Discover their stories.
-
2021 Poetry
Obit
-
2021 Nonfiction
Memorial Drive
-
2021 Fiction
Deacon King Kong
-
2021 Nonfiction
Tacky’s Revolt
-
2021 Lifetime Achievement
Samuel R. Delany
-
2020 Poetry
Deaf Republic
-
2020 Nonfiction
Gods of the Upper Air
-
2020 Fiction
The Old Drift
-
2020 Lifetime Achievement
Eric Foner
-
2019 Nonfiction
The War Before the War
-
2019 Fiction
There There
-
2019 Poetry
Wade in the Water
-
2019 Lifetime Achievement
Sonia Sanchez
-
2018 Lifetime Achievement
N. Scott Momaday
-
2018 Poetry
In the Language of My Captor
-
2018 Fiction
Sing, Unburied, Sing
-
2018 Nonfiction
Bunk
-
2017 Poetry
Olio
-
2017 Lifetime Achievement
Isabel Allende
-
2017 Fiction
The Association of Small Bombs
-
2017 Nonfiction
Hidden Figures
-
2017 Fiction
The Fortunes
-
2016 Nonfiction
The Gay Revolution
-
2016 Fiction
The Jazz Palace
-
2016 Nonfiction
What the Eye Hears
-
2016 Poetry
Heaven
-
2016 Lifetime Achievement
Orlando Patterson
-
2015 Nonfiction
A Tale of Two Plantations
-
2015 Fiction
A Brief History of Seven Killings
-
2015 Poetry
Hard Love Province
-
2015 Poetry
The New Testament
-
2015 Lifetime Achievement
David Brion Davis
-
2014 Fiction
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
-
2014 Fiction
The Big Smoke
-
2014 Nonfiction
My Promised Land
-
2014 Lifetime Achievement
Wilson Harris
-
2014 Lifetime Achievement
George Lamming
-
2013 Fiction
My Favorite Warlord
-
2013 Fiction
The Yellow Birds
-
2013 Fiction
Kind One
-
2013 Lifetime Achievement
Wole Soyinka
-
2013 Nonfiction
Far From the Tree
-
2012 Fiction
Half-Blood Blues
-
2012 Nonfiction
American Oracle
-
2012 Nonfiction
Less Than Human
-
2012 Lifetime Achievement
Arnold Rampersad
-
2011 Nonfiction
Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
-
2011 Fiction
Great House
-
2011 Fiction
The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia
-
2011 Lifetime Achievement
John Edgar Wideman
-
2011 Nonfiction
The Warmth of Other Suns
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-
Celebrating the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards During a Pandemic
September 13, 2021
Mary Fecteau is a senior producer at Ideastream Public Media and director of the 2020 and 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards…
-
2021 Anisfield-Wolf Awards Documentary
September 9, 2021
Cleveland Book Week features a one-hour documentary with historian Vincent Brown, poet Victoria Chang, memoirist Natasha Trethewey, novelist James McBride,…
-
Author Isabel Wilkerson On “Caste” And This Country’s Racial Moment of Truth
August 22, 2021
Journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson, an authority on the Great Migration and the anthropology of caste, will anchor the Cleveland…
-
A Poetic Tribute To MacNolia Cox, Who Paved The Way For Spelling Champion Zaila Avant-garde
July 14, 2021
Two girls, African American eighth graders, separated by geography and time, made a splash at the Scripps National Spelling Bee. …
-
With “On Juneteenth,” Annette Gordon-Reed Makes The Holiday And Its Texas Origins Personal
June 16, 2021
The holiday of Juneteenth is deepening its mark on American history. The U.S. Senate voted unanimously this week to make…
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
@AnisfieldWolfJoin @UrsulineCampus‘ read of former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey’s “Memorial Drive,” praised as an instant classic. Trethewey will gather with campus community Oct 28: https://t.co/05l3NkFess https://t.co/iOV5jeQmb4
A sampling of new works from Anisfield-Wolf award winning authors + jurists: “Harlem Shuffle” by @colsonwhitehead; “Martita, I Remember You” by #SandraCisneros and “Playlist for the Apocalypse” by #RitaDove.
Have you read any? What did you think? https://t.co/HCkVv6jYuq
Jerry Pinkney, illustrator of books like ‘The Lion and the Mouse,’ has died. He was 81: https://t.co/sYDaoIFEvP
Next month, join us virtually for @TheCityClub forum ft Anisfield-Wolfians #VincentBrown, the 2021 winner for nonfiction, and @MarlonJames5, who won for fiction in 2015:
https://t.co/29j22oSNi7
Watch our 2021 awards documentary — featuring poet Victoria Chang, historian Vincent Brown, memoirist Natasha Trethewey, novelist James McBride and lifetime achievement winner Samuel R. Delany — streaming now on YouTube: https://t.co/XT19CKhh42 #AWBA2021 https://t.co/AAp1bjh3SO
It’s Submissions Season at the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. We honor books each year that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and human diversity.
What 2021 books do you think deserve a spot in our class of 2022? https://t.co/u2mCvTjuOg
