Karen R. Long manages the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, the only juried prize given each year for the best books to confront racism and contribute to our understanding of rich human cultures. She supports the jury deliberations, the celebration of the winners and works to bring the Anisfield-Wolf canon – stretching back to 1935 – into the lives of more readers each year.
Karen came to the Cleveland Foundation in 2013 after eight years as book editor of the Plain Dealer. She continues as a literary critic, writing for Newsday, Kirkus, and the Los Angeles Times. In 2016, she finished a seven-year stretch as a vice president for the National Book Critics Circle, where she was a judge for its six annual prizes, awarded each spring in New York City.
In addition, Karen served the Plain Dealer as a science writer, investigative reporter and a religion and ethics writer, and served her co-workers as a vice president of Local One of the Newspaper Guild. She won a Penny Missouri award for best magazine feature and an Associated Press award for best feature writing. A voracious reader since she wore her cat-eyed glasses to kindergarten in Seattle, Karen was educated at the University of Washington and Oxford University in England. She raised three children in Cleveland Heights with her husband Joe Frolik. In 2015, Cleveland Magazine named her one of the most interesting people in the city.
