Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Award
The BCALA Literary Awards recognize outstanding works of fiction and nonfiction by African-American authors for adult audiences.
2005

Fiction:
Leaving Cecil Street, by Diane McKinney-Whetstone

Honor Books:
Robbing Peter, by Kia DuPree
Some People, Some Other Place, by J. California Cooper
The Blackbird Papers, by Ian Smith

Nonfiction:
A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa, by Howard French

Honor Books:
Wrestling With the Muse: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press, by Melba Joyce Boyd
Black Titan: A. G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire, by Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Gardner

First Novelist:
The Darkest Child, by Delores Phillips

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation:
Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, by Lucy Anne Hurston
2004

Fiction:
Hottentot Venus by Barbara Chase-Rihoud

Honor Books:
Loving Donovan by Bernice McFadden
Joshua's Bible by Shelly Leanne

Nonfiction:
In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr. by Wil Haygood

Honor Books:
Freedom In The Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights by Tananarive Due and Patricia Stephens Due
Ella Baker and The Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby

First Novelist:
The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation:
Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representations by Michael D. Harris

2003

Fiction:
Douglass Women, by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Honor Books:
Wisdom by Heather Neff
P. G. County by Connie Briscoe
You Know Better by Tina McElroy Ansa

Nonfiction:
Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies by Elizabeth McHenry

Honor Books:
Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems by Nikki Giovanni
Gumbo: A Celebration of African American Writing edited by Marita Golden and E. Lynn Harris
The Herndons: An Atlanta Family by Carole Merritt

First Novelist:
The Emperor of Ocean Park, by Stephen L. Carter

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation:
We Shall Not Be Moved: The Passage from the Great Migration to the Million Man March by Velma Maia Thomas

2002

Fiction:
I Wish I Had a Red Dress by Pearl Cleage

Honor Books:
John Henry Days, A Novel by Colson Whitehead
Plain Brown Wrapper: An Alex Powell Novel by Karen Grigsby Bates
West of Rehoboth by Alexs D. Pates

Nonfiction:
Vernon Can Read! A Memoir by Vernon E. Jordan

Honor Books:
On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madame C. J. Walker by A’Lelia Bundles
Hoop Roots: Basketball, Race and Love by John Edgar Wideman
American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm by Gail Lumet Buckley

First Novelist:
Gabriel’s Story by David Anthony Durham

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation:
Primetime Blues: African Americans On Network Television by Donald Bogle

2001

Fiction:
The Fisher King by Paule Marshall

Honor Books:
All of Me by Venise Berry
Sugar by Bernice McFadden

Nonfiction:
Slavery In Florida: Territorial Days To Emancipation by Larry Eugene Rivers

Honor Books:
The Art and History of Black Memorabilia by Larry V. Buster
Step Into A World: A Global Anthology of New Black Literature edited by Kevin Powell

First Novelist:
Where I’m Bound by Allen B. Ballard

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation:
W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century 1919–1963 by David Levering Lewis

2000

Fiction:
Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do by Valerie Wilson Wesley

Honor Books:
Those Bones Are Not My Child by Toni Cade Bambara
The Ghost by Marc Olden
Imani All Mine by Connie Porter
On The Bus With Rosa Parks: Poems by Rita Dove

Nonfiction:
Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family 1846-1926 by Adele Logan Alexander

Honor Books
B Smith: Rituals & Celebrations by Barbara Smith
Finding A Place Called Home: A Guide to African-American Genealogy and Historical Identity by Dee Parmer Woodtor

First Novelist:
Inner City Blues by Paula L. Woods

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing:
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

1999

Fiction:
The Healing by Gayl Jones

Honor Books:
A Toast Before Dying: A Mali Anderson Mystery by Grace F. Edwards
See No Evil by Eleanor Taylor Bland

Nonfiction:
Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts by Carolyn Mazloomi (Clarkson Potter)

Honor Books:
Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary by Juan Williams
Sacred Bond: Black Men and Their Mothers by Keith Michael Brown

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing:
The History of Black Business in America: Capitalism, Race, Entrepreneurship by Juliet E. K. Walker

1998

Fiction:
The River Where Blood Is Born by Sandra Jackson-Opoku

Honor Books:
Only Twice I've Wished for Heaven by Dawn Turner Trice
The Thang That Ate My Grandaddy's Dog by John Calvin Rainey
Tryin' to Sleep in the Bed You Made by Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant

Nonfiction:
The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey by Toi Derricotte

Honor Books:
Jackie Robinson: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad
Lest We Forget: The Passage From Africa to Slavery and Emancipation: A Three-Dimensional Interactive Book With Photographs and Documents from the Black Holocaust Exhibit by Velma Maia Thomas
An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad by Claude Andrew Clegg

First Novelist:
The View From Here by Brian Keith Jackson

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing:
Black Classic Press

1997

Fiction:
Sarah’s Psalm by Florence Ladd

Honor Books:
Flight of the Blackbird by Faye McDonald Smith
Gospel Choirs: Psalms of Survival in an Alien Land Called Home by Derrick Bell

Nonfiction:
Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol by Nell Irvin Painter

Honor Books:
America Is Me by Kennell Jackson
Deep Sightings and Rescue Missions: Fiction, Essays, and Conversations by Toni Cade Bambara and edited by Toni Morrison

First Novelist:
Push by Sapphire

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing:
Albert Murray (novelist, literature professor, and music scholar)

1996

Fiction:
RL's Dream by Walter Mosley

Honor Book:
The Good Negress by A. J. Verdelle

Nonfiction:
Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men In America, edited by Herb Boyd and Robert L. Allen

First Novelist:
An Open Weave by Devorah Major

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing:
Spooks, Spies, and Private Eyes: Black Mystery, Crime & Suspense Fiction, edited by Paula L. Woods

1995

Fiction:
Rattlebone by Maxine Clair

Honor Books:
I Hear a Symphony: African Americans Celebrate Love by Paula L. Woods and Felix H. Liddell
Rocking the Babies by Linda Raymond

Nonfiction:
I've Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

Honor Books
Conversations with God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African-Americans edited by James Melvin Washington
Daughters: On Family and Fatherhood by Gerald Early

First Novelist:
The Serpent's Gift by Helen Elaine Lee

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing:
Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa by Chester Higgins, Jr.

1994

Fiction:
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

Honor Books:
Getting Right With God by Lionel Newton
Free Enterprise by Michelle Cliff

Nonfiction:
W. E. B. DuBois: Biography of a Race 1868-1919 by David Levering Lewis

Honor Book:
Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance: A Woman's Life Unveiled by Thadious Davis

First Novelist:
Losing Absalom by Alexs D. Pate

Outstanding Contribution to Publishing:
Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia edited by Darlene C. Hine
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