-Ann Reid uses Medgar and Myrlie’s relationship as a lens through which to explore the on-the-ground work that went into winning basic rights for Black Americans, and the repercussions that still resonate today.
Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation
Afrocentric Style: A Celebration of Blackness & Identity in Pop Culture
by Shirley Neal
List Price: Amistad (Nov 26, 2024)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 272 pages
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AfroCentric Style: A Celebration of Blackness & Identity in Pop Culture is a collectible gift book brimming with more than one hundred attention-grabbing photos that highlight the Black influence in some of the most viral moments, movements, missteps, and memes that have shaped and defined mainstream pop culture. It serves as a conduit to celebrate the richness of Black expression and provide a deeper understanding and appreciation of Black history.
From Beyonce and Rihanna to Black cowboys and Black Lives Matter, author Shirley Neal breaks down the cultural conversation into three categories: FASHION, HAIR, and BEAUTY.
PART ONE: FASHION
This section begins with “Fashion Statements,” a chapter that examines how fashion serves as a vehicle for protest, social change, and social justice—from hoodies on the House floor to protest-inspired red-carpet regalia. Chapter Two highlights one designer who blends art and activism in his fashion presentations, reshaping how we think about race in America while educating the world about Black contributions to American society. “Hip to High Fashion” traces the origins and popularity of street styles that high-end luxury brands once rejected—styles championed by hip hop artists and rappers—yet now celebrate, even partnering with these cultural icons. Lastly, Patterns of Pride: African Style explores the tradition, meanings, and hidden messages behind African fabrics often unnoticed by casual fashionistas who wear them at graduations, church events, and Black history celebrations.
PART TWO: BLACK HAIR
Black hair, long considered a crowning glory in pop culture, takes center stage. The author examines how hairstyles like afros, locs, and twists have sparked conversations and controversies for years—from Angela Davis’s fro symbolizing militancy in the sixties to Colin Kaepernick’s evolving styles, from braids to curls to afro, which garnered as much attention as his “taking a knee” protest. This section untangles the myths, styles, and iconic moments tied to Black hair while exploring its connection to Black identity and its roots in natural hair culture, tracing back to the Motherland.
PART THREE: BLACK BEAUTY
This section focuses on the inspiring evolution of Black beauty queens and cover girls, while also spotlighting the many songs, videos, films, memes, and movements that encourage African Americans to embrace the shades and shapes of Blackness. These cultural moments have been both celebrated and appropriated by other cultures. Additionally, the author sheds light on the impact of messages about skin color on self-esteem, a theme that has permeated movies, TV, literature, and music for decades.
AfroCentric Style is a vibrant exploration of Black influence in pop culture, offering readers a deeper understanding of Black history, identity, and culture through stunning visuals and insightful commentary.
Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation
Handbook of Black Librarianship Third Edition
by Andrew P. Jackson, Marva L. Deloach, and Michele Fenton
Rowman & Littlefield (Dec 15, 2024)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 424 pages
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As Dr. Josey and Ms. DeLoach wrote in their introduction to the second edition of The Handbook of Black Librarianship: “In designing the second edition of The Handbook of Black Librarianship, the editors felt that this work should be a reference tool related to the various aspects of African Americans in librarianship and their work in libraries.”
That first edition covered issues faced by Black library professionals in the various fields of librarianship; organizations formed; Black library collections and books; resources and other areas of progress. The second edition, published twenty-three years later, highlighted more current events in Black librarianship: early and contemporary library organizations, vital issues, African American resources, discussions on and about librarianship, a focus on health librarianship, and information resources and education.
It has now been another twenty-two years since the last edition and time to reflect on “various aspects of African Americans” in our profession as well as the advancements over the past two and a half decades and to review those issues African Americans still face and how modern technological advancements have impacted our profession and the lives of Black librarians.
This third edition’s coverage includes:
- Pioneers and Landmark Episodes
- A Chronology of Events in Black Librarianship
- African American Forerunners in Librarianship
- Modern Day Black Library Organizations
- Vital Issues in Black Librarianship
- Library Service to Our Communities
- Library Technology and Black Librarianship
- Pearls from Our Retirees
- Issues in Diversity, Inclusion and Multiculturalism
- African Library Resources and Education
- Banned Books
- Significant Books and Periodicals for Black Collections
Honor Book Nonfiction
Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership
by Brea Baker
1-time National Bestseller, Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
List Price: $30.00One World (Jun 18, 2024)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 320 pages
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Why is less than 1% of rural land in the U.S. owned by Black people? An acclaimed writer and activist explores the impact of land theft and violent displacement on racial wealth gaps, arguing that justice stems from the literal roots of the earth.
“With heartfelt prose and unyielding honesty, Baker explores the depths of her roots and invites readers to reflect on our own.”—Donovan X. Ramsey, author of the National Book Award for Nonfiction semi-finalist When Crack Was King
To understand the contemporary racial wealth gap, we must first unpack the historic attacks on Indigenous and Black land ownership. From the moment that colonizers set foot on Virginian soil, a centuries-long war was waged, resulting in an existential dilemma: Who owns what on stolen land? Who owns what with stolen labor? To answer these questions, we must confront one of this nation’s first sins: stealing, hoarding, and commodifying the land.
Research suggests that between 1910 and 1997, Black Americans lost about 90% of their farmland. Land theft widened the racial wealth gap, privatized natural resources, and created a permanent barrier to access that should be a birthright for Black and Indigenous communities. Rooted traces the experiences of Brea Baker’s family history of devastating land loss in Kentucky and North Carolina, identifying such violence as the root of persistent inequality in this country. Ultimately, her grandparents’ commitment to Black land ownership resulted in the Bakers Acres—a haven for the family where they are sustained by the land, surrounded by love, and wholly free.
A testament to the Black farmers who dreamed of feeding, housing, and tending to their communities, Rooted bears witness to their commitment to freedom and reciprocal care for the land. By returning equity to a dispossessed people, we can heal both the land and our nation’s soul.
Honor Book Nonfiction
Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest
by Fawn Weaver
12-time National Bestseller, Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2025 BCALA Literary Award
Melcher Media (Jun 18, 2024)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 376 pages
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Embark on a captivating journey with Love & Whiskey. New York Times bestselling author Fawn Weaver unveils the hidden narrative behind one of America’s most iconic whiskey brands. This book is a vibrant exploration set in the present day, delving into the life and legacy of Nearest Green, the African American distilling genius who played a pivotal role in the creation of the whiskey that bears Jack Daniel’s name.
Set against the backdrop of Lynchburg, Tennessee, this narrative weaves together a thrilling blend of personal discovery, historical investigation, and the revelation of a story long overshadowed by time. Through extensive research, personal interviews, and the uncovering of long-buried documents, Weaver brings to light not only the remarkable bond between Nearest Green and Jack Daniel but also Daniel’s concerted efforts during his lifetime to ensure Green’s legacy would not be forgotten. This deep respect for his teacher, mentor, and friend was mirrored in Jack’s dedication to ensuring that the stories and achievements of Nearest Green’s descendants, who continued the tradition of working side by side with Jack and his descendants, would also not be forgotten.
Love & Whiskey is more than just a recounting of historical facts; it’s a live journey into the heart of storytelling, where every discovery adds a layer to the rich tapestry of American history. Weaver’s pursuit highlights the importance of acknowledging those who have shaped our cultural landscape yet remained in the shadows.
As Weaver intertwines her present-day quest with the historical threads of Green and Daniel’s lives, she not only pays homage to their legacy but also spearheads the creation of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey. This endeavor has not only brought Nearest Green’s name to the forefront of the whiskey industry but has also set new records, symbolizing a step forward in recognizing and celebrating African American contributions to the spirit world.
Love & Whiskey invites readers to witness a story of enduring friendship, resilience, and the impact of giving credit where it’s long overdue. It’s an inspiring tale of how uncovering the past can forge new paths and how the spirit of whiskey has connected lives across generations. Join Fawn Weaver on this extraordinary adventure, as she navigates through the layers of history, friendship, and the unbreakable bonds formed by the legacy of America’s native spirit, ensuring the stories of Nearest Green and his descendants live on in the heart of American culture.
Winner Poetry
Magic Enuff: Poems
by Tara M. Stringfellow
List Price: $17.00The Dial Press (Jun 25, 2024)
Poetry, Paperback, 112 pages
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Radiant poems that celebrate Black Southern womanhood and the many ways magic lives in the bonds between mothers, daughters, and sisters, from the bestselling author of Memphis.
“God can stay asleep / these women in my life are magic enuff”
An electrifying collection of poems that tells a universal tale of survival and revolution through the lens of Black femininity. Tara M. Stringfellow embraces complexity, grappling with the sometimes painful, sometimes wonderful way two conflicting things can be true at the same time. How it’s possible to have a strong voice but also feel silenced. To be loyal to things and people that betray us. To burn as hot with rage as we do with love.
Each poem asks how we can heal and sustain relationships with people, systems, and ourselves. How to reach for the kind of real love that allows for the truth of anger, disappointment, and grief. Unapologetic, unafraid, and glorious in its nuance, this collection argues that when it comes to living in our full humanity, we have—and we are—magic enough.
Honor Poetry
Room Swept Home
by Remica Bingham-Risher
Wesleyan University Press (Feb 06, 2024)
Poetry, Hardcover, 140 pages
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Intimate and sweeping poetry that examines race and lineage
Currently a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Award (2025)
Room Swept Home serves as a gloriously rendered magnifying glass into all that is held in the line between the private and public, the investigative and generative, the self and those who came before us. In a strange twist of kismet, two of Bingham-Risher’s ancestors intersect in Petersburg, Virginia, forty years before she herself is born: her paternal great-great-great grandmother, Minnie Lee Fowlkes, is interviewed for the Works Progress Administration Slave Narratives in Petersburg in 1937, and her maternal grandmother, Mary Knight, is sent to Petersburg in 1941, diagnosed with “water on the brain”—postpartum depression being an ongoing mystery—nine days after birthing her first child.
Marrying meticulous archival research with Womanist scholarship and her hallmark lyrical precision, Bingham-Risher’s latest collection treads the murky waters of race, lineage, faith, mental health, women’s rights, and the violent reckoning that inhabits the discrepancy between lived versus textbook history, asking: What do we inherit when trauma is at the core of our fractured living?
Sample Poem
XI. the more ground covered, the more liberated you became
I am scared my mind will turn on me.
I am scared I will be naked in a burning
house. I am scared my children won’t outpace me.
I am scared my children (who aren’t made by me)
believe I am a sad imitation of the others.
I am scared I will gather in a room
where everyone will ask me to remember
and when I don’t lie they’ll say I’d hate to be you.
I’ve lived long enough to be scared my kidneys
will give out on me. I’ve lived long enough to know just
when they should. I have never shared my fears
with anyone; I am scared they will map the land
and take liberties. Will the women be ashamed?
I’m scared to ask. What will live again? What will die with me?