The winners of this year’s Langston Hughes Award for creative writing are poet Rachel Atakpa and fiction writer Kim Condon.

Atakpa is an undergraduate student and researcher at the University of Kansas studying English with a focus in creative writing and Spanish, according to a news release. Condon, who grew up in Lawrence, is currently corporate counsel for The Midland Group.

The award is co-sponsored by the Raven Book Store and the Lawrence Arts Center and honors the work of Hughes, who spent part of his childhood in Lawrence. Each year, the award is given to two writers who continue in Hughes’ tradition of “depicting lived experience in poetry and prose,” according to the release.

The award ceremony is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 1 (Hughes’ 116th birthday) at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St. The event will feature readings by each writer and a reception. It is free and open to the public.