Perpetual
I was inspired to host this perpetual reading challenge from similar challenges for the Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize for Literature, and Orange Prize. 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 award consists of prizes for the highest quality writing in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry and have been presented annually since 2002 by the Hurston/Wright Foundation. The Foundation awards are named after authors Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. For me, this award exemplifies excellence in Black literature.
Details of the Challenge:
- A list of all the nominees, finalists, and winners of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards can be found at the Foundation website. Please note that the Foundation lists books through it’s Amazon Associate account. By using the link from their website, you will help support the Foundation’s mission.
- Since this is a perpetual reading challenge, there is no timeframe set — read at your leisure and pleasure
- Choose to read all nominees or you can just read the finalists and/or winners for each year. My goal is to read all nominees for each year, which I started working on in 2010.
- Books can be any format (print, ebook, audio).
- Crossovers with other reading challenges are allowed
- I will put up a post for reviews at the beginning of January
Books that I have read, so far:
Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (2013 Fiction Winner)
The Cutting Season by Attica Locke (2013 Fiction Nominee)
Gathering of Waters by Bernice L. McFadden (2013 Fiction Nominee)
Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi (2012 Fiction Winner)
Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones (2012 Fiction Finalist)
Zone One by Colson Whitead (2012 Fiction Finalist)
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (2012 Fiction Nominee)
The New Black by Evie Shockley (2012 Poetry Winner)
Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts (2012 Non-Fiction Finalist)
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa V. Harris-Perry (2012 Non-Fiction Nominee)
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self (2011 Fiction Winner)
Glorious by Bernice L. McFadden (2011 Fiction Finalist)
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez (2011 Fiction Finalist)
Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010 by Elizabeth Alexander (2011 Poetry Winner)
Skin, Inc.: Identity Repair Poems by Thomas Sayers Ellis (2011 Poetry Nominee)
Lighthead by Terrance Hayes (2011 Poetry Nominee)
Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell (2011 Non-Fiction Nominee)
Losing My Cool: How a Father’s Love and 15,000 Books Beat Hip-hop Culture by Thomas Chatterton Williams (2011 Non-Fiction Nominee)
Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo (2010 Fiction Finalist)
I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett (2010 Fiction Winner)
The Trial of Robert Mugabe by Chielo Zona Eze (2010 Fiction Nominee)
Big Machine by Victor LaValle (2010 Fiction Nominee)
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke (2010 Fiction Nominee)
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead (2010 Fiction Finalist)
Gospel by Samiya Bashir (2010 Poetry Nominee)
Cooling Board: A Long Playing Poem by Mitchell L.H. Douglas (2010 Poetry Nominee)
Sonata Mulattica: Poems by Rita Dove (2010 Poetry Winner)
Liberation Narratives: New and Collected Poems by Haki R. Madhubuti (2010 Poetry Winner)
Freedom by Any Means: True Stories of Cunning and Courage on the Underground Railroad by Betty DeRamus (2010 Non-Fiction Finalist)
Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson by Wil Haygood (2010 Non-Fiction Finalist)
Remembering Scottsboro: The Legacy of an Infamous Trial by James A. Miller (2010 Non-Fiction Nominee)
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2009 Non-Fiction Finalist)
Blood Colony by Tananarive Due (2009 Fiction Nominee)
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (2008 Fiction Winner)
The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi (2008 Fiction Nominee)
Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2007 Fiction Finalist)
Bookmarks: Reading in Black and White Karla F. C. Holloway (2007 Non-Fiction nominee)
Joplin’s Ghost by Tananarive Due (2006 Fiction Nominee)
Why I Hate Abercrombie & Fitch: Essays On Race and Sexuality by Dwight McBride (2006 Non-Fiction Nominee)
Who Slashed Celanire’s Throat? By Maryse Conde (2005 Fiction Winner)
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2004 Debut Fiction Winner)
The Polished Hoe by Austin Clarke (2004 Fiction Finalist)
Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd (2004 Non-Fiction Nominee)
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer (2004 Debut Fiction Nominee)
Erasure by Percival Everett (2002 Fiction Winner)
Salvation: Black People and Love by bell hooks (2002 Non-Fiction Nominee)To Sign-Up:
To join this challenge, grab the Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards Reading Challenge badge and post on your blog to track your progress. Sign up using Mr Linky if you’re a blogger, and if you’re not a blogger simply leave a comment below. Please include a link back to this sign-up post so others can join the reading challenge too.
Note: You do not have to be a book blogger to participate. You can track your progress on Goodreads, LibraryThing, etc.
This reading challenge is hosted by Dusky Literati. For more information and to sign-up, please see this post.
