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African/African American Studies

Non-fiction Awards: African/African American

Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize Prioritizes African women's experiences (Women's Caucus of the African Studies Association).

2019:  Suad Musa, Hawks and Doves in Sudan’s Armed Conflict: Al-Hakkamat Baggara Women of Darfur (James Currey, 2018).
2017:  Carina Ray, Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex, and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2015).

Anna Julia Cooper & CLR James Book Award For outstanding scholarly publication in Africana studies (National Council of Black Studies).

2019: Stefan M. Bradley, Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Ivory League (NYU Press, 2018).
2018: Monique Bedasse, Jah Kingdom: Rastafarians, Tanzania, and Pan-Africanism in the Age of Decolonization (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2017).

ASALH Book Prize For book that engages the archival record to illuminate and analyze African Americans’ social, political, and cultural realities (Association for the Study of African American Life and History).

2021: Best new book in African American history and culture
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen,
From Here to Equality Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century (Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, 2020).

Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize For best book on East African Studies (African Studies Association)

2020: Elizabeth Giorgis, Modernist Art in Ethiopia (Ohio University Press, 2019).
2019: Laura Fair,
Reel Pleasures: Cinema Audiences and Entrepreneurs in Twentieth-Century Urban  Tanzania (Ohio University Press, 2018).
2018: Getnet Bekele,
Ploughing New Ground: Food, Farming, and Environmental Change in Ethiopia (James Currey Press, 2017).
2017: Bert Ingelaere,
Inside Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts: Seeking Justice after Genocide (University of Wisconsin Press, 2016).
2016: Elena Vezzadini,
Lost Nationalism Revolution, Memory and Anti-colonial Resistance in Sudan (James Currey Press, 2015).

Black Caucus of the American Library Association Excellence in adult nonfiction by an African American author

2021: Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own (Crown Publishing Group, 2020).
2020:
Daniel R. Day, Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem: A Memoir (Random House, 2019).
2019: Jeffrey C. Stewart,
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke (Oxford University Press, 2018).
2018: Lawrence P.  Jackson,
Chester B. Himes: A Biography (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2017).
2017: Margot Lee Shetterly,
Hidden Figures (HarperCollins, 2016).
2016: Pamela Newkirk,
Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga (Amistad, 2016).

Dr. C. Calvin Smith Book Award (Southern Conference on African American Studies); Renamed C. Calvin Smith – Wali R. Kharif Book Award February 7, 2020.

2019: Darius J. Young., Robert R. Church, Jr. and the African American Political Struggle.  (University Presses of Florida, 2019).
2017: Reginald K. Ellis,
Between Washington and DuBois: The Racial Politics of James Edward Shepard (University Presses of Florida, 2017).
2016: Guzman Will,
Civil Rights in the Texas Borderlands: Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon and Black Activism (University of Illinois Press, 2015).

Elliott P. Skinner Book Award Book that best furthers both the global community of Africanist scholars and the wider interests of the African continent (Association for Africanist Anthropology).

2020: Jatin Dua (University of Michigan), Captured at Sea: Piracy and Protection in the Indian Ocean (University of California Press, 2019).
2019: Michael Lambek (University of Toronto),
Island in the Stream: An Ethnographic History of Mayotte (University of Toronto Press, 2018).
2018: Jean Hunleth (Washington University in St. Louis),
Children as Caregivers:  The Global Fight against Tuberculosis and HIV in Zambia (Rutgers University Press, 2017).
2017: Yolanda Covington-Ward (University of Pittsburgh),
Gesture and Power:  Religion, Nationalism, and Everyday Performance in Congo (Duke University Press, 2016).
2016: James Ferguson (Stanford University),
Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution (Duke University Press, 2015).

Frederick Douglass Book Prize Most outstanding nonfiction book in English on the subject of slavery, resistance, and/or abolition (Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition).

2020: Sophie White, Voices of the Enslaved: Love, Labor, and Longing in French Louisiana (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press, 2019).

2019: Amy Murrell Taylor, Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War’s Slave Refugee Camps (The University of North Carolina Press, 2018).

2018, Co-winners:

Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge (37 Ink, 2017).

Tiya Miles, The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits (The New Press, 2017).

2017: Manisha Sinha, The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition (Yale University Press, 2016).

2016: Jeff Forret, Slave Against Slave: Plantation Violence in the Old South (LSU Press, 2015).

Harriet Tubman Prize Book on the slave trade, slavery, and anti-slavery in the Atlantic World (NYPL Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery).

2020: Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (Yale University Press, 2019).

2019: Kevin Dawson, Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018).

2018: Tamara J. Walker, Exquisite Slaves: Race, Clothing, and Status in Colonial Lima (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

2017: David Wheat, Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 (University of North Carolina Press, 2016).

2016: Aisha K. Finch, Rethinking Slave Rebellion in Cuba: La Escalera and the Insurgencies of 1841-1844 (The University of North Carolina Press, 2015).

Harry Shaw and Katrina Hazzard-Donald Award African-American popular culture studies (Popular Culture Association).

2020: Brenna Wynn Greer, Represented: The Black Image-makers Who Reimagined African American Citizenship (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).

2019: Howard Bryant , The Heritage, Black Athletes, A Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism (Beacon Press, 2018).

Herskovits Prize Most important scholarly work in African studies published in English (African Studies Association); Also known as ASA Book Prize (renamed in 2019 “in efforts to decolonize African studies”).

2020: Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-determination, (Princeton University Press, 2019).

2019: Michael A. Gomez, African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa (Princeton University Press, 2018).

2018: Lisa A. Lindsay, Atlantic Bonds: A Nineteenth-Century Odyssey from America to Africa (University of North Carolina Press, 2017).

2017: Fallou Ngom, Muslims Beyond the Arab World: The Odyssey of Ajami and the Muridiyya (Oxford University Press, 2016)

2016: Chika Okeke-Agulu, Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in Twentieth-Century Nigeria (Duke University Press, 2015).

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award  Best work of nonfiction in Black literature in the United States and around the globe (Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation).

2020: Albert Woodfox, Solitary: A Biography (Grove Press, 2019).
2019: Imani Perry,
May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem (The University of North Carolina Press, 2018).
2018: Tiya Miles,
The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits (The New Press, 2017).
2017: Kali Nicole Gross, Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso: A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America (Oxford University Press, 2016).
2016: Pamela Newkirk,
Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga (Amistad, 2016).

Martin A. Klein Prize Most distinguished work of scholarship on continental African history published in English (American Historical Association).

2020: Abena Dove Osseo-Asare, Atomic Junction: Nuclear Power in Africa after Independence (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2019).

2019: Michael A. Gomez, African Dominion: A New History of Empire in Early and Medieval West Africa (Princeton Univ. Press, 2018).

2018: Kenda Mutongi, Matatu: A History of Popular Transportation in Nairobi (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2017).

2017: Mustafah Dhada, The Portuguese Massacre of Wiriyamu in Colonial Mozambique, 1964-2013 (Bloomsbury, 2016).

2016: Nancy Hunt, A Nervous State: Violence, Remedies, and Reverie in Colonial Congo (Duke Univ. Press, 2015).

NAACP Image Award - Nonfiction outstanding representations and achievements of people of color in nonfiction (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)

2021: Barack Obama, A Promised Land (Crown, 2020).

2020: Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations (Knopf, 2019).

2019: Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, Minyon Moore, Veronica Chambers, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics (St. Martin’s Press, 2018).

2018: Dick Gregory, Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies (Amistad, 2017).

2017: Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures (HarperCollins, 2016).

2016: Pamela Newkirk, Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga (Amistad, 2016).

Pauli Murray Book Prize Best book in Black intellectual history (African American Intellectual History Society).

2020: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership (University of North Carolina Press, 2019).

2019: Elizabeth Todd-Breland, A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago since the 1960s (University of North Carolina Press, 2018).

2018: Christopher M. Tinson, Radical Intellect: Liberator Magazine and Black Activism in the 1960s (University of North Carolina Press, 2017).

Stone Book Award Scholarship and writing within the field of African American history and culture (Museum of African American History).

2020: Jelani M. Favors, Shelter in the time of a Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism (University of North Carolina Press, 2019).

2019: Julius S. Scott, The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution (Verso, 2018).

2018: Tera W. Hunter, Bound in Wedlock: Slave and Free Black Marriage in the Nineteenth Century (Belknap Press, 2017).

Stowe Prize Distinguished book of general adult fiction or nonfiction that illuminates a critical social issue (Harriet Beecher Stowe Center).

2021: Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own (Crown Publishing Group, 2020).

2020: Albert Woodfox, Solitary: A Biography (Grove Press, 2019).

2018: Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Crown Publishers, 2016).

2017: Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (Spiegel & Grau, 2014).

W.E.B. DuBois Distinguished Book Award Books whose subject grapple with fundamental questions of political power, race, and other intersections of oppression (National Conference of Black Political Scientists).

2020, Co-winners:

Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (Princeton University Press, 2019).

Niambi Michele Carter, American While Black: African Americans, Immigration and the Limits of Citizenship (Oxford University Press, 2019).

2019, Co-winners:

Danielle Pillar Clealand (University of South Florida), The Power of Race in Cuba: Racial Ideology and Black Consciousness during the Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2017).

Domingo Morel (Rutgers University-Newark), Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2018).

2018, Co-winners:

Caroline Shenaz Hossein, Politicized Microfinance: Money, Power and Violence in the Black Americas (University of Toronto Press, 2016).

Keesha Middlemass, Convicted and Condemned: The Politics and Policies of Reentry (NYU Press, 2017).

2017, Co-winners:

Shatema Threadcraft, Intimate Justice: The Black Female Body and the Body Politic (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Daniel Q. Gillon, Governing with Words: The Political Dialogue on Race, Public Policy, and Inequality in America (Cambridge University Press, 2016).

2016:  Christopher Stout, Bringing Race Back In: Black Politicians, Deracialization, and Voting Behavior in the Age of Obama (University of Virginia Press, 2015).

Wesley-Logan Prize Outstanding book in African diaspora history (American Historical Association and Association for the Study of African American Life & History).

2020: Benjamin Talton, In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).

2019: Yuko Miki, Frontiers of Citizenship: A Black and Indigenous History of Postcolonial Brazil (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2019).

2018: Monique Bedasse, Jah Kingdom: Rastafarians, Tanzania, and Pan-Africanism in the Age of Decolonization (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2017).

2017: Sowande' Mustakeem, Slavery at Sea: Terror, Sex, and Sickness in the Middle Passage (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2016).

2016: Carina Ray, Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex, and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana (Ohio Univ. Press, 2015).

William Sanders Scarborough Prize Outstanding scholarly study of black American literature or culture (Modern Language Association).

2019: James Edward Ford III (Occidental College), Thinking through Crisis: Depression-Era Black Literature, Theory, and Politics (Fordham Univ. Press, 2019).

2018: Darius Bost (University of Utah),  Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural Renaissance and the Politics of Violence (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2018).

2017, Co-winners:

Sonya Posmentier (New York University) Cultivation and Catastrophe: The Lyric Ecology of Modern Black Literature (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2017).

C. Riley Snorton (University of Chicago) Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2017).

2016: GerShun Avilez (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) Radical Aesthetics and Modern Black Nationalism (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2016).

Fiction Awards: African/African American Studies

Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize Prioritizes African women's experiences (Women's Caucus of the African Studies Association).

2020: Jumoke Verissimo, A Small Silence (Cassava Republic, 2019).

2018:  Lesley Nneka Arimah, What it Means When a Man Falls From the Sky (New York: Riverhead Books, 2017).

2016: Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing  (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016).

Black Caucus of the American Library Association  Excellence in adult fiction by an African American author.

2020: Colson Whitehead, The Nickel Boys: A Novel (Knopf, 2019).

2019: Tayari Jones, An American Marriage: A Novel (Chapel Hill, 2018) .

2018: Roxane Gay, Difficult Women (Grove Press, 2017).

2017: Jacqueline Woodson, Another Brooklyn: A Novel, (Amistad. 2016).

2016: Toni Morrison, God Help the Child: A Novel, (Knopf, 2015).

Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence Rising African-American fiction writers not yet widely recognized for their work (Baton Rouge Area Foundation).

2020: Gabriel Bump, Everywhere You Don’t Belong (Algonquin Young Readers, 2020).

2019: Bryan Washington, Lot: Stories (Riverhead Books, 2019).

2018: Jamel Brinkley, A Lucky Man: Stories (Graywolf Press, 2018).

2017: Ladee Hubbard, The Talented Ribkins (Melville House, 2017).

2016: Crystal Wilkinson, The Birds of Opulence (University Press of Kentucky, 2016).

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award - Fiction Best work of fiction in Black literature in the United States and around the globe (Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation).

2020: Curdella Forbes, A Tall History of Sugar (Akashic Books, 2019).

2019: Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Heads of the Colored People: Stories (37Ink/Atria, 2019).

2018: Alain Mabanckou, Black Moses: A Novel (The New Press, 2017).

2017: Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad: A Novel (Doubleday, 2016).

2016: James Hannaham, Delicious Foods: A Novel (Little, Brown and Company, 2015).

NAACP Image Award - Fiction outstanding representations and achievements of people of color in fiction (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

2021: Walter Mosley, The Awkward Black Man (Grove Atlantic, 2020).

2020: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, The Revisioners: A Novel (Counter Point Press, 2019).

2019: Tayari Jones, An American Marriage: A Novel (Chapel Hill, 2018) .

2018: Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Maria Tatar, The Annotated African American Folktales (Liveright, 2017).

2017: Bernice L. McFadden , The Book of Harlan (Akashic Books, 2016).

2016: Victoria Christopher Murrary,  Stand Your Ground (Gallery Books, 2015).