Michelle Obama, Nnedi Okorafor, and Angie Thomas are among the winners of the literary categories at this year’s NAACP Image Awards, which celebrate “Black excellence and achievement” in the arts.
Obama won the biography/autobiography prize for The Look, co-written with Meredith Koop, a coffee table book about the former first lady’s fashion and style. Obama won the same award in 2019 for her memoir, Becoming.
Okorafor was named the winner in the fiction category for her novel Death of the Author, while Thomas won the youth/teens prize for Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Book of Anansi, illustrated by Setor Fiadzigbey. Thomas’ The Hate U Give was a finalist for the award in 2018.
The children’s prize went to Yvonne Clark and Her Engineering Spark, written by Allen R. Wells and illustrated by DeAndra Hodge, while Charles B. Fancher was awarded the debut author award for Red Clay. The graphic novel award was given to Parable of the Talents, written by Octavia E. Butler, adapted by Damien Duffy, and illustrated by John Jennings and David Brame.
Will Packer won the instructional award for Who Better Than You?, and Juanita Tolliver received the nonfiction prize for A More Perfect Party. The poetry award went to Patricia Smith for The Intentions of Thunder. Anissa Durham won the first-ever journalism award for her series of articles On Borrowed Time.
The NAACP Image Awards were first presented in 1967. Previous literary winners include Toni Morrison for Love, Bryan Stevenson for Just Mercy, and Jason Reynolds for As Brave as You.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
