Whoopi Goldberg, Ketanji Brown Jackson Among Literary Nominees for NAACP Image Awards

The literary nominees for the 56th NAACP Image Awards face fierce competition.

Whoopi Goldberg, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Joy-Ann Reid, and others will compete for Outstanding Literary Work at the 56th NAACP Image Awards.

The 2025 NAACP Image Awards nominees were announced on Jan. 7, featuring nine literary categories—eight Outstanding Literary Work awards for various genres and one Outstanding Graphic Novel category—that honor diverse genres and authors, Variety reports.

The Outstanding Literary Work –Biography/Autobiography competition is intense, featuring powerhouse Black women and a posthumous nomination vying for the win.

Among the nominees are Goldberg’s Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me, Jackson’s Lovely One: A Memoir, and Reid’s Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America.

Nominated in the Outstanding Literary Work–Fiction category are A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams, Grown Woman by Sarai Johnson, Neighbors and Other Stories by Diane Oliver, One of Us Knows: A Thriller by Alyssa Cole, and What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris.

Grown Woman, which tells the story of four generations of Black women working to move forward and heal from past trauma, also earned Johnson a second nomination in the Outstanding Literary Work—Debut Author.

The Outstanding Literary Work–Nonfiction five nominations include A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune by Noliwe Rooks, The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine, and The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America by Larry Tye.

Additional literary categories include Outstanding Literary Work—Instructional, for which Tabitha Brown earned a nomination for her book I Did a New Thing: 30 Days to Living Free (A Feeding the Soul Book), as well as Loving Your Black Neighbor as Yourself by Chantee Griffin and Black Joy Playbook: 30 Days of Intentionally Reclaiming Your Delight by Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts.

Other categories to be celebrated include Outstanding Literary Work–Poetry, Outstanding Literary Work–Children, Outstanding Literary Work–Youth/Teens, and Outstanding Graphic Novel.

Taraji P. Henson received a nomination in the children’s book category for You Can Be a Good Friend (No Matter What!): A Lil TJ Book. Poetry and children’s fiction writer Kwame Alexander received two nominations, one for This Is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets in the Poetry category and another for Black Star: The Door of No Return in the Youth/Teens category.

Winners will be revealed on Feb. 22 during the Image Awards’ two-hour live broadcast from the Pasadena Civic Center, airing on BET and CBS. This year’s theme is “Our Stories, Our Culture, Our Excellence.”