Ohio University professor receives Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
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| Zakes Mda |
ATHENS, Ohio -- Zakes Mda, professor of English, has won the first prize in the 2003 Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award™ for his book, "The Heart of Redness" published by Farrar Straus Giroux. The prize of $10,000 and a statuette were awarded at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 11.
The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation was established in September 1990 by novelist Marita Golden, to develop, nurture and sustain the world community of writers of African descent. Its programs and services preserve the legacy and ensure the future of Black writing.
The foundation is named for two genuises of American and world literature, Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright. The foundation presents monetary awards for writers of African descent -- the Hurston/Wright LegacyAward and the Hurston/Wright Award -- and a multi-genre summer writers' workshop for Black writers, Hurston/Wright Writers' Week.
The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award was presented in partnership with Borders Books and Music.
Nominees in the fiction category included:
- Crystal Wilkinson, "Water Street," Toby Press
- Yvonne Vera, "Without a Name" and "Under the Tongue," Farrar Straus Giroux
- Jewell Parker Rhones, "Douglass' Women," Simon and Schuster/Atria Books
- Victor LaValle, "The Ecstatic," Crown
- Elizabeth Nunez, "Discretion," Ballantine/One World
- Zakes Mda, "The Heart of Redness," Farrar Straus Giroux
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Media Contact: Janice Roché, (740) 597-1833 or roche@ohio.edu
