[The Hurston/Wright College Award] was the first award I ever received for #Queen Sugar. I still remember the warm welcome I received when you invited me back to DC for the [Legacy Award] ceremony. That early recognition meant the world to me. Thank you!
The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation is proud to host the annual Hurston/Wright Awards for College Writers, which is the only award of its kind that recognizes Black college writers. The award is the foundation’s first program. It was initiated to support emerging Black artists in fiction and poetry enrolled full-time in an undergraduate or graduate school program anywhere in the United States.
Our first awards program, the Hurston/Wright College Award in Fiction and Poetry has honored 92 students, more than 30 of whom have subsequently published books. Among them are Tayari Jones (An American Marriage), Natalie Baszile (Queen Sugar), and Nate Marshall (Wild Hundreds).
We are no longer accepting submissions for the 2023 College Award. Please join our newsletter to stay updated on when the portal will open for the 2024 College Award.
Hurston/Wright College Award Recipients
Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers Recipients
2023
Winners:
Makshya Tolbert (Poetry)
De’Andre Holmes (Fiction)
2022
Winners:
Lauren Arnold (Fiction)
Sabrina Ticer-Wurr (Poetry)
Winners & Finalists from Previous Years
2021
Winners:
Erica Frederick (Fiction)
monet cooper (Poetry)
2020
Winners:
Sakinah Hofler (Fiction)
Sadia Hassan (Poetry)
2019
Winners:
Trevor Lanuzza (Fiction)
Bernard Ferguson (Poetry)
Finalist (Fiction):
Elinam Agbo
Finalist (Poetry):
Nadia Alexis
2018
Winners:
Desiree Evans (Fiction)
Christell Victoria Roach (Poetry)
Finalist (Fiction):
Mia Hoover
Finalist (Poetry):
Ebony E. Chinn
2017
Winners:
Shakarean Hutchinson (Fiction)
Cheswayo Gabriel Mphanza (Poetry)
2016
Winners:
John S. Wilson III (Fiction)
Joy Priest (Poetry)
Finalists (Fiction): Clynthia Burton Graham
Finalists (Poetry): Vanity Hendricks-Robinson, Latasha D. Johnson
2015
Winners:
Grace Jean-Pierre (Fiction)
Renia White (Poetry)
Finalists (Fiction): Sarah Dickerson, Jasmine Evans
2014
Winners:
Brittany Bennett (Fiction)
Nate Marshall (Poetry)
Finalists (Fiction): Najah Stefany Bint Abdush-Shahid Yasin, Amanda H. Davis
Finalists (Poetry): Rachel Hezekiah, Maria Fernanda Snellings
2013
Winner: Justin Campbell
Finalists: Cary Williams, Samantha Mallory
2012
Winner: Tatehona J. Kelly
Finalists: M. Shelly Conner, Lillian Ayana Gray
2011
Winner: Thai Matthews
Finalists: Leslie Ann Murray, Raven Johnson
2010
Winner: Bethsheba Mcgruder
Finalists: Nadine Pinede, Afia Atakora
2009
Winner: Dionne Irving
Finalists: Ashley Lee Williams, Richard Peacock
2008
Winner: Kelly Kennedy
Finalists: Chidi Asoluka, Antoinette Cole
2007
Winner: Joel Windsor
Finalists: Nicole Terez Dutton, W. Christopher Johnson
2006
Winner: Natalie Baszile
Finalists: Corwin Moore, Asha L. French
2005
Winner:
Finalists:
2004
Winner: Elinathan N. Ohiomoba
Finalists: Mitchell Jackson, Rashida Merritt
2003
Winner: DaMaris Hill
Finalists: Travis Craig, Justin Haynes
2002
Winner: Shannon Gibney
Finalists: Jacinda Townsend, Tracy Price-Thompson
2001
Winner: Ravi Howard
Finalists: R. Erica Doyle, Nnedi Okorafor
2000
Winner: Tayari Jones
Finalists: Faith Adiele, Shelly Thiam
1999
Winner: Genaro Ky Ly Smith
Finalists: Phillip L Cunningham, Dokubo Melford Goodhead
1998
Winner: Brandon Khalif Walston
Finalists: Angel Y. Green, Angela Sherelle Threatt, Linnea Colette Ashley
1997
Winner: Nelly Rosario
Finalists: April Reynolds, Douglas Jones, Crystal Drake
1996
Winner: Gwendolyn Wooten Scott
Finalists: Princess J. L. Perry, Amy DuBois Barnett, Nardya Smith
1995
Winner: Monifa A. Love
Finalists: Trent Masiki, Dedra Johnson, Broc Yusef Hamlin
1994
Winner: Manuel Martinez
Finalists: David Wright, Marc Anthony Richardson, William Henry Lewis
1993
Winner: Kenyatta Dorey Graves
Finalist: Joci Llyn Dyes
1992
Winner: David Anthony Durham
Finalist: Erica Hector Vital
1991
Winner: Paul Derek Moore
Spotlight on Our College Winners
Lauren Arnold 2022 Fiction Winner
“What led me to write this book is I’ve always had that same thing in my mind where [I believed] maybe no one will read this book. But, if anybody does and one person out there sees something of themselves in this and sees it and says, ‘this helped me with something going on in my mind,’ I will consider that an ultimate success.”
Watch Lauren in a special episode of The Black Writer’s Studio podcast.
Erica Frederick 2021 Fiction Winner
“Write the story that’s been living in your head all your life—just get it out. Write the story that you worry is too niche, too out there, too intimate. People are aching to read it. Just don’t forget to sprinkle in that hope and a healthy dose of Black joy. ”
To read a Q&A with Erica and an excerpt from her winning entry, “Fight in the Night,” click here.
monét cooper 2021 Poetry Winner
“bond includes three poems, all elegies about wonder, love, and attempts at liberation in the hold. In these poems, violence lurks everywhere, but so is an ever wide and capacious love for Black life, for the Black self, for ancestry and kinship, for memory that won’t let go. ”
To read a Q&A with monét and an excerpt from her winning entry, “bond,” click here.
Sakinah Hofler 2020 Fiction Winner
“I’ve had the honor and privilege of reading a number of stories with girls and women who look like me, but none with similar backgrounds. ”
Sadia Hassan 2020 Poetry Winner
“The three poems included in “Black Girl Prayer Poems” were separate attempts at making sense of loss.”
To read a Q&A with Sadia and her poem, “Enumeration,” click here.
Trevor Lanuzza 2019 Fiction Winner
“I try to figure out what are the sort of structural things, why are those people there? Why do I feel like I’m so outside? Does everybody feel that?”
Bernard Ferguson 2019 Poetry Winner
“Most of the time, I write toward a sense of wonder, a sense of delight in things. I think that’s the base mode of my thinking, but it’s so hard to sometimes hold onto.”
To read a Q&A with Bernard and an excerpt from his winning entry, “Notes on Migration,” click here.
Desiree Evans 2018 Fiction Winner
“I write stories that try to honor my community’s past, as well as our current and future ways of living. In my writing I try to reflect the world and respond to it. I hope to answer a call, and maybe even create a call.”
To read a Q&A with Desiree and an excerpt from her winning entry, titled “Belly,” click here.
Christell Victoria Roach, 2018 Poetry Winner
“Writing is my way of negotiating what I see, feel, and think. I write until I understand what it is I am seeing with my body, what I am feeling in a space.”
To read a Q&A with Christell and a poem from her winning collection, “Mango Season,” click here.
Shakarean Hutchinson, 2017 Fiction Winner
“I write because there are stories running constantly through my head…. I also like the idea of creating something. Of creating a little world where I’m the architect of everything that gets to be known.”
Read a Q&A with Shakarean and an excerpt from her winning entry, “How to Kill Pigs.”
Cheswayo Gabriel Mphanza, 2017 Poetry Winner
“When I think about the themes, ideas, or concerns that come up in my writing, I notice that all my writing is trying to seek out others whose narratives are about displacement and identity re/formation. I write because I am simply reaching out.”
Read a Q&A with Cheswayo and one of his winning poems, “On Composing.”
John S. Wilson III, 2016 Fiction Winner
“After repeated and close reading, I discovered inside and underneath the diction, the detail, and the rhythm of the prose, the temporal, philosophical, political and historical brilliance – the incisive and thorough truth – of the novel.”
Read a Q&A with John and an excerpt from his winning entry, “4, 6, 8.”
Joy Priest, 2016 Poetry Winner
“I read widely every day, and nearly every day I am introduced to a new poet with whom I’m delighted… I find reading poetry is what ultimately gets me into the writing of poetry.”
Read a Q&A with Joy and a poem from her package, titled “Elegy for Kentucky.”