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Hurston/Wright Foundation · award year

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award 2009

The 2009 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award went to Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan (Fiction), Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid by Frank B. Wilderson (Nonfiction) and The Headless Saints by Myronn Hardy (Poetry). 15 books were finalists across 3 categories.

Winners

Fiction

  1. Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpansource (opens in a new tab)

Nonfiction

  1. Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid by Frank B. Wildersonsource (opens in a new tab)

Poetry

  1. The Headless Saints by Myronn Hardysource (opens in a new tab)

Finalists

Fiction

  1. Blood Colony by Tananarive Duesource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Holding Pattern: Stories by Jeffery Renard Allensource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Song Yet Sung by James McBridesource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Stand the Storm by Breena Clarkesource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Wardsource (opens in a new tab)

Nonfiction

  1. Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by Paula J. Giddingssource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved Out of Slavery and into Legend by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzinasource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Somebody Scream: Rap Music’s Rise to Prominence in the Aftershock of Black Power by Marcus Reevessource (opens in a new tab)
  4. The Agitator’s Daughter: A Memoir of Four Generations of One Extraordinary African-American Family by Sheryll Cashinsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Ta-Nehisi Coatessource (opens in a new tab)

Poetry

  1. Please by Jericho Brownsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Warhorses by Yusef Komunyakaasource (opens in a new tab)

About the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award

Winners and finalists from the Foundation's Legacy Awards page (finalist lists by year plus the winners tables), read from the 13 Feb 2026 web.archive.org snapshot because the live site blocks automated requests. Year is the award year (books published the year before). Finalist lists for older years omit the winner, so winners come from the winners tables; 2025 winners come from the page's 2025 winner list, which names authors only, matched to their finalist titles. Categories follow the page: Fiction (General Fiction), Debut Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, plus Contemporary Fiction (2006), split Nonfiction categories (2022-2024), Speculative Fiction (2023-2024) and Creative Anthology (2024). Debut Fiction was not awarded 2009-2015 or 2019; Poetry was first awarded in 2007. The 2024 Creative Anthology winner, Sing a Black Girl's Song, is Ntozake Shange's work edited by Imani Perry, whom the page credits. Typos fixed: The Guyanese Wander(er), Victor La(V)alle.

Organization: Hurston/Wright Foundation. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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