Dec. 14, 2021

   TULSA, Okla. --- Established writer and equality advocate Walter Mosley will receive the 2022 Sankofa Freedom Award, presented by Tulsa City-County Library’s African-American Resource Center and the Tulsa Library Trust. Mosley will accept the award and give a virtual presentation at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 12.

   Mosley has penned more than 60 critically acclaimed books recognized for helping readers understand and appreciate Black life in America, particularly segregated inner-city experiences. Mosley’s creative skills span genres, from plays and screenwriting to mystery, young-adult and science fiction books, from writing for TV to nonfiction titles, a memoir, essays and op-eds.

   Mosley graduated from Johnson State College in Vermont and worked as a computer programmer before becoming an author. While enrolled in the graduate writing program at City University of New York (CUNY), Mosley noticed the lack of diversity in all facets of the publishing industry. As a result, he founded the Publishing Certificate Program in order to serve students and book professionals from diverse racial, ethnic and economic communities through affordable coursework and subsequent job opportunities in publishing. He has remained a model of empowerment in higher education as a professor at New York University, and his commitment to building community in the publishing industry is evident in the presses and publications he chooses for his works.

   In 2020, Mosley received the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement from the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. That year, he also became the first African American man to receive the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from the National Book Foundation. In 2013 Mosley was inducted to the New York State Writers Hall of Fame and has received an O. Henry Award, The Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, a Grammy®, several NAACP Image awards and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

   Through his written works and experience as a teacher and modernizer, Mosley has marked himself a multifaceted and prestigious author, an advocate for underrepresented voices in both higher education and the publishing industry, and a representative of what kinds of changes can empower those voices and strengthen community. Alongside Mosley’s many accolades, receiving the Sankofa Freedom Award is one more testament to his accomplishments as a creator and change maker.

   Mosley’s works include the Easy Rawlins mysteries, the Fearless Jones mysteries, the Leonid McGill mysteries, the Socrates Fortlow novels, the Crosstown to Oblivion series, two plays, four science-fiction books, one young-adult book, his memoir “What Next: An African American Initiative Toward World Peace,” and many more standalone works of fiction and nonfiction.

   Sankofa is a word from the Akan language, which is spoken in southern Ghana.  Literally translated, Sankofa means: “We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today.” The Sankofa Freedom Award consists of a $10,000 cash prize and an engraved medallion. It is awarded biennially in February during African American History Month to a nationally acclaimed individual who has dedicated his or her life to educating and improving the greater African American community. Previous recipients of the Sankofa Freedom Award include Anita Hill (2019), Iyanla Vanzant (2018), Tavis Smiley (2016), Susan L. Taylor (2014), Hill Harper (2012), Pearl Cleage (2010), Nikki Giovanni (2008) and Michael Eric Dyson (2006).

   For more information about the Sankofa Freedom Award or the African-American Resource Center, call 918-549-7323 or visit www.tulsalibrary.org.

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