NAACP Image Awards
Nominees for Literature

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has given striking writers permission to work for the 39th annual NAACP Image Awards ceremony. This means that the show can go on without fear of being picketed by writers. And the ceremony won’t suffer the same fate as the Golden Globes award ceremony, which was reduced from the usual big gala to a brief press conference. Bet those writers are lined up for the NAACP gig.

The 39th NAACP Image Awards ceremony will air live on February 14 on FOX. The awards honor diversity in the arts in television, film and literature.

I was once nominated for an Image Award for my historical novel, A Long Way From Home, and it is a huge honor, with a glitzy affair in Los Angeles where all the stars come out. If memory serves me right, at that time there was only one award for literature, and Nikki Giovanni beat out me and a handful of other authors. Still I had fun, and I can’t complain about losing to Nikki. She’s awesome.

I’m pleased to see that the number of nominees for literature has mushroomed to dozens in several categories, from fiction and autobiography to poetry and books for the young ones. That’s a reflection of how many more books are being written by African Americans.

Here’s the list of the NAACP Image Awards nominees in the literary categories–

Outstanding Literary Work - Fiction

• Blonde Faith - Walter Mosley (Little, Brown & Company)
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Junot Diaz (Penguin/Riverhead)
• Cion: A Novel - Zakes Mda (Picador)
• Knots - Nuruddin Farah (Penguin/Riverhead)
• New England White: A Novel - Stephen L. Carter (Alfred A. Knopf/RH)

Outstanding Literary Work - Non-Fiction

• An Unbroken Agony - Randall Robinson (Basic Civitas Books/Perseus)
• Brother, I’m Dying - Edwidge Danticat (Alfred A. Knopf/RH)
• Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip-Hop - Michael Eric Dyson (Basic Civitas Books/Perseus)
• Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond - Don Cheadle, John Prendergast (Hyperion)
• Race and Racism in the Chinas: Chinese Racial Attitudes Toward Africans and African-Americans - M. Dujon Johnson (Authorhouse)

Outstanding Literary Work - Debut Author

• The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears - Dinaw Mengestu (Penguin/Riverhead)
• Grace Will Lead Me Home - Robin Givens (Hyperion)
• Like Trees, Walking - Ravi Howard (Harper Collins/-Amistad)
• A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - Ishmael Beah (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir - Victoria Rowell (Harper Collins)

Outstanding Literary Work - Biography/Autobiography

• I Got Your Back: A Father and Son Keep it Real About Love, Fatherhood, Family, and Friendship - Eddie Levert Sr., Gerald Levert, Lyah Beth LeFlore (Broadway Books)
• My Grandfather’s Son - Clarence Thomas (Harper Collins)
• Obama: From Promise to Power - David Mendell (Harper Collins/Amistad)
• Silent Gesture: The Autobiography of Tommie Smith - Tommie Smith, David Steele (Temple University Press)
• The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir - Victoria Rowell (Harper Collins/William Morrow)

Outstanding Literary Work - Instructional

• The Covenant in Action - Tavis Smiley (Smiley Books)
• Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Success -Russell Simmons (Penguin/Gotham)
• Get Yours!: The Girlfriends’ Guide to Having Everything You Ever Dreamed of and More - Amy Dubois Barnett (Random House/Broadway)
• Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits - T. D. Jakes (Simon & Schuster/Atria Books)
• This Year You Write Your Novel - Walter Mosley (Little, Brown & Company)

Outstanding Literary Work - Poetry

• Acolytes: Poems - Nikki Giovanni (Harper Collins/William Morrow)
• Duende - Tracy K. Smith (Gray Wolf Press)
• Eloquence: Rhythm and Renaissance - Usiku (UsiKu.net)
• Quiver of Arrows - Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Selected Poems - Derek Walcott (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Outstanding Literary Work - Children

• A Friendship For Today - Patricia C. McKissack (Scholastic Inc.)
• Elijah of Buxton - Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic Inc.)
• Let it Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals - Ashley Bryan (Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing/Atheneum)
• Nothing but Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson - Sue Stauffacher, Author; Greg Couch, Illustrator (Random House)
• Young Pelé: Soccer’s First Star - Lesa Cline-Ransome, Author; James Ransome, Illustrator (Random House)

Outstanding Literary Work - Youth/Teens

• Body Drama - Nancy Redd (Penguin/Gotham)
• Center for Cartoon Studies Presents: Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow - James Sturm, Author; Rich Tommaso, Illustrator (Hyperion Books for Children/Disney Publishing)
• Divine Confidential - Jacquelin Thomas (Pocketbooks/Simon & Schuster)
• More Than Entertainers: An Inspirational Black Career Guide - Charles B. Schooler, Author; Gary Young, Illustrator (Zenith Publishing)
• Shadow Speaker - Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (Hyperion Books for Children/Disney Publishing)

Photo credit: sjlocke/iStockphoto