2006 Legacy Awards Announced...

Very pleased to say Pride of Carthage ended up being a finalist for the 2006 Legacy Award for Fiction. The top prize went to Nancy Rawles for My Jim. Congrats to her. I was very happy to share the runner-up position with Tayari Jones and her The Untelling. Tayari and I have a history with the Hurston/Wright Foundation. We both won their award for college writers and both won a Legacy Award for Debut Fiction and now both have this Finalist nod. We've also read together at NYU and for Pen/Faulkner and other stuff and... Well, I'm assuming I'll see Tayari again before too long.

Definitely a good night, and rare when you consider how few and far between these types of literary evenings are. I sort flew in and out with hardly a pause, but it was good to get a quick injection of DC urbanity. (Very different than the Colorado Springs "urban" experience.) You could check out Tayari's Blog if you're interested. She posted some nice photos from the evening. Also, The Washington Post covered the evening in an article.

And it goes without saying that I want to thank the Hurston Wright Foundation for being the force that they are in support of black writers and writing.