Discover their stories.
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2007 Fiction
Blue Front
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1972 Nonfiction
Slavery in the Structure of American Politics
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1942 Nonfiction
The Haitian People
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1955 Nonfiction
Cultural Differences and Medical Care
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1991 Nonfiction
The Arrogance of Faith
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2014 Lifetime Achievement
Wilson Harris
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1995 Nonfiction
Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White
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2009 Fiction
The Boat
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1969 Nonfiction
The Leo Frank Case
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1948 Fiction
The Other Room
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1960 Nonfiction
The Lost Cities of Africa
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1972 Nonfiction
Outcasts from Evolution
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1999 Fiction
Cloudsplitter
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2000 Fiction
A Gesture Life
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2013 Fiction
The Yellow Birds
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2012 Fiction
Half-Blood Blues
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2005 Lifetime Achievement
August Wilson
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1956 Nonfiction
They Wait in Darkness
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1972 Nonfiction
Outcasts from Evolution
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2008 Nonfiction
Infidel
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2011 Fiction
The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia
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2019 Fiction
There There
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1992 Nonfiction
The IQ Mythology
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2008 Lifetime Achievement
William Melvin Kelley
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2002 Nonfiction
Quincy Jones
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2016 Lifetime Achievement
Orlando Patterson
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1969 Fiction
In the Mecca
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2018 Fiction
Sing, Unburied, Sing
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1996 Lifetime Achievement
Dorothy West
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2000 Lifetime Achievement
Ernest J. Gaines
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1965 Nonfiction
Mississippi
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2015 Poetry
The New Testament
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1972 Nonfiction
Slavery in the Structure of American Politics
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2013 Fiction
Kind One
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1989 Nonfiction
Parting the Waters
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1965 Nonfiction
The Struggle for Equality
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
View all news-
Bill To Create “Toni Morrison Day” Headed To Vote In Ohio State Senate
November 25, 2020
“Quiet as it is kept, there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941 . . . Not even the…
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Rita Dove Featured On New Podcast By Akron Symphony Orchestra
November 19, 2020
Fans of Rita Dove’s 2009 poetry collection “Sonata Mulattica” can dive into the story behind the poems in a new podcast produced…
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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…
Educational Resources
View all resources-
Reading Anisfield-Wolf Winners’ Picture Books
Level: Child
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“Why Black, Not Blue?”: Redefining the Color Black in Children’s Picture Books
Level: Young Adult
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Shakespeare Meets Tommy Orange
Book: There There
Level: Child -
Discovering “Reading-in-Place” — the Act of Joining Stories and Geography
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
@AnisfieldWolfTake some time today to read our Neighborhood Voices Anthology, created in partnership with @Cleveland_PL.
This anthology contains over 60 poems & essays from all across the city, highlighting our unique neighborhoods.
Read & explore.
https://t.co/ZGO1s1khoT https://t.co/2Jl9tYihVe
“People are better positioned to address the present if they have an idea of where we came from, how we got here.” —Eric Foner, our 2020 lifetime achievement award winner
Watch our 2020 awards ceremony in full, streaming now: https://t.co/bJ73dsO80n https://t.co/UHmF8maQ57
Read as historian Eric Foner, this year’s lifetime achievement winner, offers up his review of President Obama’s long awaited memoir, “A Promised Land.” https://t.co/e3QoJWq0JV
Zachary Thomas, co-founder of a creative writing program for adjudicated juvenile residents in Ohio, uses @jerichobrown‘s poetry to spark their stories: https://t.co/4w9Dab7UOa
Listen to the first 4 episodes of the Akron Symphony Orchestra’s new podcast, Unorchestrated, featuring AW juror + poet Rita Dove: https://t.co/DsEmFTp03U
