Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominees and Winning Books
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Introduced in 2001 The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award was the first national award presented to Black writers by a national organization of Black writers. In tribute to Zora Neale Hurston, the Foundation has renamed the awards for each category for Fiction, Nonfiction, Debut Fiction, and Poetry – The Zora. These awards are presented at the annual The Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards.
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.
3 Books Honored by the Hurston/Wright Foundation in 2013
Winner – Fiction
Half Blood Blues
by Esi Edugyan
List Price: $17.25
Serpent’s Tail (Feb 02, 2012)
Fiction, Paperback
ISBN: 9781846687761Publisher: Serpent’s Tail
Book Description:
This is a new part of an old story: 1930s Berlin, the threat of imprisonment and the powerful desire to make something beautiful despite the horror. Chip told us not to go out. Said, don t you boys tempt the devil. But it s been one brawl of a night, I tell you. The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymous Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. And he was black. Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero s bandmate and the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. Persuaded by his old friend Chip, Sid discovers there s more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero s fate was settled. In "Half Blood Blues", Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty and the possibility that, if you don t tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. And they just might tell it wrong
This is a new part of an old story: 1930s Berlin, the threat of imprisonment and the powerful desire to make something beautiful despite the horror. Chip told us not to go out. Said, don t you boys tempt the devil. But it s been one brawl of a night, I tell you. The aftermath of the fall of Paris, 1940. Hieronymous Falk, a rising star on the cabaret scene, was arrested in a cafe and never heard from again. He was twenty years old. He was a German citizen. And he was black. Fifty years later, Sid, Hiero s bandmate and the only witness that day, is going back to Berlin. Persuaded by his old friend Chip, Sid discovers there s more to the journey than he thought when Chip shares a mysterious letter, bringing to the surface secrets buried since Hiero s fate was settled. In "Half Blood Blues", Esi Edugyan weaves the horror of betrayal, the burden of loyalty and the possibility that, if you don t tell your story, someone else might tell it for you. And they just might tell it wrong
Winner – Nonfiction
The Price Of The Ticket: Barack Obama And The Rise And Decline Of Black Politics (Transgressing Boundaries: Studies In Black Politics And Black Communities)
List Price: $17.25
Serpent’s Tail (Feb 02, 2012)
Fiction, Paperback
ISBN: 9780199739677Publisher: Serpent’s Tail
Book Description:
The historical significance of Barack Obama s triumph in the presidential election of 2008 scarcely requires comment. Yet it contains an irony: he won a victory as an African American only by denying that he should discuss issues that target the concerns of African Americans. Obama s very success, writes Fredrick Harris, exacted a heavy cost on black politics.
In The Price of the Ticket, Harris puts Obama s career in the context of decades of black activism, showing how his election undermined the very movement that made it possible. The path to his presidency began just before passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, when black leaders began to discuss strategies to make the most of their new access to the ballot. Some argued that black voters should organize into a cohesive, independent bloc to promote both targeted and universal polices; others urged a more race-neutral approach, working together with other racial minorities as well as like-minded whites. This has been the fundamental divide within black politics ever since. At first, the gap did not seem serious. But the post-civil-rights era has accelerated a shift towards race-neutral politics. Obama made a point of distancing himself from older race-conscious black leaders, such as Jesse Jackson- and leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus-even though, as Harris shows, he owes much to Jackson s earlier campaigns for the White House. Unquestionably Obama s approach won support among whites, but Harris finds the results troublesome. The social problems targeted by an earlier generation of black politicians racial disparities in income and education, stratospheric incarceration and unemployment rates all persist, yet Obama s election, ironically, marginalized those issues, keeping them off the political agenda. Meanwhile, the civil-rights movement s militancy to attack the vestiges of racial inequality is fading.
Written by one of America s leading scholars of race and politics, The Price of the Ticket will reshape our understanding of the rise of Barack Obama and the decline of a politics dedicated to challenging racial inequality head on.
The historical significance of Barack Obama s triumph in the presidential election of 2008 scarcely requires comment. Yet it contains an irony: he won a victory as an African American only by denying that he should discuss issues that target the concerns of African Americans. Obama s very success, writes Fredrick Harris, exacted a heavy cost on black politics.
In The Price of the Ticket, Harris puts Obama s career in the context of decades of black activism, showing how his election undermined the very movement that made it possible. The path to his presidency began just before passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, when black leaders began to discuss strategies to make the most of their new access to the ballot. Some argued that black voters should organize into a cohesive, independent bloc to promote both targeted and universal polices; others urged a more race-neutral approach, working together with other racial minorities as well as like-minded whites. This has been the fundamental divide within black politics ever since. At first, the gap did not seem serious. But the post-civil-rights era has accelerated a shift towards race-neutral politics. Obama made a point of distancing himself from older race-conscious black leaders, such as Jesse Jackson- and leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus-even though, as Harris shows, he owes much to Jackson s earlier campaigns for the White House. Unquestionably Obama s approach won support among whites, but Harris finds the results troublesome. The social problems targeted by an earlier generation of black politicians racial disparities in income and education, stratospheric incarceration and unemployment rates all persist, yet Obama s election, ironically, marginalized those issues, keeping them off the political agenda. Meanwhile, the civil-rights movement s militancy to attack the vestiges of racial inequality is fading.
Written by one of America s leading scholars of race and politics, The Price of the Ticket will reshape our understanding of the rise of Barack Obama and the decline of a politics dedicated to challenging racial inequality head on.
Winner – Poetry
The Collected Poems Of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010
List Price: $17.25
Serpent’s Tail (Feb 02, 2012)
Fiction, Paperback
ISBN: 9781934414903Publisher: Serpent’s Tail
Book Description:
Winner of the 2013 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry
"The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 may be the most important book of poetry to appear in years." Publishers Weekly"All poetry readers will want to own this book; almost everything is in it." Publishers Weekly"If you only read one poetry book in 2012, The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton ought to be it." NPR"The Collected Clifton is a gift, not just for her fans but for all of us." The Washington Post"The love readers feel for Lucille Clifton both the woman and her poetry is constant and deeply felt. The lines that surface most frequently in praise of her work and her person are moving declarations of racial pride, courage, steadfastness." Toni Morrison, from the ForewordThe Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965 2010 combines all eleven of Lucille Clifton s published collections with more than fifty previously unpublished poems. The unpublished poems feature early poems from 1965 1969, a collection-in-progress titled the book of days (2008), and a poignant selection of final poems. An insightful foreword by Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison and comprehensive afterword by noted poet Kevin Young frames Clifton s lifetime body of work, providing the definitive statement about this major America poet s career.On February 13, 2010, the poetry world lost one of its most distinguished members with the passing of Lucille Clifton. In the last year of her life, she was named the first African American woman to receive the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honoring a US poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition," and was posthumously awarded the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement from the Poetry Society of America."mother-tongue: to man-kind" (from the unpublished the book of days):all that I am asking is
that you see me as something
more than a common occurrence,
more than a woman in her ordinary skin.
Winner of the 2013 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Poetry
"The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010 may be the most important book of poetry to appear in years." Publishers Weekly"All poetry readers will want to own this book; almost everything is in it." Publishers Weekly"If you only read one poetry book in 2012, The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton ought to be it." NPR"The Collected Clifton is a gift, not just for her fans but for all of us." The Washington Post"The love readers feel for Lucille Clifton both the woman and her poetry is constant and deeply felt. The lines that surface most frequently in praise of her work and her person are moving declarations of racial pride, courage, steadfastness." Toni Morrison, from the ForewordThe Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965 2010 combines all eleven of Lucille Clifton s published collections with more than fifty previously unpublished poems. The unpublished poems feature early poems from 1965 1969, a collection-in-progress titled the book of days (2008), and a poignant selection of final poems. An insightful foreword by Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison and comprehensive afterword by noted poet Kevin Young frames Clifton s lifetime body of work, providing the definitive statement about this major America poet s career.On February 13, 2010, the poetry world lost one of its most distinguished members with the passing of Lucille Clifton. In the last year of her life, she was named the first African American woman to receive the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honoring a US poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition," and was posthumously awarded the Robert Frost Medal for lifetime achievement from the Poetry Society of America."mother-tongue: to man-kind" (from the unpublished the book of days):all that I am asking is
that you see me as something
more than a common occurrence,
more than a woman in her ordinary skin.