NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The winner of the 2015 Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence will be formally introduced to the public this week.

New Orleans native T. Geronimo Johnson will receive the recognition Thursday at a ceremony at the Manship theatre in Baton Rouge. He’s receiving the award for his latest work, “Welcome to Braggsville.” The award recognizes outstanding work from rising African-American fiction writers while honoring Gaines’ contributions to the literary world.

Johnson says the Gaines award is special because he’s been directly affected by Gaines’ legacy. Gaines was a Stegner creative writing fellow at Stanford University — as was Johnson — and was one of the first writers of color in that program.

The 2014 winner was Mitchell S. Jackson for his novel “The Residue Years.”

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