US NAACP Image Awards 2025 nominees announced.

The NAACP Image Awards 2025 finalists were announced on US TV on Tuesday, January 7, 2025.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States aimed at advancing justice for African Americans. It was founded by W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey, and Ida B. Wells in 1909. One of its most popular events is the Image Awards where the highest achieving Black people have been awarded in various fields since 1967. Some of the best writers in the USA were awarded in the literary categories in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

The nominees for 2025 in the different categories including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and work for children and youth/teens were announced on Tuesday.

“We look forward to celebrating the brilliance of Black talent and creativity whose stories shape culture, ignite change, and inspire generations,” said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. “Through film, music, literature, and more, their voices weave a rich tapestry that honors our heritage, celebrates our identity, and proves that storytelling is a powerful force for driving true progress.”

The following are in the running for the literary categories;

Fiction

• A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, Tia Williams (Grand Central Publishing – Hachette Book Group)
• Grown Woman, Sarai Johnson (Harper – HarperCollins Publishers)
• Neighbors and Other Stories, Diane Oliver, Tayari Jones (Foreword) (Grove Atlantic)
• One of Us Knows: A Thriller, Alyssa Cole (William Morrow – HarperCollins Publishers)
• What You Leave Behind, Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow – HarperCollins Publishers)

Nonfiction

• A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune, Noliwe Rooks (Penguin Press – Penguin Books)
• Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest, Fawn Weaver (Melcher Media Inc.)
• Picturing Black History: Photographs and Stories that Changed the World, Daniela Edmeier, Damarius Johnson, Nicholas B. Breyfogle and Steven Conn (Abrams Books – Harry N. Abrams)
• The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience, Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine (Clarkson Potter – Crown Publishing Group)
• The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America, Larry Tye (Mariner Books – HarperCollins Publishers)

Debut Author

• A Kind of Madness, Uche Okonkwo (Tin House Books)
• AfroCentric Style: A Celebration of Blackness & Identity in Pop Culture, Shirley Neal (HarperCollins Amistad)
• Grown Woman, Sarai Johnson (Harper – HarperCollins Publishers)
• Masquerade, O.O. Sangoyomi (Forge Books – Tor Publishing Group)
• Swift River, Essie Chambers (Simon & Schuster)

Biography/Autobiography

• Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me, Whoopi Goldberg (Blackstone Publishing)
• By the Time You Read This: The Space Between Cheslie’s Smile and Mental Illness ― Her Story in Her Own Words, Cheslie Kryst and April Simpkins (Forefront Books)
• Do It Anyway: Don’t Give Up Before It Gets Good, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Sarah Jakes Roberts (Foreword) (WaterBrook – Penguin Random House)
• Lovely One: A Memoir, Ketanji Brown Jackson (Random House)
• Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America, Joy-Ann Reid (Mariner Books – HarperCollins Publishers)

Poetry

• Bluff: Poems, Danez Smith (Graywolf Press)
• Good Dress, Brittany Rogers (Tin House Books)
• Load in Nine Times: Poems, Frank X Walker (Liveright Publishing – W.W. Norton & Company)
• Song of My Softening, Omotara James (Alice James Books)
• This Is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets, Kwame Alexander (Little, Brown and Company)

Children

• All I Need to Be, Rachel Ricketts (Author), Tiffany Rose (Illustrator) with Luana Horry (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
• Cicely Tyson, Renée Watson (Author), Sherry Shine (Illustrator) (Amistad Books for Young Readers)
• Crowning Glory: A Celebration of Black Hair , Carole Boston Weatherford (Author), Ekua Holmes (Illustrator) (Candlewick Press)
• My Hair Is a Book, Maisha Oso (Author), London Ladd (Illustrator) (HarperCollins Publishers)
• You Can Be a Good Friend (No Matter What!): A Lil TJ Book, Taraji P. Henson (Author), Paul Kellam (Illustrator) (Zonderkidz – HarperCollins)

Youth/Teens

• American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky, Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)
• Barracoon Adapted for Young Readers The Story of the Last Black Cargo, Zora Neale Hurston, Ibram X. Kendi (Adapted by), Jazzmen Lee-Johnson (Illustrator) (Amistad Books for Young Readers)
• Black Star: The Door of No Return, Kwame Alexander (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
• Brushed Between Cultures: A YA Coming of Age Novel Set in Brooklyn, New York — Samarra St. Hilaire (Samarra St. Hilaire)
• Clutch Time: A Shot Clock Novel (Shot Clock, 2), Caron Butler and Justin A. Reynolds (HarperCollins Publishers)

Graphic Novel

• Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined. David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson (Ten Speed Graphic – Penguin Random House)
• Black Defender: The Awakening, Dr. David Washington, Mr. Zhengis Tasbolatov (Illustrator), Mr. Billy Blanks (Foreword) (Washington Comix)
• Gamerville, Johnnie Christmas (HarperAlley – HarperCollins Publishers)
• Ghost Roast, Shawneé Gibbs, Shawnelle Gibbs, Emily Cannon (Illustrator) (Versify – HarperCollins Publishers)
• Punk Rock Karaoke, Bianca Xunise (Viking Books for Young Readers)

The winners will be revealed during the two–hour LIVE TV special, airing Saturday, February 22, 2025

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