NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author

This article lists the winners and nominees for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Debut Author.

Winners and finalists + Award winners and finalists Year Author TitleResult2007Letters to a Young BrotherWinnerNomineeBoldfaced LiesNomineeNomineeUncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia Nominee2008WinnerNomineeGrace Will Lead Me HomeNominee“Like Trees, Walking” NomineeNominee2009Barack, Race, and the Media: Drawing My Own ConclusionWinner2010 Winner3rd Generation CountryNomineeBlack Water RisingNomineeKiss the SkyNomineeLime Tree Can’t Bear OrangeNominee2011 Winner2012 Winner 2Grieve 2Gether: A Journal from the Heart Helping Survivors and Supporters Navigate the Healing ProcessNominee We the AnimalsNominee Defining Moment: Barack Obama: The Historical Journey to 1600 Pennsylvania AvenueNomineeNominee2013 Nikki G: A Portrait of Nikki Giovanni in Her Own WordsWinner and Allain Ngwala Congo: Spirit of Darkness (Volume 1)Nominee AntebellumNomineeNomineeNominee2014 Nine Years UnderWinner On the Come Up: A Novel, Based on a True StoryNomineeNominee Ghana Must GoNominee2015 Forty AcresWinnerNominee Time of the LocustNominee Queen SugarNominee Remedy for a Broken AngelNominee2016 WinnerNomineeNomineeNominee and Rod DreherNominee2017 Born a Crime: Stories from a South African ChildhoodWinnerCarry OnNomineeCrook County: Racism and Injustice in America's Largest Criminal Court NomineeGraceNomineeUnited: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good Nominee2018No One Is Coming to Save Us WinnerNomineeChasing Spaces: An Astronaut’s Story of Grit, Grace & Second Chances Nominee, with Jeannine Amber Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat NomineeWe're Going to Need More Wine Nominee2019 and Shaun Sanders Us Against the World: Our Secrets to Love, Marriage, and FamilyWinner Small CountryNominee Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights MovementNominee Heads of the Colored People (paperback)Nominee and Clint C. Wilson II Lucile H. Bluford and the Kansas City Call: Activist Voice for Social JusticeNominee2020 I Am Dance: Words and Images of the Black DancerWinner More Than Pretty: Doing the Soul Work That Uncovers Your True BeautyNomineeAmerican Spy NomineeNominee Such a Fun AgeNominee2021 We’re Better Than This: My Fight for the Future of Our DemocracyWinnerNomineeGreyboy: Finding Blackness in a White WorldNomineeLakewoodNomineeNominee2022 Just As I AmWinner My Remarkable JourneyNominee Nominee Nominee Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts Nominee2023Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and the UnseenWinnerAmerica Made Me a Black ManNominee, Christina Edmondson, and Michelle HigginsTruth’s Table: Black Women’s Musings on Life, Love, and LiberationNomineeWhat the Fireflies KnewNominee and Melissa FredericksMarriage Be Hard: 12 Conversations to Keep You Laughing, Loving, and Learning with Your PartnerNominee2024RootlessWinnerAnd Then He Sang a LullabyNomineeColeman HillNomineeNomineeNominee References