2026 Winner: Princess Joy L. Perry

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With great excitement, the Stowe Center announces Princess Joy L. Perry as our 2026 Stowe Prize for Literary Activism winner, author of This Here is Love (W.W. Norton & Company, 2025), a powerful historical novel set in 1619 that explores love, resistance, and the human cost of oppression. Through evocative and unflinching prose, Perry illuminates the psychological and moral complexities of a society built on bondage, inviting readers to confront the enduring legacy of injustice while recognizing love as a force of survival, connection, and defiance.

Princess Joy L. Perry is the recipient of a Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship and a winner of the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation Award. Her short stories have appeared in All About Skin, African American Review, and Kweli Journal. Her debut novel, This Here is Love (W.W. Norton & Company, 2025), was named one of The New York Times 10 Best Historical Novels of 2025, longlisted for the 2026 Aspen Words Literary Prize, selected as a Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and recognized as a BookBrowse Best Book of the Year.

The Stowe Prize for Literary Activism recognizes the author of a distinguished book of general adult fiction or nonfiction whose written work illuminates a critical social justice issue in the tradition of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The winning book applies informed inquiry, is accessible and engaging to a wide audience, and promotes empathy and understanding. In creating this award, the Stowe Center recognizes the power of literary activism.

Dr. Michael Mallery, Chair
Director of Social Emotional Learning, Windsor Schools

Antoinette Brim-Bell
Connecticut State Poet Laureate

Dr. Bettina L. Love
Political Science, Urban and Community Studies, University of Connecticut

Kamora Herrington
Director, Kamora’s Cultural Corner

Dr. Lucinda Canty
Director, Lucinda’s House

Jennyfer A. Holmes
Greater Hartford Gives Foundation

Arianna Baret Peralta
Eversource

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Judith Lohman & David Reik

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“Sublime… With steely empathy, Perry probes the complexities and contradictions of a society built on bondage.”

—New York Times