Last year, the Feminist Press and TAYO Literary Magazine launched the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, which honors "the best debut fiction by women and nonbinary writers of color." Malaysian author YZ Chin is the prize's first recipient. Her debut short story collection, Though I Get Home, will be published by the Feminist Press in 2018. The prize is named after pioneering African-American author Louise Meriwether (born in 1923), whose first novel, Daddy Was a Number Runner (1970), was a landmark achievement in black literature. Louise Meriwether has been cited as an influence by writers like Jacqueline Woodson and Bridgett M. Davis, among many others.
Daddy Was a Number Runner tells the partially autobiographical story of 12-year-old Francie Coffin and her family in Depression-era Harlem. Francie must rely on her own fortitude and cleverness to survive a harsh environment defined by racism, extreme poverty, sexism and violence. She grows from a good-natured, naive girl into a young woman jaded by her experiences, though she retains a core tenderness and sense of humor. James Baldwin wrote an introduction for the original edition of Daddy Was a Number Runner. The book was last published by the Feminist Press in 2002 ($16.95, 9781558614420). --Tobias Mutter
