JJ Amaworo Wilson is Western New Mexico University's writer-in-residence.
Last Friday, his novel Damnificados won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction. A ceremony took place in Washington D.C. at which civil rights activist and Congressman John Lewis was honored. Colson Whitehead won the main fiction award.
From the article in the following link comes this quote: " The Legacy Award for debut fiction went to “Damnificados,” by J.J. Amaworo Wilson, who the judges said created a “fabulist and gritty dystopia that is nearly allegorical in its portrayal of the dispossessed.”
More information can be found at www.hurstonwright.org .