by Biography
‘Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South’, by Winfred Rembert, as told to Erin I. Kelly
Told to a Tufts University philosopher, this memoir combines Mr. Rembert’s life story with his artwork. In pictures and in Mr. Rembert’s own words before he died in March of last year, the narrative recounts his life in the Jim Crow-era Deep South, his near escape from an attempted lynching in Georgia, his time in prison working in chain gangs and his late discovery of his artistic talent.
finalists “Pessoa: a biography”, by Richard Zenith; “The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine,” by Janice P. Nimura
poetry
Frank: Sonnets by Diane Seuss
Mrs. Seuss has described this collection, her fifth, as a memoir made up of sonnets, with poems touching on death, birth, loss, and addiction. The collection also won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Voelcker Award.
finalists “Refractive Africa: Ballet of the Forgotten”, by Will Alexander; “Yellow Rain” by Mai Der Vang
GENERAL NON-FICTION
‘Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City’, by Andrea Elliott
Ms. Elliott’s intimately informed book expands on her acclaimed 2013 series for The Times on Dasani Coates, a homeless New York schoolgirl, and her family. As well as a portrait of the family, it is about a city and a country that have repeatedly failed to address the issues of poverty and addiction.
finalists “Home, Land, Security: Deradicalization and Extremism’s Return Journey,” by Carla Power; The Family Roe: An American Story by Joshua Prager
DRAMA
‘Fat Ham’ by James Ijames
A comedic riff on “Hamlet,” set at a barbecue, this play is about a black, gay, southern man whose father urges him to avenge his death. The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia streamed a virtual production last year; the first in-person production is scheduled to begin previews at New York’s Public Theater on Thursday.
finalists “Kristina Wong, maquiladora”, by Kristina Wong; Selling Kabul by Sylvia Khoury
MUSIC
‘Misa sin voz’, by Raven Chacon
This site-specific work, for organ and ensemble, was commissioned for the group Present Music’s Thanksgiving concert in Milwaukee. Mr. Chacón, a member of the Navajo Nation, has said that he tries hard not to feature his art on the holiday, but he made an exception. The piece, however, was appropriate for the occasion and the church in which it premiered: it is an exploration of meeting spaces, their history, and the land they occupy. Consider, wrote Chacón, “the uselessness of giving voice to those who do not have it, when giving up space is never an option for those in power.”
finalists “Seven Pillars”, by Andy Akiho; “with eyes the color of time”, by Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti
