NAACP Image Awards Winners and Nominees
The NAACP Image Awards nominates five books in nine categories for Outstanding Literature: Biography/Autobiography, Children, Debut Author, Fiction, Graphic Novel, Instructional, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Youth/Teens
37 Image Award Winning and Nominated Books for 2019
Winner - Biography/Autobiography
Becoming
by Michelle Obama
1-time National Bestseller, Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- A 2023 National Bestselling Book - Adult Nonfiction (Hardcover)
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- A 2018 Oprah Book Club Selection
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2019 BCALA Literary Award
Crown (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 400 pages
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Read Our Review of Becoming
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
by Zora Neale Hurston and Deborah G. Plant
- 7 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Amistad (May 08, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 208 pages
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Read Our Review of Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist
by Franchesca Ramsey
List Price: $27.00Grand Central Publishing (May 22, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 256 pages
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Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
by Jeffrey C. Stewart
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2019)
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2019 BCALA Literary Award
- 2019 American Book Award
Oxford University Press (Feb 01, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 944 pages
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Nominee - Biography/Autobiography
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela
by Nelson Mandela
List Price: $35.00Liveright Publishing Corporation (Jul 10, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 640 pages
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Winner - Children
Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race
by Margot Lee Shetterly, Illustrated by Laura Freeman
11-time National Bestseller, Juvenile Nonfiction
- A 2024 National Bestselling Book – Juvenile Nonfiction
- A 2023 National Bestselling Book - Juvenile Nonfiction
- A Top 150 Children’s Book
- 8 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Coretta Scott King Award Winning Book 2019
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
HarperCollins (Jan 23, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 40 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
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Nominee - Children
A Very Large Expanse of Sea
by Tahereh Mafi
List Price: $18.99HarperCollins (Oct 16, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 320 pages
Target Age Group: Young Adult
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Nominee - Children
The Word Collector
by Peter H. Reynolds
List Price: $17.99Orchard Books (Jan 30, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 40 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
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Nominee - Children
Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass, a Monumental American Man
by Tonya Bolden
List Price: $19.99Abrams Books for Young Readers (Jan 09, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 208 pages
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
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Nominee - Children
I Can Be Anything! Don’t Tell Me I Can’t
by Leo & Diane Dillon
List Price: $18.99The Blue Sky Press (Feb 27, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 32 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
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Winner - Debut Author
Us Against the World: Our Secrets to Love, Marriage, and Family
by David Mann and Shaun Sanders
List Price: $24.99Thomas Nelson (Nov 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 272 pages
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Nominee - Debut Author
Small Country
by GaëL Faye
List Price: $25.00Hogarth Press (Jun 05, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 192 pages
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Nominee - Debut Author
Lucile H. Bluford and the Kansas City Call: Activist Voice for Social Justice
by Sheila Brooks and Clint C. Wilson II
List Price: $80.00Lexington Books (Apr 13, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 112 pages
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Nominee - Debut Author
Heads of the Colored People (paperback): Stories
by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
- 1 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 1 Book Club’s Reading List
- Hurston/Wright Honored Book (2019)
- Kirkus Prize Finalist/Winner 2018
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Atria / 37 Ink (Jan 22, 2019)
Fiction, Paperback, 224 pages
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Nominee - Debut Author
Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement
by Janet Dewart Bell
List Price: $25.99The New Press (May 08, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 240 pages
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Read Our Review of Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement
Winner - Fiction
An American Marriage: A Novel
by Tayari Jones
- NYT Best Book of the 21st Century
- 3 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- A 2018 Oprah Book Club Selection
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
- 2019 BCALA Literary Award
Algonquin Books (Feb 06, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 320 pages
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Nominee - Fiction
They Come in All Colors
by Malcolm Hansen
List Price: $26.00Atria Books (May 29, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 336 pages
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Nominee - Fiction
Better Late Than Never (Final Book in Reverend Curtis Black Series #15)
by Kimberla Lawson Roby
List Price: $26.00Grand Central Publishing (Jul 31, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 352 pages
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Nominee - Fiction
Who Is the Black Panther?: A Novel of the Marvel Universe
by Jesse J. Holland
List Price: $9.99Titan Books (May 08, 2018)
Fiction, Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
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Nominee - Fiction
Envy: A Seven Deadly Sins Novel
by Victoria Christopher Murray
List Price: $15.00Touchstone (Jun 19, 2018)
Fiction, Paperback, 352 pages
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Winner - Instructional
Rise and Grind: Outperform, Outwork, and Outhustle Your Way to a More Successful and Rewarding Life
by Daymond John
List Price: $27.00Currency (Jan 23, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 320 pages
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Nominee - Instructional
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves
by Glory Edim
List Price: $20.00Ballantine Books (Oct 30, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 240 pages
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Nominee - Instructional
Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration
by Carla Hall
List Price: $29.99Harper Wave (Oct 23, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 336 pages
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Nominee - Instructional
Poised for Excellence: Fundamental Principles of Effective Leadership in the Boardroom and Beyond
by Karima Mariama-Arthur
List Price: $29.99Palgrave Macmillan (Jan 29, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 283 pages
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Nominee - Nonfiction
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
by Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin
List Price: $26.99St. Martin’s Press (Jun 05, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 288 pages
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Nominee - Nonfiction
Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
by Zora Neale Hurston and Deborah G. Plant
- 7 Time AALBC.com Bestselling Book!
- Selected for 3 Book Clubs’s Reading Lists
- An NAACP Image Award Honored Book
Amistad (May 08, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 208 pages
More Info
Read Our Review of Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
Nominee - Nonfiction
Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic. Rocking Our Truth.
by Beverly Bond
List Price: $30.00Atria Books (Feb 27, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 256 pages
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Winner - Poetry
Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart
by Alice Walker
List Price: $25.00Atria / 37 Ink (Oct 02, 2018)
Poetry, Hardcover, 256 pages
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Nominee - Poetry
Confessions of a Barefaced Woman
by Allison Joseph
List Price: $17.95HarperTorch (Jun 12, 2018)
Poetry, Paperback, 120 pages
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Nominee - Poetry
Ghost, Like a Place
by Iain Haley Pollock
List Price: $15.95Alice James Books (Sep 18, 2018)
Poetry, Paperback, 100 pages
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Nominee - Poetry
The Gospel According to Wild Indigo
by Cyrus Cassells
List Price: $15.95Southern Illinois University Press (Feb 22, 2018)
Poetry, Paperback, 112 pages
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Nominee - Poetry
Refuse: Poems
by Julian Randall
List Price: $17.00University of Pittsburgh Press (Sep 18, 2018)
Poetry, Paperback, 80 pages
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Winner - Youth/Teens
The Dream of America
by Jacqueline Woodson
List Price: $17.99Nancy Paulsen Books (Aug 28, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 288 pages
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
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Nominee - Youth/Teens
Chasing King’s Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Assassin: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Assassin
by James L. Swanson
List Price: $19.99Scholastic Press (Jan 02, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 384 pages
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
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Nominee - Youth/Teens
The Journey of Little Charlie
by Christopher Paul Curtis
List Price: $16.99Scholastic Press (Jan 30, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 256 pages
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
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Nominee - Youth/Teens
The 5 O’Clock Band
by Troy Andrews, Illustrated by Bryan Collier
List Price: $17.99Abrams Books for Young Readers (Jun 19, 2018)
Fiction, Hardcover, 40 pages
Target Age Group: Picture Book
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Nominee - Youth/Teens
We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide
by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden
List Price: $19.99Bloomsbury YA (Sep 11, 2018)
Nonfiction, Hardcover, 288 pages
Target Age Group: Middle Grade
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