African American writers and poets featured in the finalists’ lists of the US NAACP Image Awards 2021 announced on February 4, 2021.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States aimed at advancing justice for African Americans founded by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey and Ida B. Wells in 1909. One of its most recognisable activities are its image awards where the highest achieving Black people are awarded in a variety of fields since 1967.
The finalists for the 2021 edition of the awards have been revealed and in the literary section there following are in the running;
OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK – FICTION
Black Bottom Saints, Alice Randall, Amistad/HarperCollins Publishers
Lakewood, Megan Giddings, Amistad/HarperCollins Publishers
Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi, TorDotCom Publishing, imprint of Tom Doherty Associates
The Awkward Black Man, Walter Mosley, Grove Atlantic
The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett, Riverhead Books
OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK – NON-FICTION
A Black Women’s History of the United States, Daina Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross, Beacon Press
A Promised Land, Barack Obama, Crown
Driving While Black, Gretchen Sorin, W. W. Norton & Company
Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America, Michael Eric Dyson, St. Martin’s Press We’re
Better Than This, Elijah Cummings, Harper/HarperCollins Publishers
OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK – DEBUT AUTHOR
A Knock at Midnight, Brittany Barnett, Penguin Random House
Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World, Cole Brown, Skyhorse
Lakewood, Megan Giddings, Amistad/HarperCollins Publishers
The Compton Cowboys, Walter Thompson-Hernandez, William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers
We’re Better Than This, Elijah Cummings, Harper/HarperCollins Publishers
OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK – BIOGRAPHY/ AUTOBIOGRAPHY
A Promised Land, Barack Obama, Crown
A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team, Arshay Cooper Macmillan
Olympic Pride, American Prejudice, Deborah Draper Simon & Schuster
The Dead Are Arising, Les Payne, Tamara Payne W. W. Norton & Company
Willie: The Game-Changing Story of the NHL’s First Black Player, Willie O’Ree Penguin Canada
OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK – POETRY
Homie, Danez Smith Graywolf Press
Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry, John Murillo Four Way Books
Seeing the Body, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, W. W. Norton & Company
The Age of Phillis, Honorée Jeffers, Wesleyan University Press
Un-American, Hafizah Geter Wesleyan University Press
OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK – CHILDREN
I Promise, LeBron James, Nina Mata HarperCollins
Just Like a Mama Alice Faye Duncan, Charnelle Pinkney Barlow, Simon & Schuster
Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice, Nikki Grimes, Laura Freeman, Simon & Schuster
She Was the First!: The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm, Katheryn Russell-Brown, Eric Velasquez Lee & Low Books
The Secret Garden of George Washington Carver, Gene Barretta, Frank Morrison HarperCollins
OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK – YOUTH/TEENS
Before the Ever After, Jacqueline Woodson Penguin Random
House Black Brother, Black Brother, Jewell Parker Rhodes Hachette Book Group
Dear Justyce, Nic Stone Crown Books for Young Readers
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning, Jason Reynolds Hachette Book Group
This is Your Time, Ruby Bridges Delacorte Books for Young Readers
You can check out all the nominees in the running by clicking here.
The winner of the awards will be announced on March 27, 2021.
