Identity or community
Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards
Hurston/Wright Foundation
In short
The Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards are presented by the Hurston/Wright Foundation to Black writers worldwide, in General Fiction, Debut Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry. It is one of the few national programs where self-published authors enter on the same terms as publishers, and winners are celebrated at a ceremony each October. Authors, publishers, and literary agents may all submit. The awards page does not state the fee, copies, or closing date, so confirm those on the foundation's site when the portal opens in the autumn.
Next cycle not announcedChecked September 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
Every label is a fact from the official rules, never a judgment about whether the award is worth entering. How we describe awards.
This program has not published a verified deadline for its next cycle. Use the official link before making plans.
Sign in to be emailed when entries open again.
The Hurston/Wright Legacy Awards, presented by the Hurston/Wright Foundation and also referred to as the Zora Awards, honor Black writers in the United States and around the world for literary achievement in published books. The categories listed on the awards page are General Fiction, Debut Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Poetry, and the foundation also presents merit honors (the North Star, Ella Baker, and Madam C.J. Walker awards) that are not entered.
Books may be submitted by the author, the publisher, or a literary agent, and both commercially published and self-published books qualify. The current call covers books with 2025 release dates. The submission portal traditionally opens the day after the Legacy Awards ceremony and closes by January.
The awards page does not state a fee, the number of copies, or the exact closing date, so check the submission guidelines linked from the foundation site when the portal is open. Winners are celebrated at a ceremony each October.
Why it may matter
This is the longest-running national award program devoted to Black writers, and it is one of the few in that space where self-published authors can enter on the same terms as publishers. The submission window opens in the autumn and closes in early winter, so a book with a late-year publication date needs its entry planned around the ceremony rather than the calendar year.
2026 cycle: 2026 Legacy Awards (books released in 2025)
- Eligible publication dates
- January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025
- Deadline note
- Portal traditionally opens the day after the previous October's ceremony and closes by January; the exact closing date is not stated on the awards page
- Entry fee
- Fee not stated on the awards page; check the submission guidelinesChecked September 13, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
- Results
- Winners celebrated at the 25th annual Legacy Awards ceremony on Friday, October 9, 2026, in Washington D.C.
Worth knowing
Our reading, not a rule the organization published. We judge an award on the rubric in how we describe awards.
Timing is anchored to the ceremony, not the calendar: the portal opens the day after the October event for books released that year and closes by January. The exact closing date and any fee were not on the page when verified, so confirm them on the foundation site before entering.
Rules and deadlines change. We last checked this information on September 13, 2026. If you see something that needs updating, please tell us.
Run this award? Confirm or correct this record.
Use your work email. If it is on the domain the record already links to, we send you a link that opens the record for you to confirm or correct. Otherwise a person reads it and gets back to you.