Eighth Annual Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Winners

The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation, announces the winners and finalists of the 2009 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for their outstanding contribution to literature in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry.

The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award recognizes and honors before the national community of Black writers the work of their peers, thus, speaking to the world at large and the nominated writers, about the profound significance, necessity, and genius of Black writers and the stories they tell. A panel of published authors in each genre reviewed submissions and selected one winner from each category.

The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award 2009 Recipients are:

• Fiction
  WINNER: Uwem Akpan
  Say You’re One of Them (Little, Brown and Company)

  FINALIST: Jeffery Renard Allen
  Holding Pattern (Graywolf Press)

  FINALIST: Jesmyn Ward
  Where the Line Bleeds (Bolden Books)
   

• Non Fiction

  WINNER: Frank Wilderson
  Incognegro (South End Press)

  FINALIST: Ta-Nehisi Coates
  The Beautiful Struggle (Spiegel & Grau)

  FINALIST: Paula J. Giddings
  Ida: Sword Among Lions (Amistad)

• Poetry
  WINNER: Myronn Hardy
  The Headless Saints (New Issues Poetry & Prose)

Hurston/Wright is the nation’s resource center for writers, readers, and supporters of Black literature. And thanks to the generosity of organizations such as Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Group USA, we provide services and guidance for Black writers and readers at every stage of their development. Our annual programs include the nation’s only multi-genre summer residency workshop for writers of African descent with a tuition free component for high school students; the first national award presented to published writers of African descent by their peers; an award for excellence to Black college writers; community awards to businesses, educators or cultural leaders that have demonstrated their commitment to African American literature; and a three week tuition-free writers workshop for high school students followed by monthly classroom and online instructions during the academic school year.

Once again we wish to give special thanks to our many supporters who include Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Group USA, Maryland State Senator David C. Harrington, The Morris & Gwendloyn Cafritz Foundation, Prince George’s County Council Member Andrea Harrision, and a host of individual donors for their generous support. For more information about Hurston/Wright visit our website at www.hurstonwright.org.

Mahogany Books