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
17 Books Honored by the Hurston/Wright Foundation in 2015
Winner - Fiction
The Moor’s Account
by Laila Lalami
- Selected for 1 Book Club’s Reading List
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2015)
- 2015 American Book Award
- A New York Times Notable Book for 2014
Vintage Books (Aug 18, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 336 pages
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Winner - Nonfiction
Not for Everyday Use: A Memoir
by Elizabeth Nunez
List Price: $15.95Akashic Books (Apr 01, 2014)
Fiction, Paperback, 256 pages
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Winner - Poetry
Citizen: An American Lyric
by Claudia Rankine
16-time National Bestseller, Poetry
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Poetry
- A 2023 National Bestselling Book - Poetry
- NYT Best Book of the 21st Century
- A Top 10 Book in the “Poetry Books of the 21st Century” Category
- 2 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2015)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- A New York Times Notable Book for 2015
Graywolf Press (Oct 07, 2014)
Poetry, Paperback, 160 pages
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Finalist - Fiction
An Untamed State
by Roxane Gay
- 2 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 2 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- 1 Time Power List Bestselling Book
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2015)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Grove Press (May 06, 2014)
Fiction, Paperback, 368 pages
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Finalist - Fiction
Land Of Love And Drowning
by Tiphanie Yanique
List Price: $27.95Knopf (Jul 10, 2014)
Fiction, Hardcover, 368 pages
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Finalist - Nonfiction
Fire Shut Up In My Bones
by Charles M. Blow
- 2 Time Power List Bestselling Book
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2015)
- A New York Times Notable Book for 2014
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Sep 23, 2014)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 240 pages
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Finalist - Poetry
King Me
by Roger Reeves
List Price: $15.00Copper Canyon Press (Nov 19, 2013)
Poetry, Paperback, 72 pages
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Finalist - Poetry
Revising the Storm (A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America)
by Geffrey Davis
List Price: $16.00BOA Editions (Apr 01, 2014)
Poetry, Paperback, 96 pages
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Nominee - Fiction
The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel
by Chris Abani
List Price: $16.00Penguin Group USA (Jan 07, 2014)
Fiction, Paperback, 336 pages
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Nominee - Fiction
Radiance Of Tomorrow
by Ishmael Beah
List Price: $25.00Sarah Crichton Books (Jan 07, 2014)
Fiction, Hardcover, 256 pages
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Nominee - Fiction
The Orchard of Lost Souls: A Novel
by Nadifa Mohamed
List Price: $17.00Picador (Jun 16, 2015)
Fiction, Paperback, 352 pages
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Nominee - Nonfiction
Malcolm X at Oxford Union: Racial Politics in a Global Era (Transgressing Boundaries: Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities)
by Saladin Ambar
List Price: $31.95Oxford University Press (Feb 10, 2014)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 240 pages
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Nominee - Nonfiction
Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America
by Bob Herbert
List Price: $27.95Doubleday (Oct 07, 2014)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 304 pages
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Nominee - Nonfiction
Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality
by Danielle Allen
List Price: $16.95Liveright (May 04, 2015)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 320 pages
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Nominee - Poetry
The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Poets, Penguin)
by Willie Perdomo
List Price: $18.00Penguin Group USA (Mar 25, 2014)
Poetry, Paperback, 80 pages
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Nominee - Poetry
We Didn’t Know Any Gangsters
by Brian Gilmore
Cherry Castle Publishing (Aug 31, 2014)Poetry, Paperback, 82 pages
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Nominee - Poetry
Digest (Stahlecker Selections)
by Gregory Pardlo
List Price: $15.95Four Way Books (Oct 07, 2014)
Poetry, Paperback, 84 pages
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