Book Award Nominations
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR THE 2026 HOOKS INSTITUTE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis (Memphis, TN) is proud to announce that nominations for the 2026 Hooks Institute National Book Award are now open! The nomination period will close on December 31, 2026.
About the Award
- The Hooks Institute National Book Award nominations are open to non-fiction books that, through scholarly research, further understanding of the Civil Rights Movement and its legacy.
- One award of $1,000 will be made to the author(s) of the winning book.
- The recipient(s) of the award will deliver an address at the University of Memphis as part of the 2026-2027 Hooks Institute Lecture Series.
Eligibility
- Non-fiction books focusing on the past or current Civil Rights Movement and social change issues, leaders, policies, etc., are eligible for the Award.
- Each nominator can nominate more than one book.
- Non-fiction books with a first-published date in the 2026 calendar year are eligible for the Award.
- Revised editions of previously published books are not eligible.
Deadline
December 31, 2026.
Nominations
Please provide:
- Full contact information for the author(s): e-mail address, mailing address, and telephone number
- Full contact information for the nominator(s): e-mail address, mailing address, and telephone number
- Submit one copy of the nominated book(s) (postmarked by December 31, 2026) to:
The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change
The University of Memphis
Wilder Tower, 11th Floor
3675 Alumni Ave.
Memphis, TN 38152
Attn: Hooks Institute National Book Award
Required nomination information may be submitted via e-mail to Paola Cavallari, pcvllari@memphis.edu. The nominated book must still be mailed to the Hooks Institute. Additional copies of the books selected as finalists will be requested for the Book Award Committee for additional review.
Note: The Hooks Institute reserves the right to exclude from consideration for the Award any nominated book where the submitter fails to provide sufficient contact information.
Selection Process
- The Hooks Institute National Book Award Committee, a panel of reviewers representing various disciplines and higher education institutions in Memphis, awards the annual prize of $1,000 to the winning book.
- The Committee Chair reviews all nominated books and selects five finalists.
- The five finalist books are provided to Committee members to review. A decision meeting is held for Committee members to discuss the finalists and decide the Award winner.
- The approximate selection process schedule is as follows:
September – December: Books are nominated through publishers, author self-nominations, and referrals. All nominations must be submitted by December 31.
March – July: The Committee Chair reviews nominated books and selects five finalists.
July/August: The five finalist books are distributed to Committee members for review.
September/October: A decision meeting is held with Committee members discussing the books and voting on the winner.
February: Event presentation is held.
Meet the Hooks Institute National Book Award Committee!
There is no specific term of service for Hooks Institute National Book AwardCommittee members. Members typically serve on the committee 4-5 years.
Committee members for the 2026 review process are:
Dr. Terrence T. Tucker, Hooks Institute National Book Award Committee Chair, is Professor of African-American Literature and Chair of the Department of English at the University of Memphis. He is the author of Furiously Funny: Comic Rage from Ralph Ellison to Chris Rock (University Press of Florida, 2018). His current research focuses on the African-American middle and upper class in literature and film. His second book project, The Rise of the Afristocracy: Portraits of the Black Elite in Contemporary African American Literature has been contracted with University Press of Florida. He has also published essays on topics ranging from race and pedagogy to post-soul satire as well as the work of Ernest Gaines and Walter Mosley, The Boondocks, and African-American superheroes. He recently co-edited a special issue on journal on Afrofuturism in the College Language Association Journal (CLAJ). He has also published other essays in CLAJ as well as journals like Pedagogy and The Southern Literary Journal. His third book project on contemporary Black Southern literature and the return of African Americans to the South will begin soon. He received his Ph.D from the University of Kentucky and his work focuses on post-1945 African-American literature and drama, Twentieth and Twenty-first Century American literature, and Popular culture. He is especially interested in representations of Black masculinity, notions of community and class, as well as expressions of Black militancy and Black humor.
Dr. Daryl Anthony Anderson Jr. is an Assistant Professor of English in the Division of Fine Arts & Humanities at The LeMoyne-Owen College. He made history by becoming the first African-American man to earn a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Memphis. His scholarly research primarily explores sociolinguistics, family language policy, and the systematic nature of African-American Language and regional dialects. In addition to his research, he is deeply committed to pedagogy, teaching courses ranging from English Composition to African American Literature and linguistics. Beyond his instructional duties, Dr. Anderson Jr. plays an active role in institutional governance, serving as the Faculty Representative for the LeMoyne-Owen College Board of Trustees.
Dr. Aram Goudsouzian is the Bizot Family Professor of History at the University of Memphis, where he writes and teaches about the twentieth-century United States with a focus on race, politics, and culture. His books include The Men and the Moment: The Election of 1968 and the Rise of Partisan Politics in America; Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear; and King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution. He has also co-edited an essay collection with Charles McKinney, entitled An Unseen Light: Black Struggles for Freedom in Memphis, Tennessee and collaborated on the graphic novel Man on a Mission: James Meredith and the Battle of Ole Miss.
Dr. Brian Kwoba is an Associate Professor of History and Director of African and African-American Studies at the University of Memphis. Over the past two decades, Dr. Kwoba has been an activist on issues such as immigrant workers’ rights, climate justice, decolonizing education, and the movement for Black lives. His book, Hubert Harrison: Forbidden Genius of Black Radicalism, won the 2026 Frantz Fanon Outstanding Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association, the 2026 Phillis Wheatley Book Award from the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage, and was also a 2025 Foreword INDIES finalist for biography.
Dr. McKinley E. Melton, Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Rhodes College, earned his doctorate in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at UMass Amherst and his bachelor’s degree in English and African & African-American Studies from Duke University. Prior to joining the Rhodes College faculty in 2024, Dr. Melton held appointments at Gettysburg College (2012-2024), where he was the inaugural Paxton Endowed Teaching Chair and Associate Professor of English, and at Hampshire College (2007-2012). Dr. Melton is a scholar of 20th and 21st Century Africana Literatures whose work engages critical intersections of social, political, and cultural movements, situating Africana literary texts and figures within broader historical traditions and legacies.
Dr. Courtnee Melton-Fant is an Associate Professor in the Division of Health Systems Management and Policy in the School of Public Health at the University of Memphis. Her research examines how state and local government policies and politics shape racialized health and economic inequities. Her current projects explore the health and economic consequences of state preemption of local government policies, the connections between housing policy and health, and the use of research evidence in state legislatures. Her work has been funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and The Commonwealth Fund. She earned her doctorate in Health Outcomes and Policy Research from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in Human Movement Science from the University of Memphis.
Dr. Ladrica Menson-Furr is Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Programs in the College of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of African-American Literature at the University of Memphis (located in Memphis, Tennessee). She is the author of two books, August Wilson’s Fences and August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and scholarly articles on the works of Zora Neale Hurston and Pearl Cleage. She has served as coordinator of the African-American literature concentration, and as director of the African and African-American Studies program. Also, she has served as a Provost’s Fellow and a Tennessee Board of Regents’ Maxine Smith Fellow. Dr. Menson-Furr earned the B.A. in English from Spelman College (1993) and both the M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (2002) in English Literature from Louisiana State University. She is a proud native of Zachary, Louisiana, and a graduate of Northeast High School (1989). She is a mother two—a son, Morgan, and daughter, Madeline.
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View the 2025 Hooks Institute National Book Award Finalists and Previous Winners
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About the Hooks Institute
Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Memphis with the mission of advancing social change and strengthening democracy through research, service and historical preservation. Institute programs include community outreach; funding faculty research initiatives on community issues; implementing community service projects; hosting conferences, symposiums and lectures; and promoting local and national scholarship on civil and human rights. The Hooks Institute is an interdisciplinary center at the University of Memphis. Contributed revenue for the Hooks Institute, including funding from individuals, corporations and foundations, is administered through the University of Memphis Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Contact
For questions or comments: Please contact Paola Cavallari, Graduate Research Assistant at the Hooks Institute, via e-mail at pcvllari@memphis.edu.