Contact: Mariangie Pena, Director of Marketing
Phone: (860) 522-9258 ext. 321
Email: MPena@StoweCenter.org
Stowe Center Announces 2026 Stowe Prize for Literary Activism Winner: Princess Joy L. Perry’s This Here is Love, the Story of Resistance We Need Now!
Hartford, Conn.—The Stowe Center for Literary Activism announces the 2026 Stowe Prize for Literary Activism. The winner is Princess Joy L. Perry for This Here is Love (W.W. Norton & Company, 2025). This is the twelfth prize and the second won by a novel.
“This Here Is Love is a powerfully written story of love and resistance despite overwhelming oppression,” said Karen Fisk, Executive Director of the Stowe Center. “Our committee chose it unanimously.”
Stowe Prize Selection Committee chair Dr. Michael Mallery said: “Princess Perry nailed it with this one. This was an incredible read, and stirred up emotions such as grief, clarity, anger, and recognition inside of me. This novel teaches that love, under oppression, is not defined by comfort, but by cost. Love becomes the burden someone willingly carries so another might live.”
Selection Committee member Arianna Baret Peralta said: “I could not put this book down. Princess Perry’s novel made me feel I was seeing the experience of these people at the time—and that no matter what was happening, the root feeling is love for self, for family, for community. Perry calls in the humanity of the reader, makes you look inside and feel something.”
Reviewed by the New York Times as “sublime” and named one of the ten best historical novels, This Here Is Love, is set in 1619 and follows three main characters whose lives become intertwined. As reviewer Alida Becker writes:
“With steely empathy, Perry probes the complexities and contractions of a society built on bondage. How does a white boy who devoted himself to his helpless infant sister and toiled alongside slaves learn to become ‘the kind of man who owned another?’ Can two slaves forced to breed ‘people who knew their place’ forge any kind of unfettered alliance?” (NYT, September 5, 2025)
Perry humanizes each and every character, looking deep within their thoughts, emotions, and motivations. With beautiful, evocative, and unflinching prose, she probes individual psyches, helping readers better understand how a person perseveres despite overwhelming psychological pain. She also demonstrates that humanity is our greatest potential loss.
Perry responded to hearing that she won the prize by saying: “I am so honored, so surprised and honored! Can I come and get a tour?!!”
Perry’s book is the twelfth Stowe Prize for Literary Activism. The Hartford, the Legacy Sponsor for the Prize, has provided the $10,000 prize since its inception. Past Stowe Prize winners are:
- Percival Everett, James: A Novel (Doubleday, 2024)
- Dr. Bettina L. Love, Punished for Dreaming: How Education Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal (St. Martin’s Press, 2023)
- Dr. Ruha Benjamin, Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (Princeton University Press, 2022)
- Dr. Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery across America (Little, Brown, 2022)
- Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Today (Crown, 2020)
- Albert Woodfox, Solitary (Grove Press, 2019)
- Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Crown, 2018)
- Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2017)
- Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations” (The Atlantic, 2014)
- Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (The New Press, 2013)
- Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Vintage, 2011)
The Stowe Prize for Literary Activism will be awarded to Princess Joy L. Perry at a public ceremony in Hartford, September 23, 2026. Details can be found at StoweCenter.org/Love.
About Legacy Sponsor:
The Hartford is a leader in property and casualty insurance, employee benefits and mutual funds. With more than 200 years of expertise, The Hartford is widely recognized for its service excellence, sustainability practices, trust and integrity. More information on the company and its financial performance is available at https://www.thehartford.com.
The Hartford Insurance Group, Inc., (NYSE: HIG) operates through its subsidiaries under the brand name, The Hartford, and is headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut. For additional details, please read The Hartford’s legal notice.
About the Author:
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. This Here is Love, Perry’s debut novel, was one of the New York Times 10 Best Historical Novels of 2025, Longlisted for the 2026 Aspen Words Literary Prize, A Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and 2025 BookBrowse Best of Year.
About the Stowe Prize
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 to strengthen our communities.
Stowe Prize for Literary Activism Selection Committee
- Michael Mallery, Chair, Director of Social Emotional Learning, Windsor Public Schools
- Antoinette Brim-Bell, Connecticut’s State Poet Laureate
- Bettina L. Love, author, Stowe Prize Winner of 2023.
- Jennyfer A. Holmes, Greater Hartford Gives Foundation
- Kamora Herrington, Kamora’s Cultural Corner
- Lucinda Canty, Lucinda’s House
- Arianna Baret Peralta, Eversource
The Stowe Center encourages social justice and literary activism by exploring the legacy of Harriet Beecher Stowe and all who advocate hope and freedom—then and now. We envision a world in which engagement leads to empathy, empowerment, and change for good.
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Press Inquiries
For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Mariangie Pena, Director of Marketing, at MPena@StoweCenter.org or (860) 522-9258 ext. 321.
