Literary Writers Win Big @ 45th NAACP Image Awards admin Monday, February 24, 2014 Tune In On Saturday (Feb. 22), the 45th NAACP Image Awards was aired on TV One. The awards program praised the individuals of color who have accomplished and made significant strides in their career fields. The event was held in Pasadena, California at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The NAACP Image Awards recognizes individuals in several different categories: Motion Picture, Television, Recording, Writing/Directing, and Literature. Some of the big winners of the evening were ’12 Years a Slave’ for Outstanding Motion Picture, “Real Husbands of Hollywood” for Outstanding Comedy Series, “Scandal” for Outstanding Drama Series, John Legend for Outstanding Male Artist, and Beyonce for Outstanding Female Artist. Funny man, Kevin Hart, took home a top award as Entertainer of the Year, also Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series (“Real Husbands of Hollywood”). Although, there were many winners in each category, the NAACP organization did a great job at honoring those individuals who uses writing as their form of artistic expression. Per NAACP’s website, Rich in tradition and heritage, but still in constant renewal, literature is probably the oldest of our forms of artistic expression. That it remains a vibrant creative field of endeavor is seen in the wealth of talent found among this year’s Award candidates. To see which books/authors were nominated and won, check out the full list of winners in the Literature category below: Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction “A Deeper Love Inside: The Porscha Santiaga Story” – Sister Souljah “Anybody’s Daughter” – Pamela Samuels Young – WINNER “Little Green: An Easy Rawlins Mystery” – Walter Mosley “Never Say Never: A Novel” – Victoria Christopher Murray “Who Asked You?” – Terry McMillan Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction “Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations: 5,000 Years of Literature, Lyrics, Poems, Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs from Voices Around the World” – Retha Powers “Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery” – Deborah Willis, Barbara Krauthamer – WINNER “High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society” – Carl Hart “Letters to an Incarcerated Brother: Encouragement, Hope, and Healing for Inmates and Their Loved Ones” – Hill Harper “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross” – Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Donald Yacovone Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author “Better Than Good Hair – The Curly Girl Guide to Healthy Gorgeous Natural Hair!” – Nikki Walton with Ernessa T. Carter “Ghana Must Go” – Taiye Selasi “Nine Years Under” – Sheri Booker – WINNER “On The Come Up” – Hannah Weyer “The Returned” – Jason Mott Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/ Auto-Biography “Buck: A Memoir” – MK Asante “Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington” – Terry Teachout “Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker” – Stanley Crouch “Mom & Me & Mom” – Maya Angelou “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks” – Jeanne Theoharis – WINNER Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional “Do I Look Like An ATM? A Parent’s Guide to Raising Financially Responsible African American Children” – Sabrina Lamb “Plan D: How to Lose Weight and Beat Diabetes (Even If You Don’t Have It)” Sherri Shepherd with Billie Fitzpatrick “Recruiting and Retaining Culturally Different Students in Gifted Education” – Donna Y. Ford, Ph.D. “The Entrepreneur Mind: 100 Essential Beliefs, Characteristics, and Habits of Elite Entrepreneurs” – Kevin D. Johnson “The Vegucation of Robin: How Real Food Saved My Life” – Robin Quivers – WINNER Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry “Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid” – Nikki Giovanni “Hum” – Jamaal May “The Cineaste: Poems” – A. Van Jordan “The Collected Poems of Ai” – Ai “Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers” – Frank X Walker – WINNER Outstanding Literary Work – Children “I’m A Pretty Little Black Girl!” – Betty K. Bynum (Author), Claire Armstrong-Parod (Illustrator) “Knock Knock: My Dad’s Dream for Me” – Daniel Beaty (Author), Bryan Collier (Illustrator) “Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song” – Andrea Davis Pinkney (Author), Brian Pinkney (Illustrator) “Nelson Mandela” – Kadir Nelson – WINNER “You Never Heard of Willie Mays?!” – Jonah Winter (Author), Terry Widener Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens “Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers” – Tanya Lee Stone – WINNER “God’s Graffiti: Inspiring Stories for Teens” – Romal Tune “Invasion” – Walter Dean Myers “Raising the Bar” – Gabrielle Douglas “Serafina’s Promise: A Novel In Verse” – Ann E. Burg For the entire list of winners and photos from the 45th NAACP Image Awards, please visit www.NAACPImageAwards.net.
