The AAMBC Literary Awards returns with new award categories added to the show’s lineup in August.
The AAMBC Literary Awards, a significant event presented by African-Americans on the Move Book Club during Black Writers Weekend in Atlanta, celebrates the outstanding achievements of African American authors and creatives. This year, it returns with an even more comprehensive lineup of categories, a testament to the ever-evolving literary space.
Award-winning author and founder of AAMBC, Tamika Newhouse, says, “The reason why more categories were added is because the creative space, it never looks one way, and things are always evolving and changing. There are always things that are trending. In past years, there weren’t a lot of podcasts. Now, there are hundreds. And we want to ensure we’re staying pretty timely with everything. We also want to acknowledge a genre like LGBTQIA because more stories are growing in that space. So, we actually added that category and called it LGBTQIA Novel of the Year.”
Newhouse explained, “We added the health and wellness as well. Ironically, you know, when I first came into this book world, a lot of us weren’t really talking about mental health, depression, and things like that, especially men. It is like a go-to conversation these days where we’re expressing and talking about really good tools that may work. A lot of content is being released in that space. So, we added the health and wellness category.”
As mentioned earlier, the AAMBC Literary Awards takes place during Black Writers Weekend, which is also an AAMBC and Tamika Newhouse production. It is a three-day, literary action-filled weekend that includes a Lit Crawl as participants move to and from different events, and attendees can connect with their favorite authors, screenwriters, and others in film and television. This year’s events are as follows: Black Writers Weekend Online: July 23, 2024- August 8, 2024. Black Writers Weekend In-Person: August 1, 2024- August 4, 2024. The award show will be on August 4th.
View this post on Instagram
(Reel from our time at the 2022 Black Writers Weekend).
Another category that has been added is the Audiobook of the Year because audio storytelling is popular these days, and entire labels are dedicated to audio content. The 15-year-running award show will also pay homage to the late Eric Jerome Dickey by honoring a male writer who continues to captivate readers with compelling narratives and nuanced explorations of contemporary Black life, much like Dickey once did. Similar to that award is the Toni Morrison Award, where a Black woman writer is honored for her activism, resilience, and ability to amplify Black voices. Former Georgia State Representative and author Stacey Abrams will receive that award this year. The show will also have entertainment provided by featuring artists Alicia Elyscia and Somalia Raman.
Quite the activist herself, another addition to this year’s show is that Newhouse aims to use her platform for good and incorporate voter education for the upcoming presidential election. “I want to highlight that it is very important to vote or to ensure that our voices are heard because a lot of our stories and our history are trying to be silenced through these new laws, such as the banning of books. They’re not separating church and school anymore, so they’re incorporating that,” says Newhouse. “They’re forcing certain types of beliefs and stories on our children. And so we have to be the change that we want to continue to see. It’s not just a right, but a responsibility to keep pushing that and actually vote. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the candidate, but you need to vote for the lesser evil, you know?”
Learn more about the AAMBC Literary Awards and Black Writers Weekend by visiting https://aambc.org and https://blackwritersweekend.com.
For more Black Girl Magic news, click here.