For Immediate Release – October 21, 2024
Media Contact:
Nichelle M. Hayes, Executive Director
317/300-4370
info@hurstonwright.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation announces the winners of the 2024 Legacy Awards, celebrating exceptional literary achievement among Black writers in various categories. The awards were presented during a gala event held on Friday, October 18, 2024, at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Established in 2001, the Legacy Awards program honors Black writers in the United States and around the world for their contributions to literature. It is the first national award presented to Black writers by a national organization of Black writers. Categories for the Legacy Awards include Fiction, Debut Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Established Black writers along with former Legacy finalists and winners serve as judges.
In addition to the Legacy Awards, the foundation also recognizes outstanding contributions through its Merit Awards. They are presented in three categories: the North Star Award for extraordinary literary achievement, the Ella Baker Award for exceptional work that advances social justice, and the Madam C.J. Walker Award for innovative and entrepreneurial support of Black writers and literature.
2024 Merit Award Winners
The North Star Award: N.K. Jemisin
The Ella Baker Award: Claudia Rankine
The Madam C.J. Walker Award: Marcus Books
2024 Legacy Awards Winners
General Fiction: Mihret Sibhat (The History of a Difficult Child; Viking Books)
Debut Fiction: Soraya Palmer (The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts; Catapult)
Speculative Fiction: Moses Ose Utomi (Lies of Ajungo; Tordotcom)
Historical Nonfiction: Victor Luckerson (Built From the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, America’s Black Wall Street; Random House)
Memoir Nonfiction: Cassandra Jackson (The Wreck: A Daughter’s Memoir of Becoming a Mother; Viking Books)
Poetry: A. Van Jordan (When I Waked, I Cried To Dream Again; W.W. Norton & Co.)
Creative Anthology: Imani Perry (Sing a Black Girl’s Song: The Unpublished Work of Ntozake Shange; Literacy Lit/Hachette)
The foundation also presents two other annual honors: The Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers, a program initiated to support emerging Black writers in fiction and poetry enrolled full-time in an undergraduate or graduate school program anywhere in the United States. And, The Hurston/Wright Crossover Award, sponsored by ESPN’s Andscape (formerly known as The Undefeated), honors probing, provocative, and original new voices in literary nonfiction.
2024 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers Winners
Fiction: Cameron Carter
Poetry: Aliyah Griddine
2024 Hurston/Wright Crossover Award
Winner: Kyrah Simon
The submission portal for the Legacy Awards will reopen on the day following the gala event, inviting new works from both publishers and self-published authors for consideration in the next cycle. About the Hurston/Wright Foundation: Founded in 1990, the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation is dedicated to discovering, mentoring, and honoring Black writers. Through workshops, master classes, and readings, the foundation promotes literary excellence and supports a vibrant community of Black authors. The Hurston/Wright Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. For more information, visit www.hurstonwright.org.
For further inquiries or to schedule interviews with award recipients, please contact Nichelle M. Hayes at info@hurstonwright.org