Nicole Hannah-Jones wins 2021 Iowa Authors Award

[SharonClark]

Hannah-Jones led the New York Times Magazine's 1619 Project that made right-wingers heads explode.

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Now a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and professor, Hannah-Jones went back to that chest — digging through for those magazines, feeling that label addressed directly to her — when she heard the Des Moines Public Library Foundation selected her as the 2021 Iowa Author Award recipient. She wanted to hold those issues, she said, as a sort of tangible way “to reflect on how blessed I have been and how far I have come.”

She can’t call the moment “full-circle” because, honestly, joining the ranks of previous winners like John Irving, Bill Bryson and Jane Smiley wasn’t a reality she envisioned a year ago — let alone as a child.

“I never imagined that I would be on that list,” she said. “It’s completely shocking, and I am honored to be in company with all of those amazing people and writers and to represent my home state.”

“You know,” she added, “I’m just a girl from Waterloo.”
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Her book, “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story,” an expansion of the series published in the New York Times Magazine in 2019, and its children’s book companion, “The 1619 Project: Born on the Water,” will be released less than a week before her appearance in Iowa.
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In the runup to the 400th anniversary of the first known arrival of slaves on American shores, Hannah-Jones conceived of and led the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, a collection of more than 30 works, including essays, podcasts, photos and poems, that examine how the institution of slavery shaped, and continues to shape, our nation.
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source: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/columnists/courtney-crowder/2021/09/19/nikole-hannah-jones-waterloo-native-2021-iowa-authors-award-des-moines-public-library-foundation/8358330002/