2008 ESSENCE LITERARY AWARDS FINALISTS

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FICTION

Red River by Lalita Tademy/Grand Central Publishing
Casanegra by Blair Underwood, Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due/Atria
The Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson/Unbridled Books
New England White by Stephen L. Carter/Knopf
Knots by Nuruddin Farah/Riverhead



MEMOIR

Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat/Knopf
The Women Who Raised Me by Victoria Rowell/William Morrow
Alek by Alek Wek/Amistad
One Drop by Bliss Broyard/Little, Brown and Co.
A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah/Farrar, Straus and Giroux


INSPIRATION

Reposition Yourself by TD Jakes/Atria
From the Heart by Robin Roberts/Hyperion
Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy/Tyndale
Do You! by Russell Simmons/Penguin
How Strong Women Pray by Bonnie St. John/Faith Words


NONFICTION

The Bond by Sampson Davis, George Jenkins and Rameck Hunt/Riverhead
Friends: A Love Story by Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance/Harlequin
I Got Your Back by Eddie and Gerald Levert/Harlem Moon
Foreigners by Caryl Phillips/Knopf
Supreme Discomfort by Michael Fletcher and Kevin Merida/Doubleday


CURRENT AFFAIRS

Come on People by Bill Cosby/Thomas Nelson
The Covenant in Action by Tavis Smiley/Smiley Books
An Unbroken Agony by Randall Robinson/Basic Civitas
Know What I Mean? By Michael Eric Dyson/Perseus Books Group
Twice As Good by Marcus Mabry/Modern Times


PHOTOGRAPHY

Daufuskie Island by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe/University of South Carolina Press
Pop by Carol Ross/Stewart, Tabori & Chang
Jimi Hendrix by Janie Hendrix/Atria
Let Your Motto Be Resistance edited by Deborah Willis/Smithsonian Press
Jewels by Michael Cunningham and Connie Briscoe/Little, Brown and Co.


CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine illustrated by Kadir Nelson/Scholastic
Sugar Cane: A Caribbean Rapunzel by Patricia Storace and Raul Colon/Jump at the Sun
Marvelous World by Troy Cle/Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Publishing
The Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor-mbachu/Jump at the Sun
Sallie Gal and the Wall-a-Kee Man by Shelia P. Moses and Niki Daly/Scholastic


POETRY

Duende by Tracy K. Smith/Graywolf Press
Acolytes by Nikki Giovanni/William Morrow
Totem by Gregory Pardlo/American Poetry Review


LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Terry McMillan


STORYTELLER OF THE YEAR

Eric Jerome Dickey
Lori Bryant-Woolridge
Trisha R. Thomas
L.A. Banks
Tananarive Due



CRITERIA

* Eligible titles were published in 2007
* Finalists illuminate the African-American experience throughout the Diaspora while provoking discussion about the human condition
* Demonstrates excellence and originality in concept, content and execution
* Recommended by ESSENCE readers and ESSENCE Book Club members

*Winners will be announced on February 7, 2008

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