Discover their stories.
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2022 Nonfiction
All That She Carried
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2022 Poetry
The Renunciations
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2022 Lifetime Achievement
Ishmael Reed
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2022 Nonfiction
Of Fear and Strangers
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2022 Fiction
The Trees
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2020 Poetry
Deaf Republic
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2020 Nonfiction
Gods of the Upper Air
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2020 Fiction
The Old Drift
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2020 Lifetime Achievement
Eric Foner
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2019 Poetry
Wade in the Water
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2019 Lifetime Achievement
Sonia Sanchez
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2019 Nonfiction
The War Before the War
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2019 Fiction
There There
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2018 Lifetime Achievement
N. Scott Momaday
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2018 Poetry
In the Language of My Captor
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2018 Fiction
Sing, Unburied, Sing
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2018 Nonfiction
Bunk
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2017 Nonfiction
Hidden Figures
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2017 Fiction
The Fortunes
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2017 Poetry
Olio
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2017 Lifetime Achievement
Isabel Allende
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2017 Fiction
The Association of Small Bombs
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2016 Nonfiction
The Gay Revolution
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2016 Fiction
The Jazz Palace
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2016 Nonfiction
What the Eye Hears
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2016 Poetry
Heaven
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2016 Lifetime Achievement
Orlando Patterson
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2015 Poetry
The New Testament
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2015 Lifetime Achievement
David Brion Davis
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2015 Nonfiction
A Tale of Two Plantations
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2015 Fiction
A Brief History of Seven Killings
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2015 Poetry
Hard Love Province
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2014 Fiction
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
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2014 Fiction
The Big Smoke
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2014 Nonfiction
My Promised Land
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2014 Lifetime Achievement
Wilson Harris
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2014 Lifetime Achievement
George Lamming
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2013 Lifetime Achievement
Wole Soyinka
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2013 Nonfiction
Far From the Tree
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2013 Fiction
My Favorite Warlord
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2013 Fiction
The Yellow Birds
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2013 Fiction
Kind One
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2012 Fiction
Half-Blood Blues
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2012 Nonfiction
American Oracle
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2012 Nonfiction
Less Than Human
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2012 Lifetime Achievement
Arnold Rampersad
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2011 Nonfiction
Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
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2011 Fiction
Great House
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2011 Fiction
The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia
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2011 Lifetime Achievement
John Edgar Wideman
Our Mission
The only juried American book prize focusing on works that address racism and diversity.
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and human diversity. For 85 years, the distinguished books earning Anisfield-Wolf prizes have opened and challenged our minds. Cleveland poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfield Wolf established the book awards in 1935, in honor of her father, John Anisfield, and husband, Eugene Wolf, to reflect her family’s passion for social justice.
Proudly presented by the Cleveland Foundation
Recent News
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Introducing Our Class of 2022
March 29, 2022
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My Awesome Blog Post
October 6, 2020
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John Lewis Hopes To Encourage “Good Trouble” In New Documentary
July 16, 2020
One of the most surprising things about “Good Trouble,” a new documentary on Georgia Congressman John Lewis’ six decades in…
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Join the conversation on Twitter
@AnisfieldWolf“Celebrate the holiday, or don’t. Believe in American mercy, or don’t. But look where tradition has gotten us so far. Look where we are now.”
@AnisfieldWolf award winner Tommy Orange on #Thanksgiving (LA Times, Nov. 2017)
https://t.co/lue9pw4q9D
“This page of Butler’s journal, though, is riveting for how it upends any tradition of shame around a relentless desire for success.” — @NifMuhammad https://t.co/BoGUuKoyCu
“Like a conjurer, Percival Everett has the gift of transmogrification: He transforms weighty topics some readers might shrink from into deceptively sharp entertainment.” https://t.co/OGCp7dXwek
Feels like a good time to drop this link to our newsletter, as one more way to stay in the AWBA loop ➡️ https://t.co/fn24m9CMvk https://t.co/qVFat0s3B5
I’m in the midst of teaching Tommy Orange’s @AnisfieldWolf Award-winning book There There (2018). Check out his suggested books to read for Native American Heritage Month!
https://t.co/Xi6vxMb4m1
Check out this upcoming @litcleveland reader series on the AWBA class of 2022 – come dive deeper into the award-winning work of Donika Kelly, George Makari, Ishmael Reed, Percival Everett and Tiya Miles: https://t.co/Gxlvkw2Vz9 https://t.co/IhfwzbwuxV
