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Anisfield-Wolf Book Award

American literary award

American literary award

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture. Established in 1935 by Cleveland poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfield Wolf and originally administered by the Saturday Review, the awards have been administered by the Cleveland Foundation since 1963.

The foundation confers awards in several categories, such as fiction, poetry, nonfiction, memoir/autobiography, and lifetime achievement, each September in a ceremony free and open to the public and attended by the honorees. Winners previously include Zora Neale Hurston (1943), Langston Hughes (1954), Martin Luther King Jr. (1959), Maxine Hong Kingston (1978), Wole Soyinka (1983), Nadine Gordimer (1988), Toni Morrison (1988), Ralph Ellison (1992), Edward Said (2000), and Derek Walcott (2004).

The jury has been composed of prominent American writers and scholars since 1991, when long-time jury chairman Ashley Montagu, a renowned anthropologist, asked poet Rita Dove and scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. to help him judge the large number of books submitted annually by publishers across the disciplines. When Montagu retired in 1996, Gates assumed the chair position. In 1996, evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, writer Joyce Carol Oates, and historian Simon Schama (all of whom retired before the 2024 awards) joined. After Gould died in 2002, psychologist Steven Pinker replaced him on the jury. At the 2024 awards, Pinker and Dove retired. The current jury is Natasha Trethewey (jury chair), Peter Ho Davies, Tiya Miles, Charles King, Deesha Philyaw, and Luis Alberto Urrea.

Winners

Fiction

YearAuthorTitle1945194719481949195119541962196919851988199019931994199519961997199819992000200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Earth and High Heaven
East River
Cry, the Beloved Country
The Wall
Simple Takes a Wife
**
In the Mecca
Mouroir: Mirrornotes of a Novel
Beloved
**
Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
Sweetbitter: A Novel
All Souls' Rising
Autobiography of My Mother
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned
Cloudsplitter
John Henry Days
World Hotel
On Beauty
Half of a Yellow Sun
Blue Front
Burnt Shadows
Great House
Half-Blood Bluesdate=2012-07-12title=Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize Goes to Arnold Rampersadurl=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/awards-and-prizes/article/52959-anisfield-wolf-book-prize-goes-to-arnold-rampersad.htmlaccess-date=2025-04-12website=Publishers Weeklylanguage=en}}
Kind One
Sing, Unburied, Sing
There There
Deacon King Kong
Horse
Tremorlast=Schaubfirst=Michaeldate=2024-03-27title=Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winners Are Revealedurl=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/anisfield-wolf-book-award-winners-are-revealed-1/access-date=2025-04-12website=Kirkus Reviewslanguage=en}}
Colored Televisionlast=Schaubfirst=Michaeldate=2025-04-11title=Winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Revealedurl=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/winners-of-the-anisfield-wolf-book-awards-revealed/access-date=2025-04-12website=Kirkus Reviewslanguage=en}}

Poetry

YearAuthorTitle2013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242015
My Favorite Warlord
Hard Love Province
Heaven
Olio
In the Language of My Captor
Wade in the Water
Deaf Republic
Obit
From From
Yard Show

Memoir/Autobiography

YearAuthorTitle2025
Feeding Ghosts

Nonfiction

YearAuthorTitle1936193719391940194119421943194419451946194719481949195019511952195319541955195619571958195919601961196219631964196519661967196819691970197119721973197419751976197719781979198019811982198319841985198619871988198919901991199219931994199519961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009201120122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Negro Politicians: Rise of Negro Politics in Chicago
and A. C. HaddonWe Europeans: A Survey of "Racial" Problems
**
**
From Many Lands
Quest: An Autobiography
Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography
New World A-Coming
**
**
and Horace CaytonBlack Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City
and the editors of LookOne Nation
Latin Americans in Texas
**
Anatomy of Paradise
Punishment Without Crime
Your Most Humble Servant
Twilight in South Africa
Venture to the Interior
Race Relations
People of the Deer
**
Struggle for Africa
Report on Africa
Cultural Differences and Medical Care
and Alex Rosen**
They Wait in Darkness
Naught for Your Comfort
The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization
Handbook on Race Relations
White Mother
Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
and J. Milton YingerRacial and Cultural Minorities: An Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination
I Speak for Myself
**
To Sir, With Love
**
Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America
Black Like Me
Mankind Evolving
**
Faith and Prejudice
and Daniel P. MoynihanBeyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City
Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins
**
A History of the Jews, Revised Edition
Mississippi: The Closed Society
**
Manchild in the Promised Land
and Alex Haley**
Your Heredity and Environment
**
La Vida
Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Children of Crisis: A Study of Courage and Fear
**
**
and W. Grant DahlstromNegro and White Children: A Psychological Study in the Rural South
**
and Nancy O. Lurie**
Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South
Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto
**
and Anne Loftis**
A History of the African People
Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 through the Civil War
La Raza: The Mexican Americans
**
**
Outcasts from Evolution: Scientific Attitudes of Racial Inferiority, 1859–1900
Slavery in the Structure of American Politics, 1765–1820
**
**
**
Men & Brothers
Behind Ghetto Walls: Black Family Life in a Federal Slum
**
Doctor and the Aborigines
Michel Fabre**
Justice in South Africa
Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made
**
**
**
and Jennifer P. Wing**
Simple Justice: A History of Brown v. Board of Education & Black America's Struggle for Equality
Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps
**
Allan Chase**
**
**
**
and Tepilit Ole SaitotiMaasai
Song from the Earth: American Indian painting
Evangelist of Race: The Germanic Vision of Houston Stewart Chamberlain
People of the Sacred Mountain
Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
Aké: The Years of Childhood
Pre-Columbian Art
From Immigrants to Ethnics: The Italian Americans
**
Nazis in Skokie: Freedom, Community and the First Amendment
Freedom Rising
and Clifford BahnimptewaKachinas: A Hopi Artist's Documentary
**
Spirit of Survival
and Walter F. Morris Jr.Living Maya
Whose Votes Count?: Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights
**
Parting the Waters: America in the King Years
**
Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia
**
Gunnar Myrdal and America's Conscience: Social Engineering and Racial Liberalism, 1938–1987
**
, Angela Fisher, and Graham HancockAfrican Ark: People and Ancient Cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa
Praying for Sheetrock: A Work of Nonfiction
Lessons and Legacies I: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World
and Harry Mensh**
**
In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture
**
W. E. B. Du Bois: A Reader
**
**
Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White
Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation
**
**
and Michael D'OrsoWalking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (about the American Civil Rights Movement)
Out of Place: A Memoir
W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963
Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner
and Annette Gordon-ReedVernon Can Read!: A Memoir
Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones
**
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves
Macnolia: Poems
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan
Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: The Untold Story of an American Legend
Infidel: My Lifelast=Longfirst=Karen R.date=2008-09-12title=An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Aliurl=https://www.cleveland.com/arts/2008/09/an_interview_with_ayaan_hirsi.htmlaccess-date=2022-04-06website=Clevelandlanguage=en}}
**
and David RichardsonAtlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
**
Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others
American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era
Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israeldate=2014-03-31title=Awards: NCIBA Books of the Year and Anisfield-Wolf Winnersurl=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2218access-date=2022-04-06website=Shelf Awareness}}
**date=2015-04-02title=Awards: Anisfield-Wolf; Reading the West; Colorado Bookurl=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2477access-date=2022-04-06website=Shelf Awareness}}
**
What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Racedate=2017-03-24title=Awards: Anisfield-Wolf; NYPL Young Lionsurl=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2964access-date=2022-04-06website=Shelf Awareness}}
Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake Newsdate=2018-03-30title=Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Winners; Shaughnessy Cohen Finalistsurl=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3216access-date=2022-04-06website=Shelf Awareness}}
**date=2019-04-12title=Awards: Aspen Winner; Anisfield-Wolf Winners; Best Translated Book Longlistsurl=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3472access-date=2022-04-06website=Shelf Awareness}}
Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Centurylast=Schaubfirst=Michaeldate=2020-03-20title=Four Authors Take Home Anisfield-Wolf Book Awardsurl=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/four-authors-take-home-anisfield-wolf-book-awards/access-date=2022-04-06website=Kirkus Reviewslanguage=en}}
Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War
Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia
Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad
**
**

Lifetime achievement

YearRecipient199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201020102011201220122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Yusef Komunyakaa

Special Achievement Award

  • 1992 – Ralph Ellison for Invisible Man

Notes

References

References

  1. Chijioke, Chiziterem. (2023-03-18). "The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards/ How to Submit (Prize: $10,000 + Publicity)".
  2. (2012-07-12). "Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize Goes to Arnold Rampersad".
  3. (2013-04-23). "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Winners; Carnegie Medals Shortlist".
  4. (2013-04-22). "'Yellow Birds' and 'Far From the Tree' Lead 2013 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards".
  5. (2023-04-05). "Awards: PEN/Faulkner for Fiction, Anisfield-Wolf, Windham-Campbell Winners".
  6. Schaub, Michael. (2024-03-27). "Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winners Are Revealed".
  7. Schaub, Michael. (2025-04-11). "Winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Revealed".
  8. "Winners".
  9. (2020-02-10). "Awards: Frost Medal Winner; Int'l Excellence Shortlists".
  10. Long, Karen R.. (2008-09-12). "An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali".
  11. (2012-04-25). "Awards: Whitman Winner; Desmond Elliott Longlist; Anisfield-Wolf".
  12. (2014-03-31). "Awards: NCIBA Books of the Year and Anisfield-Wolf Winners".
  13. (2015-04-02). "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf; Reading the West; Colorado Book".
  14. (2016-04-19). "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf; Books for a Better Life; Deborah Rogers; Theakstons".
  15. (2017-03-24). "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf; NYPL Young Lions".
  16. (2018-03-30). "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Winners; Shaughnessy Cohen Finalists".
  17. (2019-04-12). "Awards: Aspen Winner; Anisfield-Wolf Winners; Best Translated Book Longlists".
  18. Schaub, Michael. (2020-03-20). "Four Authors Take Home Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards".
  19. (2020-03-31). "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Winners".
  20. (2021-04-05). "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Winners".
  21. Schaub, Michael. (2022-04-05). "Winners of Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Are Revealed".
  22. (2022-04-05). "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Book Winners".
  23. (2017-02-13). "Obituary Note: William Melvin Kelley".
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