Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominees and Winning Books
The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award™ honors the best in Black literature. Introduced in 2001, the Legacy Award was the first national award presented to Black writers by a national organization of Black writers. Fiction, debut fiction, nonfiction, and poetry honorees are selected in a juried competition. Each October, the award winners are celebrated during the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards that draws hundreds of literary stars, readers, representatives of the publishing industry, the arts, media, politics, and academia. Learn more at the Hurston/Wright Foundation’s website
25 Books Honored by the Hurston/Wright Foundation in 2023
Winner - Debut Fiction
A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times: Stories
by Meron Hadero
Publication Date: Jun 28, 2022
List Price: $26.00
Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781632061188
Imprint: Restless Books
Publisher: Restless Books
Parent Company: Restless Books
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Winner - General Fiction
Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
by James Hannaham
- 3 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 1 Book Club’s Reading List
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2023)
Publication Date: Aug 30, 2022
List Price: $28.00
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780316285278
Imprint: Little, Brown and Company
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Parent Company: Lagardère Group
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Winner - Historical Nonfiction
By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners
by Margaret A. Burnham
Publication Date: Sep 27, 2022
List Price: $30.00
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780393867855
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Parent Company: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Winner - Memoir Nonfiction
Inciting Joy: Essays
by Ross Gay
Publication Date: Oct 25, 2022
List Price: $27.00
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781643753041
Imprint: Algonquin Books
Publisher: Workman Publishing Co., Inc.
Parent Company: Workman Publishing Co., Inc.
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Winner - Poetry
Concentrate: Poems
by Courtney Faye Taylor
Publication Date: Nov 01, 2022
List Price: $17.00
Format: Paperback, 96 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781644452103
Imprint: Graywolf Press
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Parent Company: Graywolf Press
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Winner - Speculative Fiction
Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments
by T. L. Huchu
Publication Date: Apr 05, 2022
List Price: $29.99
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781250767790
Imprint: Tor Books
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
Parent Company: Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
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Nominee - Debut Fiction
Nightcrawling
by Leila Mottley
Publication Date: Jun 07, 2022
List Price: $28.00
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780593318935
Imprint: Knopf Publishing Group
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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Nominee - Debut Fiction
Finding La Negrita
by Natasha Gordon-Chipembere
Publication Date: Sep 30, 2022
List Price: $17.99
Format: Paperback, 332 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781938841897
Imprint: Jaded Ibis Press
Publisher: Jaded Ibis Press
Parent Company: Jaded Ibis Press, LLC
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Nominee - General Fiction
Take My Hand
by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- 3 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 1 Book Club’s Reading List
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2023)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Publication Date: Apr 12, 2022
List Price: $27.00
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780593337691
Imprint: Berkley Books
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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Nominee - General Fiction
People Person
by Candice Carty-Williams
Publication Date: Sep 13, 2022
List Price: $27.99
Format: Hardcover, 336 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781501196041
Imprint: Gallery Books/Scout Press
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: KKR & Co. Inc.
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Nominee - General Fiction
Mother Country
by Jacinda Townsend
Publication Date: May 03, 2022
List Price: $17.00
Format: Paperback, 312 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781644450871
Imprint: Graywolf Press
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Parent Company: Graywolf Press
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Nominee - General Fiction
The Islands: Stories
by Dionne Irving
Publication Date: Nov 01, 2022
List Price: $16.95
Format: Paperback, 272 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781646220663
Imprint: Catapult
Publisher: Catapult
Parent Company: Catapult
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Nominee - Historical Nonfiction
Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik
by Winston James
Publication Date: Jul 12, 2022
List Price: $37.99
Format: Paperback, 384 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780231135931
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Parent Company: Columbia University
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Nominee - Historical Nonfiction
Antagonistic Cooperation: Jazz, Collage, Fiction, and the Shaping of African American Culture
by Robert G. O’Meally
Publication Date: Mar 15, 2022
List Price: $35.99
Format: Paperback, 280 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780231189194
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Parent Company: Columbia University
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Nominee - Historical Nonfiction
We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power
by Caleb Gayle
Publication Date: Jun 06, 2023
List Price: $18.00
Format: Paperback, 272 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780593329603
Imprint: Riverhead Books
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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Nominee - Memoir Nonfiction
Black Boy Smile: A Memoir in Moments
by D. Watkins
Publication Date: May 17, 2022
List Price: $27.00
Format: Hardcover, 280 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780306924002
Imprint: Legacy Lit
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Parent Company: Lagardère Group
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Nominee - Memoir Nonfiction
Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery
by Harrison Mooney
Publication Date: Sep 20, 2022
List Price: $18.95
Format: Paperback, 336 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781586423469
Imprint: Truth to Power
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Parent Company: Steerforth Press, LLC
Read a Description of Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery
Nominee - Memoir Nonfiction
This Boy We Made: A Memoir of Motherhood, Genetics, and Facing the Unknown
by Taylor Harris
Publication Date: Jan 11, 2022
List Price: $26.00
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781948226844
Imprint: Catapult
Publisher: Catapult
Parent Company: Catapult
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Nominee - Poetry
Best Barbarian: Poems
by Roger Reeves
Publication Date: Mar 22, 2022
List Price: $26.95
Format: Hardcover, 120 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780393609332
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Parent Company: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Nominee - Poetry
We Are Not Wearing Helmets: Poems
by Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
Publication Date: Feb 15, 2022
List Price: $17.00
Format: Paperback, 104 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780810144231
Imprint: TriQuarterly Books
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Parent Company: Northwestern University
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Nominee - Poetry
To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness
by Robin Coste Lewis
Publication Date: Dec 06, 2022
List Price: $35.00
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781524732585
Imprint: Knopf Publishing Group
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
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Nominee - Poetry
Null Landing
by isaiah a. hines
Publication Date: Nov 01, 2022
List Price: $14.95
Format: Paperback, 150 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781733569712
Imprint: Slope Editions
Publisher: Slope Publishing
Parent Company: Slope Publishing Inc.
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Nominee - Poetry
Plans for Sentences
by Renee Gladman
Publication Date: May 03, 2022
List Price: $55.00
Format: Hardcover, 176 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781950268597
Imprint: Wave Books
Publisher: Wave Books
Parent Company: Wave Books
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Nominee - Speculative Fiction
Goliath
by Tochi Onyebuchi
Publication Date: Jan 25, 2022
List Price: $26.99
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781250782953
Imprint: Tordotcom
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
Parent Company: Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
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Nominee - Speculative Fiction
The Last Dreamwalker
by Rita Woods
Publication Date: Sep 20, 2022
List Price: $27.99
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781250805614
Imprint: Forge
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
Parent Company: Holtzbrinck Publishing Group