Celebrate Cleveland Book Week this year with free online streaming events highlighting nationally recognized literary talent.
Upcoming Cleveland Book Week Events
View all upcoming events-
CIFF STREAMS + AWBA Film Selections
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Case Western Reserve University: 2012 Anisfield-Wolf Winner David Livingstone Smith
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In Conversation: Charles King + Steven Pinker
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Somali-American Poet Safia Elhillo and Twelve Literary Arts on “The Weight and Opportunity of Living in the Hyphen”
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Global Cleveland Sister Cities Conference: Namwali Serpell
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The 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Ceremony Televised Special
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Global Cleveland Sister Cities Conference: Ilya Kaminsky
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The City Club of Cleveland Forum: Eric Foner
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Great Lakes African American Writers Conference: Pearl Cleage Keynote
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
Discover their stories.
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1991 Nonfiction
The Arrogance of Faith
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1973 Nonfiction
Men & Brothers
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1982 Nonfiction
People of the Sacred Mountain
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1990 Fiction
The Women of Plums
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1952 Nonfiction
Race Relations
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2010 Lifetime Achievement
Elizabeth Alexander
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1962 Nonfiction
Antislavery
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1971 Nonfiction
The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca
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2017 Fiction
The Fortunes
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1984 Nonfiction
From Immigrants to Ethnics
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1963 Nonfiction
Mankind Evolving
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1947 Nonfiction
Latin Americans in Texas
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2012 Nonfiction
Less Than Human
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1983 Nonfiction
Ake
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2013 Fiction
Kind One
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2000 Fiction
A Gesture Life
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1955 Nonfiction
Report on Africa
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1983 Nonfiction
Hunger of Memory
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2002 Lifetime Achievement
Jay Wright
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2011 Nonfiction
The Warmth of Other Suns
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1999 Nonfiction
Walking with the Wind
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1962 Nonfiction
Antislavery
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1990 Fiction
The Women of Plums
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1984 Nonfiction
From Immigrants to Ethnics
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1965 Nonfiction
A History of the Jews
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2013 Fiction
Kind One
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1980 Nonfiction
The Ecology of Human Development
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2006 Fiction
On Beauty
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2002 Nonfiction
Quincy Jones
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1966 Nonfiction
The Unity of Mankind in Greek Thought
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1993 Nonfiction
The Civilization of the Goddess
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1972 Nonfiction
The Black Image in the White Mind
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1966 Nonfiction
Your Heredity and Environment
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1960 Nonfiction
I Speak for Myself
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2015 Lifetime Achievement
David Brion Davis
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1968 Nonfiction
The Destruction of the European Jews
Recent News
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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…
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“We Are Radical Monarchs” Documentary Shows Young Girls Taking Flight In The Social Justice Realm
April 24, 2020
“I was meant to be here,” 11-year-old Amia said as she twirled around the state capitol building in Sacramento, California….
Educational Resources
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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
@AnisfieldWolfWe’re happy to have 3 sessions of this gathering linked with #ClevelandBookWeek. Grab your free ticket to hear from Namwali Serpell AW ’20 ( @namwalien), Ilya Kaminsky AW ’20 ( @ilya_poet) and Safia Elhillo ( @mafiasafia), as well as a bevy of local educators and writers! https://t.co/pfAviOaUKS
@MattWeinkam @urbanetics_ @Cleveland_PL @CuyahogaLib @litcleveland @twelve_arts @LakeErieInk @belt_publishing @MacsBacks @loganberrybooks @apptreebooks @visiblevoiceCLE @brewsandprose @ClevelandDrafts @CSUPoetryCenter @grieve_land We try our best to highlight CLE’s literary scene during #ClevelandBookWeek! We’ve got our bookstores on board, we always partner with our libraries, and those lit orgs have made for great collabs in past years. This year’s lineup is no different: https://t.co/IGFLLJPR99
“Lucille Clifton’s work sings and tells the clear truth on the page. Her poems are grounded, are the ground. They are words of power.
Hey, these are objective facts.” https://t.co/2BBbg3oFrm
We couldn’t celebrate in person this year, so we’ve created an original one-hour special to toast to our four 2020 winners.
Tune in 10/1 to meet each in their own backyard. We’ll email you a reminder if you sign up here: https://t.co/yQdOQWHCxg https://t.co/uUPO7ZWA2n
Science, society, and the many ways of being human: Please join @sapinker and me on 9/30 for a conversation as part of the @AnisfieldWolf book awards and #CLE Book Week. https://t.co/HV9BGn3jPq
Did you catch our Cleveland Book Week line-up last week?
No?
Let’s get you caught up: https://t.co/F9vYxd92oi #CBW2020
