Ernest J Gaines Award

I just heard tell of a new award for African American authors. There aren't that many of them out there, so I thought I'd provide a little info on it...

The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence honors the legacy of one of America's finest literary treasures and recognizes the work of a deserving fiction writer. The winner will receive a $10,000 award and present a reading from the work at the award ceremony in January 2008. Travel, accommodations, and meals will be provided. The panel of jurors for the award includes Alice Walker, Dr. John Callahan, and Dr. Rudy Byrd.

Criteria for submission: Any book-length work of fiction published during 2006; the writer must be an African-American. Submissions will be accepted from February 1, 2007 through April 30, 2007. To enter a book for review, send completed registration form, available at their site, and 4 copies of the book to:

The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence
c/o The Baton Rouge Area Foundation
402 N. Fourth St.
Baton Rouge, LA 70802

Here's some info on the man himself... Ernest J. Gaines (b. January 15, 1933) is a prominent African-American fiction writer and writer-in-residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, which did win the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. In 2004, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His books include Mozart and Leadbelly: Stories and Essays (2005), A Gathering of Old Men (1983), In My Father's House (1978), A Long Day in November (1971) and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971).