Baton Rouge is home to one of the most prestigious literary prizes given to Black American writers, the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.

"Ernest Gaines is one of the most famous writers that Louisiana has ever produced," said Danny Heitman, editor of Forum magazine and the committee chair. "Anything that we can do to celebrate his legacy and also encourage other writers to create books that can be sources of community, that's really something to celebrate, especially at a time when so much of our social and civic life seems challenged by division."

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation will give the 17th annual honor to Aaliyah Bilal for her collection of short stories titled "Temple Folk" at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, at the Manship Theatre. Community members can attend the event by registering at ernestjgainesaward.org/rsvp.

Bilal, a native of Maryland, fits the criteria of the award as an emerging Black American author who has written a work of fiction of literary merit. "Temple Folk" is Bilal's first fiction collection and centers around American Black Muslims.

"The Ernest Gaines award means so much more to me than a sound bite," Bilal said. "It's an invitation to be part of a community of a lineage of truly excellent writers. It's an invitation into the legacy of classic African American literature."

Self-taught and determined

Bilal read Gaines' classics in high school and college, but for her, his impact reaches far beyond his novels.

She admires Gaines' resilience of growing up in a family of sharecroppers and having to self-educate in many ways yet also being a resource to those in his community who couldn't read. She sees so many obstacles that ordinary people face to create their art, and those that survive, like Gaines, have to have "grit, determination and ferocity."

Writing fiction was not Bilal's first career. She was set on a path of academia when, after defending her dissertation, Bilal felt out of sorts. Then, she had a divine moment on the Westminster Bridge in London.

"It was like the sky opened up, and I received a story in an instant," she recalled. "It was like half a second, and the whole story came into my head. I felt like God was telling me I was supposed to be writing fiction.'"

Bilal rushed home and wrote the story down. While that particular story was not an award winner, she knew there was something there. So, she embarked on a multiyear study to read great fiction and develop her own organizational principles that made the stories work. After three years, she began writing her stories for "Temple Folk."

Bilal says that she writes short stories because she enjoys the precise form that is so much like life.

"In our lives, we interact with people for an instant, and we can be very curious about them, and that curiosity can linger over years, even though we only had this one snapshot into their life, like a short story," she said.

She wants everyone to know that her career is an example of how democratic the literary arts are.

"Talent does not discriminate," Bilal said. "It does not prefer the wealthy. It does not prefer people with access and connections. It finds you wherever you are, whatever state of life you may come from."

Giving a voice to her community

"Temple Folk" focuses on the Black Muslim community, an unfamiliar culture to many of Bilal's readers but one in which she was raised.

"I wanted to talk about the Nation of Islam in a really substantive way and capture a community of people who are a part of this movement," Bilal said.

The book features the regular people who followed the charismatic leaders of the Nation of Islam, not just the icons like Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali.

Bilal portrays her characters as everyday neighbors in America. She acknowledges the problematic aspects of the religion's history, but she also shows how the group embraced a religious identity in a response to racial violence. Her characters wrestle with family dynamics, identity, religious beliefs and social expectations.

Judging process

"Temple Folk" was the unanimous winner when the judges convened to discuss their shortlists of the submitted selections.

"What happened was that we turned in our shortlists, and 'Temple Folk' ranked either one or two for everyone," said Anthony Grooms, who has been a judge for 12 years. "Even before the virtual discussion got underway, 'Temple Folk' had everybody's number one position."

The national judges' panel, consisting of Grooms, Edward P. Jones, Elizabeth Nunez, Francine Prose and Patricia Towers, found the material refreshing.

Although the subject of the Black American Muslim community was unique to the panel, Grooms said that it was the literary merit, craftsmanship and storytelling that they rewarded.

Judges described Bilal's writing as "smart, confident and detailed with elegant prose" and "a pleasure to read."