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


25 Books Honored by the Hurston/Wright Foundation in 2023

Winner - Debut Fiction

A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times: Stories
by Meron Hadero

List Price: $26.00
Restless Books (Jun 28, 2022)
Fiction, Hardcover, 224 pages
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Winner - General Fiction


Winner - Historical Nonfiction


Winner - Memoir Nonfiction


Winner - Poetry


Winner - Speculative Fiction

Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments
by T. L. Huchu

List Price: $29.99
Tor Books (Apr 05, 2022)
Fiction, Hardcover, 368 pages
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Nominee - Debut Fiction


Nominee - Debut Fiction


Nominee - General Fiction


Nominee - General Fiction


Nominee - General Fiction


Nominee - General Fiction


Nominee - Historical Nonfiction

Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik
by Winston James

List Price: $37.99
Columbia University Press (Jul 12, 2022)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 384 pages
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Nominee - Historical Nonfiction

Antagonistic Cooperation: Jazz, Collage, Fiction, and the Shaping of African American Culture
by Robert G. O’Meally

List Price: $35.99
Columbia University Press (Mar 15, 2022)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 280 pages
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Nominee - Historical Nonfiction

We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power
by Caleb Gayle

List Price: $18.00
Riverhead Books (Jun 06, 2023)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 272 pages
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Nominee - Memoir Nonfiction

Black Boy Smile: A Memoir in Moments
by D. Watkins

List Price: $27.00
Legacy Lit (May 17, 2022)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 280 pages
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Nominee - Memoir Nonfiction

Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery
by Harrison Mooney

List Price: $18.95
Truth to Power (Sep 20, 2022)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 336 pages
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Nominee - Memoir Nonfiction

This Boy We Made: A Memoir of Motherhood, Genetics, and Facing the Unknown
by Taylor Harris

List Price: $26.00
Catapult (Jan 11, 2022)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 272 pages
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Nominee - Poetry


Nominee - Poetry

We Are Not Wearing Helmets: Poems
by Cheryl Boyce-Taylor

List Price: $17.00
TriQuarterly Books (Feb 15, 2022)
Poetry, Paperback, 104 pages
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Nominee - Poetry


Nominee - Poetry


Nominee - Poetry

Plans for Sentences
by Renee Gladman

List Price: $55.00
Wave Books (May 03, 2022)
Poetry, Hardcover, 176 pages
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Nominee - Speculative Fiction


Nominee - Speculative Fiction