The NAACP announced the nominees for its annual Image Awards, with Viola Davis, Michelle Obama, and Akwaeke Emezi among those in contention in the literary categories.
Davis was nominated in the literary work–nonfiction category for her memoir, Finding Me, alongside Cody Keenan for Grace, RJ Young for Requiem for the Massacre, Linda Villarosa for Under the Skin, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Andrew S. Curran for Who’s Black and Why?
Obama made the shortlist for the literary work–biography/autobiography category for The Light We Carry, along with Jenifer Lewis for Walking in My Joy, Cynt Marshall for You’ve Been Chosen, Sen. Raphael G. Warnock for A Way Out of No Way, and Michael K. Williams for Scenes From My Life.
The nominees in the literary work—fiction category were Emezi for You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty, Sheree Renée Thomas for Africa Risen, Toni Ann Johnson for Light Skin Gone to Waste, Dolen Perkins-Valdez for Take My Hand, and Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes for The Keeper.
In the literary work–debut author category, the nominees were Boyah J. Farah for America Made Me a Black Man; George McCalman for Illustrated Black History; Kevin Fredericks and Melissa Fredericks for Marriage Be Hard; Ekemini Uwan, Christina Edmondson, and Michelle Higgins for Truth’s Table; and Kai Harris for What the Fireflies Knew.
The NAACP Image Awards, which honor the “outstanding achievements and performances of people of color,” were established in 1967. The winners of this year’s prizes will be announced at a televised ceremony on Feb. 25.
A full list of nominees is available at the NAACP website.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
