This article lists the winners and nominees for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Nonfiction. Maya Angelou, Michael Eric Dyson, and Barack Obama hold the record for most wins in this category, with two each.
Winners and nominees
1990s
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:100%;"
|+Award winners, 1994-1999
|- style="background:#bebebe;"
! scope="col" width="5%" | Year
! scope="col" width="50%"| Book
! scope="col" width="30%" | Author
! scope="col" width="10%" | Result
! scope="col" width="5%" |
|- style=background:lightyellow
!1994
| By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of the Making of 'Malcolm X
| and Ralph Wiley
|Winner
| rowspan="2" align="center" |
|-
! rowspan="2" align="center" | 1996
|- style=background:lightyellow
| When We Were Colored
|
|Winner
| rowspan="2" align="center" |
|-
! rowspan="2" align="center" | 1999
|- style=background:lightyellow
| With Ossie & Ruby: In This Life Together
| and Ruby Dee
|Winner
| rowspan="2" align="center" |
|}
2000s
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:100%;"
|+Award winners, 2002-2009
|- style="background:#bebebe;"
! scope="col" width="5%" | Year
! scope="col" width="50%"| Book
! scope="col" width="30%" | Author
! scope="col" width="10%" | Result
! scope="col" width="5%" |
|- style=background:lightyellow
!2002
| Sally Hemings, An American Scandal
|
|Winner
|
|- style=background:lightyellow
! rowspan="5" |2003
| Keeping the Faith
|
|Winner
|
|-
|
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Bill Clinton and Black America
|
|-
| Growing Up X
|
|-
| Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters
|
|- style=background:lightyellow
!2004
| Why I Love Black Women
|
|Winner
|
|- style=background:lightyellow
!2005
| Hallelujah! The Welcome Table
|
|Winner
|
|- style=background:lightyellow
! rowspan="5" |2006
| Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has the Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?
|
|Winner
|
|-
| Blue Rage, Black Redemption: A Memoir
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
|
| and Myrlie Evers-Williams
|-
| 50 Years After Brown: The State of Black Equality in America
|
|-
| Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America
|
|- style=background:lightyellow
! rowspan="5" |2007
|
|
|Winner
|
|-
| Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
|
|
|-
| Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete
|
|-
| Not in My Family: AIDS in the African American Community
|
|- style=background:lightyellow
! rowspan="5" |2008
| Not on Our Watch
| and John Prendergast
|Winner
|
|-
|
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Brother, I'm Dying
|
|-
| Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip-Hop
|
|-
| Race and Racism in the Chinas: Chinese Racial Attitudes Toward Africans and African-Americans
|
|- style=background:lightyellow
!2009
| Letter to My Daughter
|
|Winner
|
|}
2010s
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" style="width:100%;"
|+Award winners, 2010-2019
|- style="background:#bebebe;"
! scope="col" width="5%" | Year
! scope="col" width="50%"| Book
! scope="col" width="30%" | Author
! scope="col" width="10%" | Result
! scope="col" width="5%" |
|- style=background:lightyellow
! rowspan="5" |2010
| In Search of Our Roots
|
|Winner
|
|-
| Freedom in My Heart: Voices From the United States National Slavery Museum
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Our Choice
|
|-
| Brain Surgeon: A Doctor's Inspiring Encounters With Mortality and Miracles
| and Keith Black
|-
| Family Affair: What It Means to Be African American Today
|
|- style=background:lightyellow
! rowspan="5" |2011
|
|
|Winner
|
|-
| Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts of Women in SNCC
|
|-
| Surviving and Thriving 365 Days in Black Economic History
|
|-
|
|
|- style=background:lightyellow
! rowspan="5" |2012
| '
|
|Winner
|
|-
| Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Fraternity
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation
|
|-
| Power Concedes Nothing: One Woman's Quest for Social Justice in America, from the Courtroom to the Kill Zones
|
|-
|
|
|- style=background:lightyellow
! rowspan="5" |2014
| Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery
| and Barbara Krauthamer
|Winner
|
|-
| Bartlett's Familiar Black Quotations: 5,000 Years of Literature, Lyrics, Poems, Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs from Voices Around the World
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Bad Feminist
|
| rowspan="3" |Finalist
| rowspan="3" |
|-
| 50 Billion Dollar Boss: African American Women Sharing Stories of Success in Entrepreneurship and Leadership
| and Andrea Hoffman
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul
|
| rowspan="3" |Finalist
| rowspan="3" |
|-
| Black Detroit – A People’s History of Self-Determination
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Breathe: A Letter to My Sons
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
|
| and Kali Nicole Gross
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
| Driving While Black
|
|-
| Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America
|
|-
| We're Better Than This
|
|-style=background:lightyellow
! rowspan="5" |2022
|
|
|Winner
|
|-
|Dance Theatre of Harlem
| and Paul Novosel
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
|Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
|Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation
|
|-
|Who’s Black and Why?: A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race
| and Andrew S. Curran
|-
|Requiem for the Massacre: A Black History on the Conflict, Hope, and Fallout of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
|
|-style=background:lightyellow
! rowspan="5" |2024
|
| and Charly Palmer
|Winner
|
|-
|Black AF History: The Un–Whitewashed Story of America
|
| rowspan="4" |Finalist
| rowspan="4" |
|-
|BLK ART: The Audacious Legacy of Black Artists and Models in Western Art
|
|-
|Iconic Home: Interiors, Advice, and Stories from 50 Amazing Black Designers
|Black Interior Designers and June Reese
|-
|
|
|}
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Multiple wins and nominations
Wins
; 2 wins
- Maya Angelou
- Michael Eric Dyson
- Barack Obama
Nominations
; 5 nominations
- Michael Eric Dyson
; 3 nominations
- Maya Angelou
; 2 nominations
- Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- Hill Harper
- Barack Obama
- Gil L. Robertson
- Tavis Smiley
- Imani Perry