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23RD ANNUAL LEGACY AWARDS

The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation is proud to announce the winners of the 2024 Legacy Awards, celebrating exceptional literary achievement among Black writers in various categories. The awards were presented during the 23rd annual Legacy Awards Gala on Friday, October 18, 2024, at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C. Click here to meet the winners. 

2024 LEGACY AWARD WINNERS PRESS RELEASE

About the 2024 legacy awards

The Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards program honors Black writers in the United States and around the globe for literary achievement. Introduced in 2001, the Legacy Award is the first national award presented to Black writers by a national organization of Black writers. The Legacy Award is awarded to published book authors in the categories of Fiction, Debut Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Historical Nonfiction, Memoir Nonfiction, and Poetry. Former Legacy Award finalists and winners serve as judges for the Legacy Awards. Traditionally, the submission portal for the Legacy Awards opens up on the day following the Legacy Awards gala/show. 

Legacy Awards for Merit are awarded in three categories, including exceptional innovation in supporting and sustaining Black literature; exceptional work that advances social justice; and literary achievement. The Hurston/Wright Foundation’s Board of Directors selects Legacy Award merit awardees each year. The names of the merit awards are: The North Star Award; The Ella Baker Award and the Madam “CJ” Walker Award. Previous merit awardees have included Ishmael Reed, Nikki Giovanni, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Elizabeth Alexander, Rita Dove, Glory Edim and Ron Kavanaugh.

The 2024 Merit Award winners are:

The North Star Award: N.K. Jemisin
The Ella Baker Award: Claudia Rankine
The Madam C.J. Walker Award: Marcus Books

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LEGACY AWARD SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN

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Our Work

The Hurston/Wright Foundation’s mission is to mentor, discover and honor aspiring, emerging and professional Black writers by providing culturally-competent services, supports and opportunities.  Learn more about our:

Summer Workshops for Black Writers

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Readings, Virtual Courses & Special Events

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Legacy Award, College Award & Crossover Award

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Our Impact

The data outlined above is steadily increasing from year to year. The information above is from data captured in 2021.

Each year, our impact grows.

A Word about the Publishing Industry...

The publishing industry lacks diversity.

97%

of publishing houses and presses were white-owned from 1950-2018

People of Color are disproportionately employed as editors.

85%

of editors were white from 1950-2018

Book reviewers are least likely to be a Person of Color.

90%

of book reviewers identified as white from 1950-2018

Book awards do not equitably recognize the work of Black writers.

91%

of recipients of popular book awards were white from 1950-2018

A disproportionate # of Black writers are bestselling authors.

98%

of bestselling authors were more likely to be white between 1950-2018

Source: So, R.J., & Wezerek, G. (2020, Dec 11). Just how white is the book industry. The New York Times.

YET, WE WRITE ON.
OUR STORIES HAVE POWER.
WE ARE UNBANNABLE.

Learn how the Hurston/Wright Foundation supports Black writers despite a structurally inequitable publishing landscape. Read The Critical Implications of Building Intentional Communities of Support for Black Writers.

Testimonials

The Hurston/Wright Foundation is an invaluable resource for writers of African descent. My first experience with the organization was in 2002 when I attended a Writers’ Week workshop led by Danzy Senna. At the time, I was a novice writer with dreams of publishing my first book. Ten years later, I returned to the foundation to lead my own Writers’ Workshop following the publication and success of my first novel, Wench. My first novel was a finalist for the 2011 Hurston Wright Legacy Award.
Dolen Perkins-ValdezNew York Times bestselling author
The Hurston/Wright Foundation has been an inspiration and an artistic blessing to me. I have long admired the many writers who've been Legacy Award winners and finalists. In June of 2021, I was fortunate to take a weekend workshop with the brilliant and kind Crystal Wilkinson. Her notes on my story were excellent. I made the adjustments she recommended immediately, and within a few weeks, the story, "This Side and That" was accepted to Aunt Chloe: A Journal of Artful Candor, based at Spelman College.
Toni Ann Johnsonaward-winning screenwriter and novelist
…I applied for and won the Crossover Award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation. As queer, Black artist in his late twenties, I’ve had a lot of hurdles along the way… winning the award gave me affirmation and some resolve to move forward in my journey to getting my first book published. I see the Hurston/Wright Foundation as valuable because it’s a resource tailored specifically to Black writers that are aligned with a larger, creative Black spirit and philosophy. Artists that operate in this way are often silence, disenfranchised or cherry picked to be allowed a seat a table. With the Hurston/Wright Foundation, that logic can be negated, and we can provide for/affirm ourselves.
Prince Shakur2021 Crossover Award winner, author of When They Tell You to Be Good
Thank you Ravi Howard and Hurston/Wright Foundation for a week I’ll never forget.
Brandon Bradley2022 Hurston/Wright Writers Week participant
The foundation does exactly what it sets out to do: discover, educate, mentor, and develop young writers. I believe the foundation is remarkable among artists’ organizations because not only does it nurture and develop young unpublished writers, but it also follows through by continuing to mentor throughout writers’ careers. I have been a firsthand recipient of the foundation’s earnest efforts.
Dolen Perkins-ValdezNew York Times bestselling author
Today is my last day at Howard University [for the Hurston/Wright Writers Week Summer Workshop]. I’ll be forever grateful to the Hurston/Wright Foundation for this opportunity.
Laura Palmquist2022 Hurston/Wright Writers Week participant
I appreciated all of the resources, images, links, etc…[my instructor] was very personable, nice and open to conversation.
AshleyFall 2022 Hurston/Wright Virtual Course participant
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