The winners of this year’s Langston Hughes writing awards are Justin Runge and Crystal Boson. Co-sponsored by the Raven Book Store and Lawrence Arts Center, a $500 award will be given to each winner who continue in Hughes’ tradition of portraying life experience through poetry and prose.

A celebration and reading will be held in honor of the award winners on Langston Hughes’ birthday at 7 p.m. Feb. 1, in the main auditorium of the Lawrence Arts Center. A reception will follow.

Runge is a Lawrence resident and poetry editor of the literary magazine, Parcel. He is the author of two chapbooks, “Plainsight” and “Hum Decode.” His work was selected to be featured in the “Best New Poets” 2013 anthology, and his poems have appeared in Linebreak, DIAGRAM, Harpur Palate, and elsewhere.

Boson is an American Studies Ph.D. candidate at Kansas University. Her writing focuses on intersectional identities and the way these bodies navigate hostile landscapes. She has been published in Callaloo, Pank, and The Black Bottom, and she has two chapbooks, “The Icarus Series” and “The Queer Texas Prayerbook.”