Stephanie Powell Watts is an American author. She won a Whiting Award in 2013[1] and an Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence in 2012[2] for her book We are Taking Only what We Need, a collection of 11 stories that chronicles the lives of African-Americans in North Carolina.[3] Her short fiction has been included in two volumes of the Best New Stories from the South anthology and honored with a Pushcart Prize.
Watts' debut novel, No One Is Coming to Save Us, was published by Ecco in 2017. The story follows the return of a successful native son to his home in North Carolina and his attempt to join the only family he ever wanted but never had. As Watts describes it, "Imagine The Great Gatsby set in rural North Carolina, nine decades later, with desperate black people."
^Chris Waddington. "Nation's biggest prize for African-American writers goes to Stephanie Powell Watts". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 19 September 2015. "It would be enough if this award was simply about excellence and a $10,000 prize, but it means so much more that Ernest Gaines' name is attached to it. It adds gravitas. It connects all of us to the legacy of a writer that we grew up reading. Even people who don't know the prize immediately know who he is."
