Upcoming Events
Discover their stories.
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2021 Poetry
Obit
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2021 Nonfiction
Memorial Drive
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2021 Fiction
Deacon King Kong
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2021 Nonfiction
Tacky’s Revolt
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2021 Lifetime Achievement
Samuel R. Delany
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2020 Nonfiction
Gods of the Upper Air
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2020 Fiction
The Old Drift
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2020 Lifetime Achievement
Eric Foner
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2020 Poetry
Deaf Republic
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2019 Fiction
There There
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2019 Poetry
Wade in the Water
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2019 Lifetime Achievement
Sonia Sanchez
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2019 Nonfiction
The War Before the War
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2018 Lifetime Achievement
N. Scott Momaday
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2018 Poetry
In the Language of My Captor
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2018 Fiction
Sing, Unburied, Sing
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2018 Nonfiction
Bunk
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2017 Fiction
The Association of Small Bombs
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2017 Nonfiction
Hidden Figures
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2017 Fiction
The Fortunes
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2017 Poetry
Olio
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2017 Lifetime Achievement
Isabel Allende
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2016 Nonfiction
The Gay Revolution
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2016 Fiction
The Jazz Palace
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2016 Nonfiction
What the Eye Hears
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2016 Poetry
Heaven
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2016 Lifetime Achievement
Orlando Patterson
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2015 Poetry
Hard Love Province
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2015 Poetry
The New Testament
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2015 Lifetime Achievement
David Brion Davis
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2015 Nonfiction
A Tale of Two Plantations
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2015 Fiction
A Brief History of Seven Killings
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2014 Fiction
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
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2014 Fiction
The Big Smoke
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2014 Nonfiction
My Promised Land
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2014 Lifetime Achievement
Wilson Harris
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2014 Lifetime Achievement
George Lamming
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2013 Fiction
Kind One
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2013 Lifetime Achievement
Wole Soyinka
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2013 Nonfiction
Far From the Tree
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2013 Fiction
My Favorite Warlord
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2013 Fiction
The Yellow Birds
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2012 Fiction
Half-Blood Blues
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2012 Nonfiction
American Oracle
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2012 Nonfiction
Less Than Human
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2012 Lifetime Achievement
Arnold Rampersad
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2011 Fiction
The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia
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2011 Lifetime Achievement
John Edgar Wideman
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2011 Nonfiction
The Warmth of Other Suns
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2011 Nonfiction
Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
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2011 Fiction
Great House
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 86 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
View all news-
Author Ayana Gray On Black Excellence, Literary Mentorship and Inspiration for Her Riveting Debut, “Beasts of Prey”
December 23, 2021
As a child in Atlanta, Ayana Gray constantly faced a difficult choice – she could either read fantastical stories about…
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Meet Samuel R. Delany, 2021 Lifetime Achievement Recipient
December 13, 2021
In a career spanning nearly 60 years and encompassing over 40 publications, Samuel R. Delany has written memoirs, novels, literary…
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Meet James McBride, 2021 Winner for Fiction
December 6, 2021
Set in a fictional New York City public housing project in 1969, “Deacon King Kong” begins with a shooting. But…
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Gather In Poems: American Academy of Poetry’s Virtual Offering
December 1, 2021
Four Anisfield-Wolf poets distilled their lines into an hour-long symphony of 15 voices. All are chancellors of the American Academy…
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Meet Natasha Trethewey, 2021 Winner for Nonfiction
November 29, 2021
Born in Mississippi on Confederate Memorial Day in 1966, Natasha Trethewey’s existence was the result of an interracial marriage, still…
Educational Resources
View all resources-
The Music of Tommy Orange’s There There
Book: There There
Level: Child -
Teaching Kevin Young’s Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News
Book: Bunk
Level: Young Adult -
Teaching Diversity in the Eras of Plague and Pandemic
Book: Far From the Tree
Level: Young Adult -
Reading Anisfield-Wolf Winners’ Picture Books
Level: Child
Join the conversation on Twitter
@AnisfieldWolfEmmett Till’s cousin visits grave of Till’s father in new series – ABC News https://t.co/cMhR4pJASz
Excited to have an essay published today in @LandofCLE about @litcleveland and the role of writing in the pandemic.
Thanks to Lee for the invitation & thanks to the Lit Cleveland community. You all got me through the last two years.
https://t.co/HgEneZOXP4
“How do we even know that what interests or delights us, alarms or terrifies us, will invoke a raised eyebrow in someone else? Perhaps the craft in whatever form it takes, is our bridge.”
– Edwidge Danticat (AW ’05), who was born on this day in 1969: https://t.co/uXXPSPtxpU https://t.co/8DrG6hEe2m
Breaking News: André Leon Talley, the fashion editor who went from the Jim Crow South to the front rows of Paris couture, has died at 73. https://t.co/zHMtn2sS7p
“I cannot accept this as an honor to me personally… It is for this reason I have decided to give every dollar accompanying the award to the civil rights movement.”
Take a look at Martin Luther King Jr.’s thank you letter that he sent to the Nobel Foundation.
#MLKDay https://t.co/dxGuG7lzhD
