Discover their stories.
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1993 Nonfiction
The Civilization of the Goddess
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1970 Nonfiction
Custer Died for Your Sins
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1966 Nonfiction
Your Heredity and Environment
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2016 Poetry
Heaven
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1971 Nonfiction
La Raza
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2017 Fiction
The Fortunes
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2016 Nonfiction
What the Eye Hears
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2018 Nonfiction
Bunk
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1992 Nonfiction
The Homeplace
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2001 Nonfiction
Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner
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1966 Nonfiction
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
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2003 Lifetime Achievement
Adrienne Kennedy
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2001 Lifetime Achievement
Lucille Clifton
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1980 Nonfiction
The !Kung San
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1971 Nonfiction
Black Freedom
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2016 Fiction
The Jazz Palace
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1989 Nonfiction
Dreamings
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1988 Fiction
Beloved
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1956 Nonfiction
A Manual of Intergroup Relations
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1972 Nonfiction
Outcasts from Evolution
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1971 Nonfiction
The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca
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2016 Nonfiction
The Gay Revolution
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1971 Nonfiction
La Raza
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2015 Lifetime Achievement
David Brion Davis
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2001 Lifetime Achievement
Lucille Clifton
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1988 Nonfiction
Living Maya
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2004 Lifetime Achievement
Derek Walcott
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1972 Nonfiction
The Autobiography of an Unknown South African
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1995 Nonfiction
Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White
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2020 Fiction
The Old Drift
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1972 Nonfiction
The Black Image in the White Mind
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1981 Nonfiction
Maasai
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1949 Nonfiction
Anatomy of Paradise
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2015 Fiction
A Brief History of Seven Killings
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2016 Fiction
The Jazz Palace
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1971 Nonfiction
Black Freedom
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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Our 2020 Cleveland Book Week In Review
October 12, 2020
Our slate of virtual programming during this year’s Cleveland Book Week means you have continued access, including our collaborations with…
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Virtual Cleveland Book Week Kicks Off September 29
August 26, 2020
The fifth annual literary celebration returns this year from Sept. 29-Oct. 4, and will celebrate our 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards…
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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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New Televised Special Will Celebrate Our 2020 Award Recipients Oct 1
June 26, 2020
Join us October 1 to toast the 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards authors and their brilliant books. WVIZ/PBS ideastream will produce,…
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Anisfield-Wolf Winning Authors Nab Los Angeles Times Book Prizes
April 30, 2020
Four Anisfield-Wolf Book Award-winning authors — including two from our 2020 class — took home hardware from this year’s Los Angeles…
Educational Resources
View all resources-
Shakespeare Meets Tommy Orange
Book: There There
Level: Child -
Discovering “Reading-in-Place” — the Act of Joining Stories and Geography
Level: Young Adult
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Exploring Magical Thinking Within “Olio” and “The Second Founding”
Book: Olio
Level: Young Adult -
Taking A Deep Dive Into “Sing Unburied Sing”
Book: Sing, Unburied, Sing
Level: Young Adult
Support the Cleveland community by purchasing your Anisfield-Wolf books at these local sellers
Appletree Books, an independent bookstore established in Cleveland Heights, offers an eclectic, well-curated selection of new book titles in multiple genres for both children and adults.
Loganberry Books is an independently owned and operated bookstore in the historic Larchmere neighborhood, featuring a carefully curated collection of new, used and rare books.
Mac’s Backs is an independent bookstore located in the Coventry neighborhood, and home to three floors of new and used classics, mysteries, science fiction, contemporary fiction and non-fiction books and magazines.
Visible Voice is a bookstore with that lost independent feel in the Tremont neighborhood—a relaxed, inviting environment conducive to discovery, where the books marginalized by commercial concerns have a home.
Join the conversation on Twitter
@AnisfieldWolfTonight, Oct. 30 at 7 pm EDT, don’t miss Books Noted Live, a reading & conversation with @SirJoshBennett, author of OWED ( @PenguinBooks), & @KazimAliPoet, author of THE VOICE OF SHEILA CHANDRA ( @AliceJamesBooks). #ASL. Free with registration: https://t.co/UuaK26OzCU https://t.co/901wjBX4WZ
Hiram College English professor Kirsten Parkinson uses Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Half of a Yellow Sun” to interrogate themes of citizenship. View this and more educational resources for Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners: https://t.co/20QGww4LZK
If you saw DOPE IS DEATH at CIFF44 or as part of our collaboration with @AnisfieldWolf for Cleveland Book Week, don’t miss out on the DOPE IS DEATH podcast! You can find it everywhere you listen to podcasts, or head to https://t.co/tV0DdbCaeV https://t.co/bCWLnhUhZO
Tomorrow, hear from Black Lives Matter co-founder @OsopePatrisse as she brings her book When They Call You a Terrorist to a @CuyahogaLib virtual event. More here: https://t.co/XIUwHsNEGe
