Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominees and Winning Books

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award 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

Publication Date: Aug 18, 2015
List Price: $15.95
Format: Paperback, 336 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780804170628
Imprint: Vintage Books
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann


Winner - Nonfiction

Not for Everyday Use: A Memoir
by Elizabeth Nunez

Publication Date: Apr 01, 2014
List Price: $15.95
Format: Paperback, 256 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781617752339
Imprint: Akashic Books
Publisher: Akashic Books
Parent Company: Akashic Books


Winner - Poetry


Finalist - Fiction

An Untamed State
by Roxane Gay

Publication Date: May 06, 2014
List Price: $16.00
Format: Paperback, 368 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780802122513
Imprint: Grove Press
Publisher: Grove Atlantic, Inc.
Parent Company: Grove Atlantic, Inc.


Finalist - Fiction

Land Of Love And Drowning
by Tiphanie Yanique

Publication Date: Jul 10, 2014
List Price: $27.95
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781594488337
Imprint: Knopf
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann


Finalist - Nonfiction

Fire Shut Up In My Bones
by Charles M. Blow

Publication Date: Sep 23, 2014
List Price: $27.00
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780544228047
Imprint: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Parent Company: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt


Finalist - Poetry

King Me
by Roger Reeves

Publication Date: Nov 19, 2013
List Price: $15.00
Format: Paperback, 72 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781556594489
Imprint: Copper Canyon Press
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
Parent Company: Copper Canyon Press


Finalist - Poetry

Revising the Storm (A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America)
by Geffrey Davis

Publication Date: Apr 01, 2014
List Price: $16.00
Format: Paperback, 96 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781938160288
Imprint: BOA Editions
Publisher: BOA Editions
Parent Company: BOA Editions Ltd.


Nominee - Fiction

The Secret History of Las Vegas: A Novel
by Chris Abani

Publication Date: Jan 07, 2014
List Price: $16.00
Format: Paperback, 336 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780143124955
Imprint: Penguin Group USA
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann


Nominee - Fiction

Radiance Of Tomorrow
by Ishmael Beah

Publication Date: Jan 07, 2014
List Price: $25.00
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780374246020
Imprint: Sarah Crichton Books
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
Parent Company: Sarah Crichton Books


Nominee - Fiction

The Orchard of Lost Souls: A Novel
by Nadifa Mohamed

Publication Date: Jun 16, 2015
List Price: $17.00
Format: Paperback, 352 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781250062369
Imprint: Picador
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
Parent Company: Holtzbrinck Publishing Group


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

Publication Date: Feb 10, 2014
List Price: $31.95
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780199975471
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Parent Company: University of Oxford


Nominee - Nonfiction

Losing Our Way: An Intimate Portrait of a Troubled America
by Bob Herbert

Publication Date: Oct 07, 2014
List Price: $27.95
Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780385528238
Imprint: Doubleday
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann


Nominee - Nonfiction

Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality
by Danielle Allen

Publication Date: May 04, 2015
List Price: $16.95
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781631490446
Imprint: Liveright
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Parent Company: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.


Nominee - Poetry

The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon (Poets, Penguin)
by Willie Perdomo

Publication Date: Mar 25, 2014
List Price: $18.00
Format: Paperback, 80 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780143125235
Imprint: Penguin Group USA
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann


Nominee - Poetry

We Didn’t Know Any Gangsters
by Brian Gilmore

Paperback Unavailable for Sale from AALBC
(Check with Amazon  )


Buy the Kindle eBook 
Borrow from Library 

Publication Date: Aug 31, 2014
List Price: Unavailable
Format: Paperback, 82 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780692273272
Imprint: Cherry Castle Publishing, LLC
Publisher: Cherry Castle Publishing, LLC
Parent Company: Cherry Castle Publishing, LLC


Nominee - Poetry

Digest (Stahlecker Selections)
by Gregory Pardlo

Publication Date: Oct 07, 2014
List Price: $15.95
Format: Paperback, 84 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781935536505
Imprint: Four Way Books
Publisher: Four Way Books
Parent Company: Four Way Books