The entry period for the 2012 award is now open. It will close on April 30, 2012.

The 2011 winner is Dinaw Mengesta for his novel "How to Read the Air". The ceremony took place on January 26, 2012 at the Shaw Center for the Arts. Over 300 people were in attendence. Mr. Mengesta spent the week working with school children at Scotlandville Magnet High School, Broadmoor Middle School, Baton Rouge Center for Visual and Performing Arts and the WordPlay Teen Writing Project.

The award, initiated by donors of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to honor Mr. Gaines, is designed to inspire and recognize rising African-American writers of excellence as they work to achieve the literary heights for which Ernest J. Gaines is known.