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 a gala 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

Africaville
by Jeffrey Colvin

Publication Date: Dec 01, 2020
List Price: $16.99
Format: Paperback
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780062913715
Imprint: Amistad
Publisher: HarperCollins
Parent Company: News Corporation

Read a Description of Africaville



Winner - Fiction

A Tall History of Sugar
by Curdella Forbes

    Publication Date: Oct 01, 2019
    List Price: $28.95
    Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
    Classification: Fiction
    ISBN13: 9781617757518
    Imprint: Akashic Books
    Publisher: Akashic Books
    Parent Company: Akashic Books

    Read a Description of A Tall History of Sugar



    Winner - Nonfiction

    Solitary
    by Albert Woodfox

    Publication Date: Dec 03, 2019
    List Price: $18.00
    Format: Paperback, 448 pages
    Classification: Nonfiction
    ISBN13: 9780802148308
    Imprint: Grove Press
    Publisher: Grove Atlantic, Inc.
    Parent Company: Grove Atlantic, Inc.

    Read a Description of Solitary



    Winner - Poetry

    Exiles of Eden
    by Ladan Osman

      Publication Date: May 07, 2019
      List Price: $16.95
      Format: Paperback, 128 pages
      Classification: Poetry
      ISBN13: 9781566895446
      Imprint: Coffee House Press
      Publisher: Coffee House Press
      Parent Company: Coffee House Press

      Read a Description of Exiles of Eden



      Finalist - Fiction

      Gingerbread: A Novel
      by Helen Oyeyemi

      Publication Date: Mar 05, 2019
      List Price: $27.00
      Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
      Classification: Fiction
      ISBN13: 9781594634659
      Imprint: Riverhead Books
      Publisher: Penguin Random House
      Parent Company: Bertelsmann

      Read a Description of Gingerbread: A Novel



      Finalist - Fiction

      The World Doesn’t Require You: Stories
      by Rion Amilcar Scott

      Publication Date: Aug 20, 2019
      List Price: $25.95
      Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
      Classification: Fiction
      ISBN13: 9781631495380
      Imprint: Liveright Publishing Corporation
      Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
      Parent Company: Liveright Publishing Corporation

      Read a Description of The World Doesn’t Require You: Stories



      Finalist - Nonfiction

      Think Black
      by Clyde W. Ford

      Publication Date: Sep 17, 2019
      List Price: $25.99
      Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
      Classification: Nonfiction
      ISBN13: 9780062890566
      Imprint: Amistad
      Publisher: HarperCollins
      Parent Company: News Corporation

      Read a Description of Think Black



      Finalist - Nonfiction

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

        Publication Date: Jan 14, 2020
        List Price: $17.95
        Format: Paperback, 464 pages
        Classification: Nonfiction
        ISBN13: 9780393357622
        Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
        Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
        Parent Company: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

        Read a Description of Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals



        Finalist - Poetry

        & More Black
        by t’ai freedom ford

          Publication Date: Jul 01, 2019
          List Price: $18.00
          Format: Paperback, 104 pages
          Classification: Poetry
          ISBN13: 9780999501214
          Imprint: Augury Books
          Publisher: Brooklyn Arts Press
          Parent Company: Brooklyn Arts Press

          Read a Description of & More Black



          Finalist - Poetry

          Syncope
          by Asiya Wadud

          Publication Date: Sep 01, 2019
          List Price: $17.00
          Format: Paperback, 80 pages
          Classification: Poetry
          ISBN13: 9781946433299
          Imprint: Ugly Duckling Presse
          Publisher: Ugly Duckling Presse
          Parent Company: Ugly Duckling Presse

          Read Our Review of Syncope


          Read a Description of Syncope



          Nominee - Debut Fiction

          Avery Colt Is a Snake, a Thief, a Liar
          by Ron A. Austin

          Publication Date: Oct 01, 2019
          List Price: $18.00
          Format: Paperback, 172 pages
          Classification: Fiction
          ISBN13: 9781732039919
          Imprint: Southeast Missouri State University Press
          Publisher: Southeast Missouri State University Press
          Parent Company: Southeast Missouri State University

          Read a Description of Avery Colt Is a Snake, a Thief, a Liar



          Nominee - Debut Fiction

          As a River
          by Sion Dayson

          Publication Date: Sep 03, 2019
          List Price: $17.99
          Format: Paperback, 218 pages
          Classification: Fiction
          ISBN13: 9781938841101
          Imprint: Jaded Ibis Press
          Publisher: Jaded Ibis Press
          Parent Company: Jaded Ibis Press, LLC

          Read a Description of As a River



          Nominee - Fiction

          Patsy
          by Nicole Dennis-Benn

          Publication Date: Jun 04, 2019
          List Price: $26.95
          Format: Hardcover, 432 pages
          Classification: Fiction
          ISBN13: 9781631495632
          Imprint: Liveright Publishing Corporation
          Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
          Parent Company: Liveright Publishing Corporation

          Read a Description of Patsy



          Nominee - Fiction

          The Revisioners
          by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

          Publication Date: Nov 05, 2019
          List Price: $25.00
          Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
          Classification: Fiction
          ISBN13: 9781640092587
          Imprint: Counterpoint
          Publisher: Counterpoint
          Parent Company: Counterpoint

          Read a Description of The Revisioners



          Nominee - Nonfiction

          Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People
          by Ben Crump

          Publication Date: Oct 15, 2019
          List Price: $26.99
          Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
          Classification: Nonfiction
          ISBN13: 9780062375094
          Imprint: Amistad
          Publisher: HarperCollins
          Parent Company: News Corporation

          Read a Description of Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People



          Nominee - Nonfiction

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

          Publication Date: Mar 26, 2019
          List Price: $27.99
          Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
          Classification: Nonfiction
          ISBN13: 9780062684301
          Imprint: Ecco
          Publisher: HarperCollins
          Parent Company: News Corporation

          Read a Description of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays



          Nominee - Nonfiction

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

          Publication Date: Apr 02, 2019
          List Price: $26.00
          Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
          Classification: Nonfiction
          ISBN13: 9781568588544
          Imprint: Bold Type Books
          Publisher: Hachette Book Group
          Parent Company: Hachette Livre

          Read a Description of We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood



          Nominee - Poetry

          Library of Small Catastrophes
          by Alison C. Rollins

            Publication Date: Apr 23, 2019
            List Price: $16.00
            Format: Paperback, 96 pages
            Classification: Poetry
            ISBN13: 9781556595394
            Imprint: Copper Canyon Press
            Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
            Parent Company: Copper Canyon Press

            Read a Description of Library of Small Catastrophes



            Nominee - Poetry

            1919
            by Eve L. Ewing

            Publication Date: Jun 04, 2019
            List Price: $36.00
            Format: Hardcover, 96 pages
            Classification: Poetry
            ISBN13: 9781608466023
            Imprint: Haymarket Books
            Publisher: Haymarket Books
            Parent Company: Haymarket Books

            Read a Description of 1919



            Nominee - Poetry

            Night Angler
            by Geffrey Davis

            Publication Date: Apr 30, 2019
            List Price: $17.00
            Format: Paperback, 112 pages
            Classification: Poetry
            ISBN13: 9781942683780
            Imprint: BOA Editions
            Publisher: BOA Editions
            Parent Company: BOA Editions Ltd.

            Read a Description of Night Angler