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The
foundation named for literary legends Zora Neale Hurston (right)
and Richard Wright is providing $60,000 in awards to Black
writers.
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An Award for Black Writers,
from Black Writers
By the Red-Eye Crew
SeeingBlack.com Contributing Writers
Talk
about Black writers! Click here!
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Kuwana
Haulsey's (left) debut novel The
Red Moon tells the coming-of-age story of a half Somali,
half-Kenyan girl (click to purchase).
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The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation and
Borders Books and Music have announced nominees for the first annual
Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. The Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award™ is
the first national award presented to published writers of African
descent by the national community of Black writers.
The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award honors Black writers
in the categories of fiction, debut fiction, and nonfiction. The
winners in each category will be awarded a cash prize of $10,000
and two finalists will recieve $5,000 each. Winners and finalists
will be announced on Saturday, October 5th at a ceremony in Washington,
D.C. to be hosted by NBC's Law and Order star, S. Epatha Merkson.
Other featured guests will be authors Terry McMillan, Russell Banks
and Nathan McCall. Internationally acclaimed author Chinua Achebe
will receive a special award.
The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award was created to address
the lack of public recognition for Black writers. The nominees are:
Fiction:
- Erasure by Percival Everett (University Press of New
England)/Hyperion (paperback).
- Bombingham by Anthony Grooms (Simon and Schuster)/One
World (paperback)
- The Warmest December by Bernice L. McFadden (Dutton)/Plume
(paperback)
- He Sleeps by Reginald McKnight (Henry Holt)/Picador
(paperback)
- Fearless Jones by Walter Mosley (Little Brown)/Warner
Books (paperback)
Debut Fiction:
- The Red Moon by Kuwana Haulsey (Villard)
- Breathing Room by Patricia Elam (Simon and Schuster)/Pocket
Books (paperback)
- The Dying Ground by Nichelle D. Tramble (Villiard/Strivers
Row)
- Break Any Woman Down by Dana Johnson (University of Georgia
Press)
- Greenwichtown by Joyce Palmer (St. Martin's Press)/Griffin
Trade Paper
- Gabriel's Story by David Anthony Durham (Doubleday) Anchor
(paperback)
Nonfiction:
- Raising Fences: A Black Man's Love Story by Michael Datcher
(Penguin Putnam)
- The Undiscovered Paul Robeson by Paul Robeson, Jr. (John
Wiley & Sons)
- Salvation: Black People and Love by Bell Hooks (William
Morrow)/Harper Perennial (paperback)
- Impossible Witnesses: Truth. Abolitionism and Slave Testimony
by Dwight A. McBride (New York University Press)
- In The Shadow Of a Saint: A Son's Journey to Understand
His Father's Legacy by Ken Wiwa (Steerforth Press)
- On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker
by A'Lelia Bundles (Scribner)/Washington Square Press (paperback)
The judges for the inaugural Hurston/Wright Legacy
Award are:
- Fiction: Novelists Mat Johnson, Victor D. LaValle and Elizabth
Nunez.
- Debut Fiction: Jabari Asim, Senior Editor, The Washington
Post Book World and novelists Helen Elaine Lee and Edward
P. Jones.
- Nonfiction: writers Patrice Gaines, Anthony Browder and Paula
Giddings.
The Hurston/Wright Foundation, headquartered in Hyattsville,
Maryland presents and annual summer writers workshop for Black writers
and an annual award, The Hurston/Wright Award, for emerging Black
college fiction writers. For more information on the Hurston/Wright
Legacy Award ceremony or the Hurston/Wright Foundation please contact
Mary Ann Brownlow at Borders Books and Music, 202-466-2152 or Clyde
McElevene, The Hurston/Wright Foundation 301-683-2134 or info@hurston-wright.org.
Related Sites:
-- August 29, 2002
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2001-05 Seeing Black, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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