Maya Angelou Book Award
The Maya Angelou Book Award reading committee has selected four finalists for the second annual award, which is presented by the Kansas City Public Library, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and five other universities in the state.
The Kansas City-based Maya Angelou Book Award is open for submissions. Now in its second year, the award aims to honor Angelou’s legacy by selecting writers and works that show a similar commitment to social justice.
Buki Papillon is the winner of the second annual Maya Angelou Book Award for her acclaimed first novel An Ordinary Wonder. The award reading committee selected Papillon from four finalists who emerged from a field of more than 100 submissions. Learn more about the author and her award-winning book.
The Kansas City Public Library and the University of Missouri-Kansas City named poet Threa Almontaser as the winner of the first annual Maya Angelou Book Award on October 20, 2021. She was honored for her debut collection, The Wild Fox of Yemen. The Library, UMKC, and five other Missouri universities established the national award, which recognizes literary merit, how a writer and their work reflect a commitment to social justice, and how the work “serves to enrich the diversity of American literature.”