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
21 Books Honored by the Hurston/Wright Foundation in 2022
Winner - Debut Fiction
This Life
by Quntos Kunquest
Publication Date: Jun 08, 2021
List Price: $18.00
Format: Paperback, 250 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781572842823
Imprint: Agate Bolden
Publisher: Agate Publishing, Inc
Parent Company: Agate Publishing, Inc
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Winner - Fiction
The Trees
by Percival Everett
Publication Date: Sep 21, 2021
List Price: $16.00
Format: Paperback, 288 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781644450642
Imprint: Graywolf Press
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Parent Company: Graywolf Press
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Winner - Nonfiction Historical/Social/Political
Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War
by Howard W. French
Publication Date: Oct 12, 2021
List Price: $35.00
Format: Hardcover, 512 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781631495823
Imprint: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
Parent Company: Liveright Publishing Corporation
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Winner - Nonfiction Memoir/Biography
Half in Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Nellie Y. McKay
by Shanna Greene Benjamin
Publication Date: Apr 12, 2021
List Price: $26.95
Format: Paperback, 280 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781469662534
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Parent Company: The University of North Carolina
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Winner - Poetry
No Ruined Stone
by Shara McCallum
Publication Date: Aug 10, 2021
List Price: $18.95
Format: Paperback, 100 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781948579193
Imprint: Alice James Books
Publisher: Alice James Books
Parent Company: University of Maine at Farmington
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Nominee - Debut Fiction
Young Blood
by Sifiso Mzobe
Publication Date: Apr 13, 2021
List Price: $16.95
Format: Paperback, 320 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781946395481
Imprint: Catalyst Press
Publisher: Catalyst Press
Parent Company: Catalyst Press
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Nominee - Debut Fiction
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
by Dawnie Walton
- 2 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 1 Book Club’s Reading List
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2022)
Publication Date: Mar 30, 2021
List Price: $27.00
Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781982140168
Imprint: Atria / 37 Ink
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: KKR & Co. Inc.
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Nominee - Fiction
The Rib King
by Ladee Hubbard
Publication Date: Dec 07, 2021
List Price: $16.99
Format: Paperback, 336 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780062979070
Imprint: Amistad
Publisher: HarperCollins
Parent Company: News Corp
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Nominee - Fiction
Reconstruction: Stories
by Alaya Dawn Johnson
Publication Date: Nov 10, 2020
List Price: $17.00
Format: Paperback, 256 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781618731777
Imprint: Small Beer Press
Publisher: Small Beer Press
Parent Company: Small Beer Press
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Nominee - Fiction
Nazaré
by JJ Amaworo Wilson
Publication Date: Nov 09, 2021
List Price: $24.95
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781629639208
Imprint: PM Press
Publisher: PM Press
Parent Company: PM Press
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Nominee - Fiction
The Perishing
by Natashia Deón
Publication Date: Nov 09, 2021
List Price: $26.00
Format: Hardcover, 320 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781640093027
Imprint: Counterpoint
Publisher: Counterpoint
Parent Company: Counterpoint
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Nominee - Fiction
Yellow Wife
by Sadeqa Johnson
Publication Date: Jan 12, 2021
List Price: $26.00
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9781982149109
Imprint: Simon & Schuster
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Parent Company: KKR & Co. Inc.
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Nominee - Nonfiction Historical/Social/Political
Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound
by Daphne A. Brooks
Publication Date: Feb 23, 2021
List Price: $39.95
Format: Hardcover, 608 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780674052819
Imprint: Belknap Press
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Parent Company: Harvard University
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Nominee - Nonfiction Historical/Social/Political
We Do This ’Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice
by Mariame Kaba
Publication Date: Feb 23, 2021
List Price: $16.95
Format: Paperback, 240 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781642595253
Imprint: Haymarket Books
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Parent Company: Haymarket Books
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Nominee - Nonfiction Memoir/Biography
Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature
by Farah Jasmine Griffin
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 1 Book Club’s Reading List
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2022)
Publication Date: Sep 14, 2021
List Price: $26.95
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780393651904
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Parent Company: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Nominee - Nonfiction Memoir/Biography
Bird Uncaged: An Abolitionist’s Freedom Song
by Marlon Peterson
Publication Date: Apr 13, 2021
List Price: $28.00
Format: Hardcover, 224 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9781645036517
Imprint: Bold Type Books
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Parent Company: Lagardère Group
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Nominee - Poetry
Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth: New and Selected Poems, 2001-2021
by Yusef Komunyakaa
Publication Date: Jun 14, 2022
List Price: $20.00
Format: Paperback, 288 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780374604851
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
Parent Company: Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
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Nominee - Poetry
A More Perfect Union
by Teri Ellen Cross Davis
Publication Date: Feb 10, 2021
List Price: $14.95
Format: Paperback, 74 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780814257784
Imprint: Mad Creek Books
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Parent Company: Ohio University
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Nominee - Poetry
I Remember Death by Its Proximity to What I Love
by Mahogany L. Browne
Publication Date: Sep 14, 2021
List Price: $16.00
Format: Paperback, 100 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781642595703
Imprint: Haymarket Books
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Parent Company: Haymarket Books
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Nominee - Poetry
Tragic City
by Clemonce Heard
Publication Date: Oct 10, 2021
List Price: $22.00
Format: Paperback, 128 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781934695715
Imprint: Anhinga Press
Publisher: Anhinga Press
Parent Company: Anhinga Press, Inc.
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Nominee - Poetry
Sho
by Douglas Kearney
Publication Date: Apr 06, 2021
List Price: $18.00
Format: Paperback, 104 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9781950268153
Imprint: Wave Books
Publisher: Wave Books
Parent Company: Wave Books