358 NAACP Image Award Winning and Honored Books
As of October 2024, we have indentified 358 Image Award nominees and winners on our website. We are working to indentify all of the nominated titles since the award’s inception (Back to the main page).
- 2023 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Walking in My Joy: In These Streets by Jenifer Lewis
- 2023 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Scenes from My Life: A Memoir by Michael K. Williams
- 2023 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: A Way Out of No Way: A Memoir of Truth, Transformation, and the New American Story by Raphael G. Warnock
- 2023 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama
- 2023 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: You’ve Been Chosen: Thriving Through the Unexpected by Cynt Marshall
- 2023 Nominee: Children: Stacey’s Remarkable Books by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery
- 2023 Nominee: Children: Black Gold by Laura Obuobi
- 2023 Nominee: Children: Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey
- 2023 Nominee: Children: The Year We Learned to Fly by Jacqueline Woodson
- 2023 Nominee: Children: Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
- 2023 Nominee: Debut Author: Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen by George McCalman
- 2023 Nominee: Debut Author: America Made Me a Black Man: A Memoir by Boyah J. Farah
- 2023 Nominee: Debut Author: What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris
- 2023 Nominee: Debut Author: Truth’s Table: Black Women’s Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation by Ekemini Uwan, Christina Edmondson, Michelle Higgins
- 2023 Nominee: Debut Author: Marriage Be Hard: 12 Conversations to Keep You Laughing, Loving, and Learning with Your Partner by Kevin Fredericks and Melissa Fredericks
- 2023 Nominee: Fiction: Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
- 2023 Nominee: Fiction: Light Skin Gone to Waste by Toni Ann Johnson
- 2023 Nominee: Fiction: Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction by Sheree Renee Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight
- 2023 Nominee: Fiction: The Keeper by Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes
- 2023 Nominee: Fiction: You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
- 2023 Nominee: Instructional: Cooking from the Spirit: Easy, Delicious, and Joyful Plant-Based Inspirations by Tabitha Brown
- 2023 Nominee: Instructional: Homecoming: Overcome Fear and Trauma to Reclaim Your Whole, Authentic Self by Thema Bryant
- 2023 Nominee: Instructional: The 5 Principles: A Revolutionary Path to Health, Inner Wealth, and Knowledge of Self by Khnum “Stic” Ibomu
- 2023 Nominee: Instructional: Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Restoration by Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts
- 2023 Nominee: Instructional: Eat Plants, B*tch by Pinky Cole
- 2023 Nominee: Nonfiction: Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis
- 2023 Nominee: Nonfiction: Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America by Cody Keenan
- 2023 Nominee: Nonfiction: Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation by Linda Villarosa
- 2023 Nominee: Nonfiction: Who’s Black and Why?: A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Andrew S. Curran
- 2023 Nominee: Nonfiction: Requiem for the Massacre: A Black History on the Conflict, Hope, and Fallout of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by RJ Young
- 2023 Nominee: Poetry: Best Barbarian: Poems by Roger Reeves
- 2023 Nominee: Poetry: To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness by Robin Coste Lewis
- 2023 Nominee: Poetry: Bluest Nude: Poems by Ama Codjoe
- 2023 Nominee: Poetry: Concentrate: Poems by Courtney Faye Taylor
- 2023 Nominee: Poetry: Muse Found in a Colonized Body by Yesenia Montilla
- 2023 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Inheritance: A Visual Poem by Elizabeth Acevedo
- 2023 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Maybe an Artist, a Graphic Memoir by Liz Montague
- 2023 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Cookies & Milk by Shawn Amos
- 2023 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Opening My Eyes Underwater: Essays on Hope, Humanity, and Our Hero Michelle Obama by Ashley Woodfolk
- 2023 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Me and White Supremacy (Young Readers’) by Layla Saad
- 2022 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: Will by Will Smith
- 2022 Winner: Children: Stacey’s Extraordinary Words by Stacey Abrams aka Selena Montgomery
- 2022 Winner: Debut Author: Just As I Am by Cicely Tyson
- 2022 Winner: Fiction: Long Division by Kiese Laymon
- 2022 Winner: Instructional: Feeding the Soul (Because It’s My Business): Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom by Tabitha Brown
- 2022 Winner: Nonfiction: The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- 2022 Winner: Poetry: Perfect Black by Crystal Wilkinson
- 2022 Finalist: Poetry: Playlist for the Apocalypse: Poems by Rita Dove
- 2022 Winner: Youth/Teens: Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
- 2021 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne and Tamara Payne
- 2021 Winner: Children: She Was the First!: The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm by Katheryn Russell-Brown
- 2021 Winner: Debut Author: We’re Better Than This: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy by Elijah E. Cummings
- 2021 Winner: Fiction: The Awkward Black Man by Walter Mosley
- 2021 Winner: Instructional: Vegetable Kingdom by Bryant Terry
- 2021 Winner: Nonfiction: A Promised Land by Barack Obama
- 2021 Winner: Poetry: The Age of Phillis by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
- 2021 Winner: Youth/Teens: Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
- 2020 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say) by Elaine Welteroth
- 2020 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: My Name Is Prince by Prince Rogers Nelson and Randee St. Nicholas
- 2020 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: The Beautiful Ones by Prince Rogers Nelson
- 2020 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward by Valerie Jarrett
- 2020 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System by Cyntoia Brown-Long
- 2020 Winner: Children: Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o
- 2020 Nominee: Children: Ruby Finds a Worry by Tom Percival
- 2020 Nominee: Children: Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry
- 2020 Nominee: Children: A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation by Barry Wittenstein
- 2020 Nominee: Children: Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment by Parker Curry and Jessica Curry
- 2020 Winner: Debut Author: I Am Dance: Words and Images of the Black Dancer by Hal Banfield
- 2020 Nominee: Debut Author: More Than Pretty: Doing the Soul Work That Uncovers Your True Beauty by Erica Campbell
- 2020 Nominee: Debut Author: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
- 2020 Nominee: Debut Author: The Farm by Joanne Ramos
- 2020 Winner: Fiction: The Revisioners by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
- 2020 Nominee: Fiction: The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- 2020 Nominee: Fiction: New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent by Margaret Busby
- 2020 Nominee: Fiction: Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
- 2020 Nominee: Fiction: Out of Darkness, Shining Light by Petina Gappah
- 2020 Winner: Instructional: Your Next Level Life: 7 Rules of Power, Confidence, and Opportunity for Black Women in America by Karen Arrington
- 2020 Nominee: Instructional: More Than Pretty: Doing the Soul Work That Uncovers Your True Beauty by Erica Campbell
- 2020 Nominee: Instructional: Letters to the Finishers (who struggle to finish) by Candace E. Wilkins
- 2020 Nominee: Instructional: Vegetables Unleashed: A Cookbook by Jose Andres and Matt Goulding
- 2020 Nominee: Instructional: Inspire Your Home: Easy Affordable Ideas to Make Every Room Glamorous by Farah Merhi
- 2020 Nominee: Nonfiction: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays by Damon Young
- 2020 Nominee: Nonfiction: The Yellow House: A Memoir by Sarah M. Broom
- 2020 Nominee: Nonfiction: Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- 2020 Nominee: Nonfiction: Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry
- 2020 Winner: Poetry: Felon: Poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts
- 2020 Nominee: Poetry: The Tradition by Jericho Brown
- 2020 Nominee: Poetry: A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland by Damaris B. Hill
- 2020 Nominee: Poetry: Honeyfish by Lauren K. Alleyne
- 2020 Nominee: Poetry: Mistress by Chet’la Sebree
- 2020 Winner: Youth/Teens: Around Harvard Square by Christopher John Farley
- 2020 Nominee: Youth/Teens: I’m Not Dying with You Tonight by Gilly Segal and Kimberly Jones
- 2020 Nominee: Youth/Teens: The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown
- 2020 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Her Own Two Feet: A Rwandan Girl’s Brave Fight to Walk by Meredith Davis and Rebeka Uwitonze
- 2020 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers
- 2019 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: Becoming by Michelle Obama
- 2019 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston and Deborah G. Plant
- 2019 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart
- 2019 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist by Franchesca Ramsey
- 2019 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela
- 2019 Winner: Children: Hidden Figures: The True Story of Four Black Women and the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
- 2019 Nominee: Children: A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
- 2019 Nominee: Children: The Word Collector by Peter H. Reynolds
- 2019 Nominee: Children: I Can Be Anything! Don’t Tell Me I Can’t by Leo & Diane Dillon
- 2019 Nominee: Children: Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass, a Monumental American Man by Tonya Bolden
- 2019 Winner: Debut Author: Us Against the World: Our Secrets to Love, Marriage, and Family by David Mann and Shaun Sanders
- 2019 Nominee: Debut Author: Small Country by GaëL Faye
- 2019 Nominee: Debut Author: Lucile H. Bluford and the Kansas City Call: Activist Voice for Social Justice by Sheila Brooks and Clint C. Wilson II
- 2019 Nominee: Debut Author: Heads of the Colored People (paperback): Stories by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
- 2019 Nominee: Debut Author: Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Janet Dewart Bell
- 2019 Winner: Fiction: An American Marriage: A Novel by Tayari Jones
- 2019 Nominee: Fiction: They Come in All Colors by Malcolm Hansen
- 2019 Nominee: Fiction: Better Late Than Never (Final Book in Reverend Curtis Black Series #15) by Kimberla Lawson Roby
- 2019 Nominee: Fiction: Who Is the Black Panther?: A Novel of the Marvel Universe by Jesse J. Holland
- 2019 Nominee: Fiction: Envy: A Seven Deadly Sins Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray
- 2019 Winner: Instructional: Rise and Grind: Outperform, Outwork, and Outhustle Your Way to a More Successful and Rewarding Life by Daymond John
- 2019 Nominee: Instructional: Carla Hall’s Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration by Carla Hall
- 2019 Nominee: Instructional: Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves by Glory Edim
- 2019 Nominee: Instructional: Poised for Excellence: Fundamental Principles of Effective Leadership in the Boardroom and Beyond by Karima Mariama-Arthur
- 2019 Nominee: Nonfiction: Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston and Deborah G. Plant
- 2019 Nominee: Nonfiction: The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin
- 2019 Nominee: Nonfiction: Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic. Rocking Our Truth. by Beverly Bond
- 2019 Winner: Poetry: Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart by Alice Walker
- 2019 Nominee: Poetry: Confessions of a Barefaced Woman by Allison Joseph
- 2019 Nominee: Poetry: Ghost, Like a Place by Iain Haley Pollock
- 2019 Nominee: Poetry: The Gospel According to Wild Indigo by Cyrus Cassells
- 2019 Nominee: Poetry: Refuse: Poems by Julian Randall
- 2019 Winner: Youth/Teens: The Dream of America by Jacqueline Woodson
- 2019 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
- 2019 Nominee: Youth/Teens: The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis
- 2019 Nominee: Youth/Teens: The 5 O’Clock Band by Troy Andrews
- 2019 Nominee: Youth/Teens: We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden
- 2018 Nominee: Nonfiction: Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More Graceful You by Misty Copeland
- 2018 Nominee: Poetry: Incendiary Art: Poems by Patricia Smith
- 2018 Nominee: Poetry: Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems by Ntozake Shange
- 2017 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
- 2017 Winner: Children: Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas by Gwendolyn Hooks
- 2017 Winner: Debut Author: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
- 2017 Winner: Fiction: The Book of Harlan by Bernice L. McFadden
- 2017 Winner: Instructional: The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage by Daymond John
- 2017 Winner: Nonfiction: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
- 2017 Winner: Poetry: Collected Poems: 1974–2004 by Rita Dove
- 2017 Nominee: Poetry: Thief in the Interior by Phillip B. Williams
- 2017 Winner: Youth/Teens: As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds
- 2016 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- 2016 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: After The Dance: My Life With Marvin Gaye by Jan Gaye and David Ritz
- 2016 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: One Righteous Man: Samuel Battle and the Shattering of the Color Line in New York by Arthur Browne
- 2016 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Power Forward: My Presidential Education by Reggie Love
- 2016 Winner: Children: Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America by Carole Boston Weatherford
- 2016 Nominee: Children: If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson
- 2016 Nominee: Children: Chasing Freedom: The Life Journeys of Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony, Inspired by Historical Facts by Nikki Grimes
- 2016 Nominee: Children: Granddaddy’s Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box by Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein
- 2016 Nominee: Children: New Shoes by Susan Meyer
- 2016 Winner: Debut Author: The Fishermen: A Novel by Chigozie Obioma
- 2016 Nominee: Debut Author: The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
- 2016 Nominee: Debut Author: The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America by April Ryan
- 2016 Nominee: Debut Author: The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson
- 2016 Nominee: Debut Author: The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken by Wendell Pierce and Rod Dreher
- 2016 Winner: Fiction: Stand Your Ground: A Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray
- 2016 Nominee: Fiction: Driving The King: A Novel by Ravi Howard
- 2016 Nominee: Fiction: Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
- 2016 Nominee: Fiction: Mama’s Boy by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
- 2016 Nominee: Fiction: Ghost Summer: Stories by Tananarive Due
- 2016 Winner: Instructional: Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams
- 2016 Nominee: Instructional: Big Words to Little Me: Advice to the Younger Self by Sakina Ibrahim, Jessie Lee, and Rah Crawford
- 2016 Nominee: Instructional: Keep Calm… It’s Just Real Estate: Your No-Stress Guide to Buying a Home by Egypt Sherrod
- 2016 Nominee: Instructional: Free Your Mind: An African American Guide to Meditation and Freedom by Cortez R. Rainey
- 2016 Nominee: Instructional: Grandbaby Cakes: Modern Recipes, Vintage Charm, Soulful Memories by Jocelyn Delk Adams
- 2016 Winner: Nonfiction: Spectacle: The Astonishing Life Of Ota Benga by Pamela Newkirk
- 2016 Nominee: Nonfiction: Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America by Wil Haygood
- 2016 Nominee: Nonfiction: Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy
- 2016 Nominee: Nonfiction: 50 Billion Dollar Boss: African American Women Sharing Stories of Success in Entrepreneurship and Leadership by Kathey Porter and Andrea Hoffman
- 2016 Nominee: Nonfiction: The Light Of The World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander
- 2016 Winner: Poetry: How to Be Drawn by Terrance Hayes
- 2016 Nominee: Poetry: Reconnaissance: Poems by Carl Phillips
- 2016 Nominee: Poetry: Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (Pitt Poetry Series) by Ross Gay
- 2016 Nominee: Poetry: Wild Hundreds by Nate Marshall
- 2016 Nominee: Poetry: Redbone by Mahogany L. Browne
- 2016 Winner: Youth/Teens: X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz
- 2016 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Untwine by Edwidge Danticat
- 2016 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper
- 2016 Nominee: Youth/Teens: You Are Wonderfully Made: 12 Life-Changing Principles for Teen Girls to Embrace by Gwen Richardson and Sylvia Richardson
- 2016 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- 2015 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine by David Chanoff and Louis Sullivan
- 2015 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland
- 2015 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Handbook For An Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata And My Crazy Mother, And Still Came Out Smiling (With Great Hair) by Rosie Perez
- 2015 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Stand Up Straight and Sing! by Jessye Norman
- 2015 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Mayor For Life: The Incredible Story of Marion Barry Jr. by Marion Barry Jr. and Omar Tyree
- 2015 Winner: Children: Dork Diaries 8: Tales from a Not-So-Happily Ever After by Rachel Renée Russell
- 2015 Nominee: Children: Beautiful Moon: A Child’s Prayer by Tonya Bolden
- 2015 Nominee: Children: Searching For Sarah Rector: The Richest Black Girl In America by Tonya Bolden
- 2015 Nominee: Children: Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up To Become Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz
- 2015 Nominee: Children: Little Melba And Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown
- 2015 Winner: Debut Author: Forty Acres: A Novel by Dwayne Alexander Smith
- 2015 Nominee: Debut Author: Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile
- 2015 Nominee: Debut Author: Time of the Locust: A Novel by Morowa Yejide
- 2015 Nominee: Debut Author: The 16th Minute of Fame: An Insider’s Guide for Maintaining Success Beyond 15 Minutes of Fame by Darrell Miller
- 2015 Nominee: Debut Author: Remedy for a Broken Angel by Toni Ann Johnson
- 2015 Winner: Fiction: A Wanted Woman by Eric Jerome Dickey
- 2015 Nominee: Fiction: An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
- 2015 Nominee: Fiction: Another Womans Man (A Gibbons Gold Digger Novel) by Shelly Ellis
- 2015 Nominee: Fiction: The Prodigal Son (Reverend Curtis Black #11) by Kimberla Lawson Roby
- 2015 Nominee: Fiction: Momma: Gone by Nina Foxx
- 2015 Winner: Instructional: Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life by Joe Brewster, Michele Stephenson, and Hilary Beard
- 2015 Nominee: Instructional: 101 Scholarship Applications - 2015: What It Takes To Obtain A Debt-Free College Education by Gwen Richardson
- 2015 Nominee: Instructional: Afro-Vegan: Farm-Fresh African, Caribbean, and Southern Flavors Remix by Bryant Terry
- 2015 Nominee: Instructional: Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice System by Robbin Shipp and Nick Chiles
- 2015 Winner: Nonfiction: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
- 2015 Nominee: Nonfiction: Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay
- 2015 Nominee: Nonfiction: Who We Be: The Colorization of America by Jeff Chang
- 2015 Nominee: Nonfiction: Place, Not Race: A New Vision of Opportunity in America by Sheryll Cashin
- 2015 Nominee: Nonfiction: The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act by Clay Risen
- 2015 Winner: Poetry: Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- 2015 Nominee: Poetry: The Poetry of Derek Walcott 1948-2013 by Derek Walcott
- 2015 Nominee: Poetry: We Didn’t Know Any Gangsters by Brian Gilmore
- 2015 Nominee: Poetry: The New Testament by Jericho Brown
- 2015 Nominee: Poetry: Digest (Stahlecker Selections) by Gregory Pardlo
- 2015 Winner: Youth/Teens: Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
- 2015 Nominee: Youth/Teens: The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- 2015 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Revolution (The Sixties Trilogy) by Deborah Wiles
- 2015 Nominee: Youth/Teens: The Freedom Summer Murders by Don Mitchell
- 2015 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Because They Marched: The People’s Campaign for Voting Rights That Changed America by Russell Freedman
- 2014 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis
- 2014 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Kansas City Lightning: The Rise And Times Of Charlie Parker by Stanley Crouch
- 2014 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Buck: A Memoir by MK Asante
- 2014 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou
- 2014 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington by Terry Teachout
- 2014 Winner: Children: Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson
- 2014 Nominee: Children: Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream For Me by Daniel Beaty
- 2014 Nominee: Children: I’m a Pretty Little Black Girl! by Betty K. Bynum
- 2014 Nominee: Children: Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney
- 2014 Nominee: Children: You Never Heard of Willie Mays?! by Jonah Winter
- 2014 Winner: Debut Author: Nine Years Under by Sheri Booker
- 2014 Nominee: Debut Author: On the Come Up: A Novel, Based on a True Story by Hannah Weyer
- 2014 Nominee: Debut Author: The Returned by Jason Mott
- 2014 Nominee: Debut Author: Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi
- 2014 Winner: Fiction: Anybody’s Daughter by Pamela Samuels Young
- 2014 Nominee: Fiction: Little Green by Walter Mosley
- 2014 Nominee: Fiction: Who Asked You? by Terry McMillan
- 2014 Nominee: Fiction: Never Say Never by Victoria Christopher Murray
- 2014 Winner: Instructional: The Vegucation of Robin: How Real Food Saved My Life by Robin Quivers
- 2014 Nominee: Instructional: Plan D: How to Lose Weight and Beat Diabetes (Even If You Don’t Have It) by Sherri Shepherd and Billie Fitzpatrick
- 2014 Nominee: Instructional: The Entrepreneur Mind: 100 Essential Beliefs, Characteristics, and Habits of Elite Entrepreneurs by Kevin D. Johnson
- 2014 Nominee: Instructional: Do I Look Like an ATM?: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Financially Responsible African American Children by Sabrina Lamb
- 2014 Nominee: Instructional: Recruiting and Retaining Culturally Different Students in Gifted Education by Donna Ford
- 2014 Winner: Nonfiction : Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery by Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer
- 2014 Nominee: Nonfiction : High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society by Carl Hart
- 2014 Nominee: Nonfiction : Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations by Retha Powers
- 2014 Nominee: Nonfiction : Letters to an Incarcerated Brother: Encouragement, Hope, and Healing for Inmates and Their Loved Ones by Hill Harper
- 2014 Winner: Poetry: Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers by Frank X. Walker
- 2014 Nominee: Poetry: The Collected Poems of Ai by Ai Ogawa
- 2014 Nominee: Poetry: The Cineaste: Poems by A. Van Jordan
- 2014 Nominee: Poetry: Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid by Nikki Giovanni
- 2014 Nominee: Poetry: Hum (Ala Notable Books for Adults) by Jamaal May
- 2014 Winner: Youth/Teens: Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers (Ala Notable Children’s Books. Older Readers) by Tanya Lee Stone
- 2014 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Raising The Bar by Gabrielle Douglas
- 2014 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Invasion by Walter Dean Myers
- 2014 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Serafina’s Promise by Ann E. Burg
- 2014 Nominee: Youth/Teens: God’s Graffiti: Inspiring Stories For Teens by Romal J. Tune
- 2013 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count Of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss
- 2013 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: The One: The Life and Music of James Brown by RJ Smith
- 2013 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities by Will Allen
- 2013 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Interventions: A Life in War and Peace by Kofi Annan
- 2013 Winner: Children: What Color Is My World?: The Lost History Of African-American Inventors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld
- 2013 Nominee: Children: In the Land of Milk and Honey by Joyce Carol Thomas
- 2013 Nominee: Children: Fifty Cents And A Dream: Young Booker T. Washington by Jabari Asim
- 2013 Nominee: Children: Harlem’s Little Blackbird by Renée Watson
- 2013 Nominee: Children: Indigo Blume And The Garden City by Kwame Alexander
- 2013 Winner: Debut Author: Nikki G: A Portrait of Nikki Giovanni in Her Own Words by Darryl L. Lacy
- 2013 Nominee: Debut Author: The Sister Accord: 51 Ways to Love Your Sister by Sonia Jackson Myles
- 2013 Nominee: Debut Author: A Cupboard Full of Coats: A Novel by Yvvette Edwards
- 2013 Nominee: Debut Author: Congo: Spirit of Darkness (Volume 1) by Mayi Ngwala and Allain Ngwala
- 2013 Nominee: Debut Author: Antebellum a Novel by R Kayeen Thomas
- 2013 Winner: Fiction: The Reverend’ss Wife (Reverend Curtis Black #9) by Kimberla Lawson Roby
- 2013 Nominee: Fiction: Silent Cry (Zane Presents) by Dwayne D. Birch
- 2013 Nominee: Fiction: A Wish and a Prayer: A Blessings Novel (Blessings Series) by Beverly Jenkins
- 2013 Nominee: Fiction: Destiny’s Divas: A Novel by Victoria Christopher Murray
- 2013 Nominee: Fiction: The Secret She Kept by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
- 2013 Winner: Instructional: Health First!: The Black Woman’s Wellness Guide by Eleanor Hinton Hoytt and Hilary Beard
- 2013 Nominee: Instructional: The No Excuse Guide To Success: No Matter What Your Boss--Or Life--Throws At You by Jim Smith
- 2013 Nominee: Instructional: 12 Ways to Put Money in Your Pocket Every Month Without a Part-Time Job, the Skinny Book That Makes Your Wallet Fat by Jennifer S. Matthews
- 2013 Nominee: Instructional: It’s Complicated (But It Doesn’t Have to Be): A Modern Guide to Finding and Keeping Love by Paul Carrick Brunson
- 2013 Nominee: Instructional: Formula 50: A 6-Week Workout and Nutrition Plan That Will Transform Your Life by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson
- 2013 Winner: Nonfiction : The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
- 2013 Nominee: Nonfiction : Fraternity: In 1968, a visionary priest recruited 20 black men to the College of the Holy Cross and changed their lives and the course of history. by Diane Brady
- 2013 Nominee: Nonfiction : Power Concedes Nothing: One Woman’s Quest for Social Justice in America, from the Courtroom to the Kill Zones by Connie Rice
- 2013 Nominee: Nonfiction : Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation by Deborah Davis
- 2013 Nominee: Nonfiction : The Courage To Hope: How I Stood Up To The Politics Of Fear by Shirley Sherrod
- 2013 Winner: Poetry: Speak Water by Truth Thomas
- 2013 Nominee: Poetry: Maybe the Saddest Thing: Poems (National Poetry) by Marcus Wicker
- 2013 Nominee: Poetry: The Ground: Poems by Rowan Ricardo Phillips
- 2013 Nominee: Poetry: Thrall: Poems by Natasha Trethewey
- 2013 Nominee: Poetry: Hurrah’s Nest (Cedar Tick Natural History Chapbook) by Arisa White
- 2013 Winner: Youth/Teens: Obama Talks Back: Global Lessons - A Dialogue With America’s Young Leaders by Barack Obama and Gregory Reed
- 2013 Nominee: Youth/Teens: The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis
- 2013 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Pinned by Sharon G. Flake
- 2013 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Fire in the Streets by Kekla Magoon
- 2013 Nominee: Youth/Teens: The Diary Of B. B. Bright, Possible Princess by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams
- 2012 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: My Song: A Memoir by Harry Belafonte and Michael Shnayerson
- 2012 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington by Condoleezza Rice
- 2012 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: Malcolm X: A Life Of Reinvention by Manning Marable
- 2012 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother by Janny Scott
- 2012 Nominee: Biography/Autobiography: The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment That Changed the World by Dave Zirin and John Wesley Carlos
- 2012 Winner: Children: You Can Be a Friend by Tony Dungy
- 2012 Nominee: Children: Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson
- 2012 Nominee: Children: Before There Was Mozart: The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George by Lesa Cline-Ransome
- 2012 Nominee: Children: White Water by Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein
- 2012 Nominee: Children: Acoustic Rooster And His Barnyard Band by Kwame Alexander
- 2012 Winner: Debut Author: The Strawberry Letter: Real Talk, Real Advice, Because Bitterness Isn’t Sexy by Shirley Strawberry
- 2012 Nominee: Debut Author: Defining Moment: Barack Obama: The Historical Journey to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by Patricia Duncan
- 2012 Nominee: Debut Author: We the Animals by Justin Torres
- 2012 Nominee: Debut Author: The Loom by Shella Gillus
- 2012 Nominee: Debut Author: 2Grieve 2Gether: A Journal from the Heart Helping Survivors and Supporters Navigate the Healing Process by Denise Hall Brown
- 2012 Winner: Fiction: Say Amen, Again by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
- 2012 Nominee: Fiction: A Silken Thread (Thorndike Press Large Print African American Series) by Brenda Jackson
- 2012 Nominee: Fiction: Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
- 2012 Nominee: Fiction: The Plot Against Hip Hop: A Novel (A D Hunter Mystery) by Nelson George
- 2012 Nominee: Fiction: Boundaries by Elizabeth Nunez
- 2012 Winner: Instructional: The T.D. Jakes Relationship Bible: Life Lessons on Relationships from the Inspired Word of God by T. D. Jakes
- 2012 Nominee: Instructional: A Year to Wellness and Other Weight Loss Secrets by Bertice Berry
- 2012 Nominee: Instructional: Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy, & Social Justice in Classroom & Community by Georgia A. Popoff and Quraysh Ali Lansana
- 2012 Nominee: Instructional: Living My Dream: An Artistic Approach to Marketing by Synthia SAINT JAMES
- 2012 Nominee: Instructional: Too Important To Fail: Saving America’s Boys (Tavis Smiley Reports) by Tavis Smiley
- 2012 Winner: Nonfiction : The Wealth Cure: Putting Money In Its Place by Hill Harper
- 2012 Nominee: Nonfiction : Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, And Black Women In America by Melissa V. Harris-Perry
- 2012 Nominee: Nonfiction : The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race And Civility In Everyday Life by Elijah Anderson
- 2012 Nominee: Nonfiction : Who’s Afraid Of Post-Blackness?: What It Means To Be Black Now by Touré
- 2012 Nominee: Nonfiction : Super Rich: A Guide To Having It All by Russell Simmons and Chris Morrow
- 2012 Winner: Poetry: Afro Clouds & Nappy Rain: The Curtis Brown Poems by James B. Golden
- 2012 Nominee: Poetry: Last Seen (Felix Pollak Prize In Poetry) by Jacqueline Jones LaMon
- 2012 Nominee: Poetry: Head Off & Split: Poems by Nikky Finney
- 2012 Nominee: Poetry: Honoring Genius: Gwendolyn Brooks: The Narrative of Craft, Art, Kindness and Justice by Haki Madhubuti
- 2012 Nominee: Poetry: Intimate Thoughts by Darrin DeWitt Henson
- 2012 Winner: Youth/Teens: Jesse Owens: I Always Loved Running (African-American Biographies (Enslow)) by Jeff Burlingame
- 2012 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Kick by Walter Dean Myers
- 2012 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Eliza’s Freedom Road: An Underground Railroad Diary by Jerdine Nolen
- 2012 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Camo Girl by Kekla Magoon
- 2012 Nominee: Youth/Teens: Planet Middle School by Nikki Grimes
- 2011 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: You Don’t Know Me: Reflections of My Father, Ray Charles by Ray Charles Robinson Jr.
- 2011 Winner: Children: My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete
- 2011 Winner: Debut Author: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
- 2011 Winner: Fiction: Getting To Happy by Terry McMillan
- 2011 Winner: Instructional: A Boy Should Know How to Tie a Tie: And Other Lessons for Succeeding in Life by Antwone Fisher
- 2011 Winner: Poetry: The 100 Best African American Poems by Nikki Giovanni
- 2011 Winner: Youth/Teens: Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me by Condoleezza Rice
- 2010 Winner: Biography/Autobiography: Michelle Obama: The First Lady In Photographs by Deborah Willis and Emily Bernard
- 2010 Winner: Children: Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration Of Rosa, Barack, And The Pioneers Of Change by Michelle Cook
- 2010 Winner: Debut Author: A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison by Reginald Dwayne Betts
- 2010 Winner: Fiction: The Long Fall: The First Leonid McGill Mystery by Walter Mosley
- 2010 Winner: Instructional: Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, And Commitment by Steve Harvey and Denene Millner
- 2010 Winner: Nonfiction : In Search Of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- 2010 Winner: Poetry: Bicycles: Love Poems by Nikki Giovanni
- 2010 Winner: Youth/Teens: Michelle Obama: Meet The First Lady by David Bergen Brophy
- 2002 Winner: Fiction: Just the Two of Us by Will Smith
- 2001 Nominee: Children: Happy to Be Nappy by bell hooks
- 1992 Winner: Outstanding Literary Work: Waiting To Exhale by Terry McMillan
- 1992 Nominee: Outstanding Literary Work: Possessing the Secret of Joy: A Novel by Alice Walker
- 1992 Nominee: Outstanding Literary Work: Jazz by Toni Morrison