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


20 Books Honored by the Hurston/Wright Foundation in 2020

Winner - Debut Fiction


Winner - Fiction

A Tall History of Sugar
by Curdella Forbes

    List Price: $28.95
    Akashic Books (Oct 01, 2019)
    Fiction, Hardcover, 368 pages
    More Info

    Winner - Nonfiction


    Winner - Poetry


    Finalist - Fiction


    Finalist - Fiction


    Finalist - Nonfiction


    Finalist - Nonfiction

    Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals
    by Saidiya Hartman

    List Price: $17.95
    W. W. Norton & Company (Jan 14, 2020)
    Nonfiction, Paperback, 464 pages
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    Finalist - Poetry

    & More Black
    by t’ai freedom ford

      List Price: $18.00
      Augury Books (Jul 01, 2019)
      Poetry, Paperback, 104 pages
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      Finalist - Poetry


      Nominee - Debut Fiction


      Nominee - Debut Fiction


      Nominee - Fiction


      Nominee - Fiction


      Nominee - Nonfiction

      Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People
      by Ben Crump

      List Price: $26.99
      Amistad (Oct 15, 2019)
      Nonfiction, Hardcover, 304 pages
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      Nominee - Nonfiction

      What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays
      by Damon Young

      List Price: $27.99
      Ecco (Mar 26, 2019)
      Nonfiction, Hardcover, 320 pages
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      Nominee - Nonfiction

      We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood
      by Dani McClain

      List Price: $26.00
      Bold Type Books (Apr 02, 2019)
      Nonfiction, Hardcover, 272 pages
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      Nominee - Poetry

      Library of Small Catastrophes
      by Alison C. Rollins

        List Price: $16.00
        Copper Canyon Press (Apr 23, 2019)
        Poetry, Paperback, 96 pages
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        Nominee - Poetry


        Nominee - Poetry