Discover their stories.
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1999 Lifetime Achievement
John Hope Franklin
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1948 Fiction
The Other Room
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1989 Nonfiction
Parting the Waters
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1948 Nonfiction
The Indians of the Americas
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1967 Nonfiction
La Vida
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1947 Nonfiction
Latin Americans in Texas
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2002 Fiction
John Henry Days
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1993 Nonfiction
In My Father’s House
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1971 Nonfiction
The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca
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1964 Nonfiction
The New World of Negro Americans
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2014 Lifetime Achievement
George Lamming
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1944 Nonfiction
The World of Sholom Aleichem
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1940 Nonfiction
The Negro Family in the United States
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2012 Lifetime Achievement
Arnold Rampersad
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1976 Nonfiction
The Myth of the Jewish Race
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2003 Fiction
World Hotel
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1952 Nonfiction
Venture to the Interior
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2002 Lifetime Achievement
Jay Wright
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1986 Nonfiction
Nazis in Skokie
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2005 Nonfiction
M•A•C•N•O•L•I•A
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1994 Nonfiction
W.E.B. Du Bois
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2007 Fiction
Half of a Yellow Sun
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1975 Nonfiction
Roll, Jordan, Roll
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1962 Fiction
The Forbidden Man
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1946 Nonfiction
Black Metropolis
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1944 Nonfiction
The World of Sholom Aleichem
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1953 Nonfiction
A Many-Splendored Thing
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2019 Nonfiction
The War Before the War
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1947 Fiction
East River
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1945 Fiction
Earth and High Heaven
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1969 Nonfiction
The Leo Frank Case
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1999 Lifetime Achievement
John Hope Franklin
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1958 Nonfiction
Handbook on Race Relations
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1953 Nonfiction
People of the Deer
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1998 Lifetime Achievement
Gordon Parks
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1939 Nonfiction
Non-European Peoples of South Africa
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-
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 -
Discussing The Complexities Of Citizenship Within “Half Of A Yellow Sun”
Book: Half of a Yellow Sun
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
@AnisfieldWolfThe most intriguing fact about our origin story is that our book prize on racism and diversity started 85 years ago.
Get the full story on our founder Edith Anisfield Wolf here: https://t.co/gmTiMlRGPS
“Authors like [Lillian] Faderman did the work of writing The Gay Revolution. The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards did the work of lifting up the importance of the book. Now it is on us to read the history and share that history with future generations.” https://t.co/aPz5tU55JW
Anisfield-Wolf Fellow Zachary Thomas, co-founder of Writers in Residence, a creative writing program for adjudicated juvenile residents in Ohio, uses @jerichobrown‘s poetry to spark their stories: https://t.co/4w9Dab7UOa
Loved @Deardarkness on NPR this morning. Take a minute to listen: https://t.co/3dFZc4ZBmY
Spend time with our class of 2020 in our reimagined ceremony-turned-documentary, streaming now on our website + YouTube channel: https://t.co/yQdOQWHCxg
With the relaunch of our website, we’ve created a new, more robust education section w/ resources for K-12 and post-secondary educators to bring Anisfield-Wolf authors into the classroom. Dive into our lesson plans here: https://t.co/BYcxkmrJWc
