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


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

    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


    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

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