# NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author

This article lists the winners and nominees for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Debut Author.

## Winners and finalists

Award winners and finalists :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 2007 | Hill Harper | Letters to a Young Brother | Winner |
| 2007 | Lisa Jones Johnson | A Dead Man Speaks | Nominee |
| 2007 | Charlene A. Porter | Boldfaced Lies | Nominee |
| 2007 | Dwight Fryer | The Legend of Quito Road | Nominee |
| 2007 | Bil Carpenter | Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia | Nominee |
| 2008 | Victoria Rowell | The Women Who Raised Me: A Memoir | Winner |
| 2008 | Dinaw Mengestu | The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears | Nominee |
| 2008 | Robin Givens | Grace Will Lead Me Home | Nominee |
| 2008 | Ravi Howard | “Like Trees, Walking” | Nominee |
| 2008 | Ishmael Beah | A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier | Nominee |
| 2009 | David Glenn Brown | Barack, Race, and the Media: Drawing My Own Conclusion | Winner |
| 2010 | Reginald Dwayne Betts | A Question of Freedom: A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison | Winner |
| 2010 | BeNeca Ward | 3rd Generation Country | Nominee |
| 2010 | Attica Locke | Black Water Rising | Nominee |
| 2010 | Farai Chideya | Kiss the Sky | Nominee |
| 2010 | Amanda Smyth | Lime Tree Can’t Bear Orange | Nominee |
| 2011 | Isabel Wilkerson | The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration | Winner |
| 2012 | Shirley Strawberry | The Strawberry Letter: Real Talk, Real Advice, Because Bitterness Isn’t Sexy | Winner |
| 2012 | Denise Hall Brown | 2Grieve 2Gether: A Journal from the Heart Helping Survivors and Supporters Navigate the Healing Process | Nominee |
| 2012 | Justin Torres | We the Animals | Nominee |
| 2012 | Patricia Duncan | Defining Moment: Barack Obama: The Historical Journey to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue | Nominee |
| 2012 | Shella Gillus | The Loom | Nominee |
| 2013 | Darryl L. Lacy | Nikki G: A Portrait of Nikki Giovanni in Her Own Words | Winner |
| 2013 | Mayi Ngwala and Allain Ngwala | Congo: Spirit of Darkness (Volume 1) | Nominee |
| 2013 | R. Kayeen Thomas | Antebellum | Nominee |
| 2013 | Sonia Jackson Myles | The Sister Accord: 51 Ways to Love Your Sister | Nominee |
| 2013 | Yvvette Edwards | A Cupboard Full of Coats | Nominee |
| 2014 | Sheri Booker | Nine Years Under | Winner |
| 2014 | Hannah Weyer | On the Come Up: A Novel, Based on a True Story | Nominee |
| 2014 | Jason Mott | The Returned | Nominee |
| 2014 | Taiye Selasi | Ghana Must Go | Nominee |
| 2015 | Dwayne Alexander Smith | Forty Acres | Winner |
| 2015 | Darrell Miller | The 16th Minute of Fame: An Insider’s Guide for Maintaining Success Beyond 15 Minutes of Fame | Nominee |
| 2015 | Morowa Yejide | Time of the Locust | Nominee |
| 2015 | Natalie Baszile | Queen Sugar | Nominee |
| 2015 | Toni Ann Johnson | Remedy for a Broken Angel | Nominee |
| 2016 | Chigozie Obioma | The Fishermen | Winner |
| 2016 | Angela Flournoy | The Turner House | Nominee |
| 2016 | April Ryan | The Presidency in Black and White: My Up-Close View of Three Presidents and Race in America | Nominee |
| 2016 | Naomi Jackson | The Star Side of Bird Hill | Nominee |
| 2016 | Wendell Pierce and Rod Dreher | The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken | Nominee |
| 2017 | Trevor Noah | Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood | Winner |
| 2017 | Lisa Fenn | Carry On | Nominee |
| 2017 | Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleve | Crook County: Racism and Injustice in America's Largest Criminal Court | Nominee |
| 2017 | Natashia Deón | Grace | Nominee |
| 2017 | Cory Booker | United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good | Nominee |
| 2018 | Stephanie Powell Watts | No One Is Coming to Save Us | Winner |
| 2018 | Devin Allen | A Beautiful Ghetto | Nominee |
| 2018 | Leland Melvin | Chasing Spaces: An Astronaut’s Story of Grit, Grace & Second Chances | Nominee |
| 2018 | Patricia Williams, with Jeannine Amber | Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat | Nominee |
| 2018 | Gabrielle Union | We're Going to Need More Wine | Nominee |
| 2019 | David Mann and Shaun Sanders | Us Against the World: Our Secrets to Love, Marriage, and Family | Winner |
| 2019 | Gaël Faye | Small Country | Nominee |
| 2019 | Janet Dewart Bell | Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement | Nominee |
| 2019 | Nafissa Thompson-Spires | Heads of the Colored People (paperback) | Nominee |
| 2019 | Sheila Brooks and Clint C. Wilson II | Lucile H. Bluford and the Kansas City Call: Activist Voice for Social Justice | Nominee |
| 2020 | Hal Banfield | I Am Dance: Words and Images of the Black Dancer | Winner |
| 2020 | Erica Campbell | More Than Pretty: Doing the Soul Work That Uncovers Your True Beauty | Nominee |
| 2020 | Lauren Wilkinson | American Spy | Nominee |
| 2020 | Joanne Ramos | The Farm | Nominee |
| 2020 | Kiley Reid | Such a Fun Age | Nominee |
| 2021 | Elijah E. Cummings | We’re Better Than This: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy | Winner |
| 2021 | Brittany K. Barnett | A Knock at Midnight | Nominee |
| 2021 | Cole Brown | Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World | Nominee |
| 2021 | Megan Giddings | Lakewood | Nominee |
| 2021 | Walter Thompson-Hernández | The Compton Cowboys | Nominee |
| 2022 | Cicely Tyson | Just As I Am | Winner |
| 2022 | Katherine Johnson | My Remarkable Journey | Nominee |
| 2022 | Zakiya Dalila Harris | The Other Black Girl | Nominee |
| 2022 | Honorée Fanonne Jeffers | The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois | Nominee |
| 2022 | Rebecca Hall | Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts | Nominee |
| 2023 | George McCalman | Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen | Winner |
| 2023 | Boyah J. Farah | America Made Me a Black Man | Nominee |
| 2023 | Ekemini Uwan, Christina Edmondson, and Michelle Higgins | Truth’s Table: Black Women’s Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation | Nominee |
| 2023 | Kai Harris | What the Fireflies Knew | Nominee |
| 2023 | Kevin Fredericks and Melissa Fredericks | Marriage Be Hard: 12 Conversations to Keep You Laughing, Loving, and Learning with Your Partner | Nominee |
| 2024 | Krystle Zara Appiah | Rootless | Winner |
| 2024 | Ani Kayode Somtochukwu | And Then He Sang a Lullaby | Nominee |
| 2024 | Kim Coleman Foote | Coleman Hill | Nominee |
| 2024 | Kleaver Cruz | The Black Joy Project | Nominee |
| 2024 | Breanne McIvor | The God of Good Looks | Nominee |