Anisfield-Wolf Book Award

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award is an American literary award dedicated to honoring written works that make important contributions to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of the rich diversity of human culture.[1] Established in 1935 by Cleveland poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfield Wolf and originally administered by the Saturday Review, the awards have been administered by the Cleveland Foundation since 1963.

The foundation confers awards in several categories, such as fiction, poetry, nonfiction, memoir/autobiography, and lifetime achievement, each September in a ceremony free and open to the public and attended by the honorees. Winners previously include Zora Neale Hurston (1943), Langston Hughes (1954), Martin Luther King Jr. (1959), Maxine Hong Kingston (1978), Wole Soyinka (1983), Nadine Gordimer (1988), Toni Morrison (1988), Ralph Ellison (1992), Edward Said (2000), and Derek Walcott (2004).

The jury has been composed of prominent American writers and scholars since 1991, when long-time jury chairman Ashley Montagu, a renowned anthropologist, asked poet Rita Dove and scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. to help him judge the large number of books submitted annually by publishers across the disciplines. When Montagu retired in 1996, Gates assumed the chair position. In 1996, evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, writer Joyce Carol Oates, and historian Simon Schama (all of whom retired before the 2024 awards) joined. After Gould died in 2002, psychologist Steven Pinker replaced him on the jury. At the 2024 awards, Pinker and Dove retired. The current jury is Natasha Trethewey (jury chair), Peter Ho Davies, Tiya Miles, Charles King, Deesha Philyaw, and Luis Alberto Urrea.

Winners

Fiction

Fiction winners[2]
Year Author Title Ref.
1945 Gwethalyn Graham Earth and High Heaven
1947 Sholem Asch East River
1948 Worth Tuttle Hedden The Other Room
1949 Alan Paton Cry, the Beloved Country
1951 John Hersey The Wall
1954 Langston Hughes Simple Takes a Wife
1962 Gina Allen The Forbidden Man
1969 Gwendolyn Brooks In the Mecca
1985 Breyten Breytenbach Mouroir: Mirrornotes of a Novel
1988 Nadine Gordimer A Sport of Nature
Toni Morrison Beloved
1990 Dolores Kendrick The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women
1993 Sandra Cisneros Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
1994 Judith Ortiz Cofer The Latin Deli: Prose and Poetry
1995 Reginald Gibbons Sweetbitter: A Novel
1996 Madison Smartt Bell All Souls' Rising
1997 Jamaica Kincaid Autobiography of My Mother
1998 Walter Mosley Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned
1999 Russell Banks Cloudsplitter
2000 Chang-Rae Lee A Gesture Life
2002 Colson Whitehead John Henry Days
2003 Stephen L. Carter The Emperor of Ocean Park
Reetika Vazirani World Hotel
2004 Edward P. Jones The Known World
2005 Edwidge Danticat The Dew Breaker
2006 Zadie Smith On Beauty
2007 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Half of a Yellow Sun
Martha Collins Blue Front
2008 Junot Díaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao [3]
Mohsin Hamid The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2009 Louise Erdrich The Plague of Doves
Nam Le The Boat
2010 Kamila Shamsie Burnt Shadows
2011 Mary Helen Stefaniak The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia
Nicole Krauss Great House
2012 Esi Edugyan Half-Blood Blues [4]
2013 Laird Hunt Kind One [5][6]
Kevin Powers The Yellow Birds
2014 Anthony Marra A Constellation of Vital Phenomena [7]
2015 Marlon James A Brief History of Seven Killings [8]
2016 Mary Morris The Jazz Palace [9]
2017 Peter Ho Davies The Fortunes [10]
Karan Mahajan The Association of Small Bombs
2018 Jesmyn Ward Sing, Unburied, Sing [11]
2019 Tommy Orange There There [12]
2020 Namwali Serpell The Old Drift [13][14]
2021 James McBride Deacon King Kong [15]
2022 Percival Everett The Trees [16][17]
2023 Lan Samantha Chang The Family Chao [18]
Geraldine Brooks Horse
2024 Teju Cole Tremor [19]
2025 Danzy Senna Colored Television [20]

Poetry

Poetry winners[2]
Year Author Title Ref.
2013 Eugene Gloria My Favorite Warlord [5][6]
2014 Adrian Matejka The Big Smoke [7]
2015 Jericho Brown The New Testament [8]
Marilyn Chin Hard Love Province
2016 Rowan Ricardo Phillips Heaven [9]
2017 Tyehimba Jess Olio [10]
2018 Shane McCrae In the Language of My Captor [11]
2019 Tracy K. Smith Wade in the Water [12]
2020 Ilya Kaminsky Deaf Republic [13][14]
2021 Victoria Chang Obit [15]
2022 Donika Kelly The Renunciations [17]
2023 Saeed Jones Alive at the End of the World [18]
2024 Monica Youn From From [19]
2015 Janice N. Harrington Yard Show [20]

Memoir/Autobiography

Memoir/Autobiography winners[2]
Year Author Title Ref.
2025 Tessa Hulls Feeding Ghosts [20]

Nonfiction

Nonfiction winners[2]
Year Author Title Ref.
1936 Harold Foote Gosnell Negro Politicians: Rise of Negro Politics in Chicago
1937 Julian Huxley and A. C. Haddon We Europeans: A Survey of "Racial" Problems
1939 Ralph J. Bunche An Analysis of the Political, Economic and Social Status of the Non-European Peoples in South Africa
Charles S. Johnson The Negro College Graduate
1940 Edward Franklin Frazier The Negro Family in the United States
1941 Louis Adamic From Many Lands
1942 James G. Leyburn The Haitian People
Leopold Infeld Quest: An Autobiography
1943 Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography
1944 Roi Ottley New World A-Coming
Maurice Samuel The World of Sholom Aleichem
1945 Gunnar Myrdal An American Dilemma
1946 St. Clair Drake and Horace Cayton Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City
Wallace Stegner and the editors of Look One Nation
1947 Pauline R. Kibbe Latin Americans in Texas
1948 John Collier The Indians of the Americas
1949 J.C. Furnas Anatomy of Paradise
1950 S. Andhil Fineberg Punishment Without Crime
Shirley Graham Your Most Humble Servant
1951 Henry Gibbs Twilight in South Africa
1952 Laurens Van Der Post Venture to the Interior
Brewton Berry Race Relations
1953 Farley Mowat People of the Deer
Han Suyin A Many-Splendoured Thing
1954 Vernon Bartlett Struggle for Africa
1955 Oden Meeker Report on Africa
Lyle Saunders Cultural Differences and Medical Care
1956 John P. Dean and Alex Rosen A Manual of Intergroup Relations
George W. Shepherd They Wait in Darkness
1957 Father Trevor Huddleston Naught for Your Comfort
Gilberto Freyre The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization
1958 South African Institute of Race Relations Handbook on Race Relations
Jessie B. Sams White Mother
1959 Martin Luther King Jr. Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story
George Eaton Simpson and J. Milton Yinger Racial and Cultural Minorities: An Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination
1960 John Haynes Holmes I Speak for Myself
Basil Davidson The Lost Cities of Africa
1961 E. R. Braithwaite To Sir, With Love
Louis E. Lomax The Reluctant African
1962 Dwight L. Dumond Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America
John Howard Griffin Black Like Me
1963 Theodosius Dobzhansky Mankind Evolving
1964 Harold R. Isaacs The New World of Negro Americans
Bernard E. Olson Faith and Prejudice
Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City
1965 Milton M. Gordon Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins
James M. McPherson The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction
Abram L. Sachar A History of the Jews, Revised Edition
James W. Silver Mississippi: The Closed Society
1966 H. C. Baldry The Unity of Mankind in Greek Thought
Claude Brown Manchild in the Promised Land
Malcolm X and Alex Haley The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Amram Scheinfeld Your Heredity and Environment
1967 David Brion Davis The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture
Oscar Lewis La Vida
1968 Norman Rufus Colin Cohn Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Robert Coles Children of Crisis: A Study of Courage and Fear
Raul Hilberg The Destruction of the European Jews
Erich Kahler The Jews among the Nations
1969 E. Earl Baughman and W. Grant Dahlstrom Negro and White Children: A Psychological Study in the Rural South
Leonard Dinnerstein The Leo Frank Case
Stuart Levine and Nancy O. Lurie The American Indian Today
1970 Dan T. Carter Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South
Vine Deloria Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto
Florestan Fernandes The Negro in Brazilian Society
Audrie Girdner and Anne Loftis The Great Betrayal: The Evacuation of the Japanese-Americans during World War II
1971 Robert William July A History of the African People
Carleton Mabee Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 through the Civil War
Stan Steiner La Raza: The Mexican Americans
Anthony Wallace The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca
1972 George M. Fredrickson The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817
John S. Haller Outcasts from Evolution: Scientific Attitudes of Racial Inferiority, 1859–1900
Donald L. Robinson Slavery in the Structure of American Politics, 1765–1820
David Loye The Healing of a Nation
Naboth Mokgatle The Autobiography of an Unknown South African
1973 Pat Conroy The Water Is Wide
Betty Fladeland Men & Brothers
Lee Rainwater Behind Ghetto Walls: Black Family Life in a Federal Slum
1974 Louis Leo Snyder The Dreyfus Case: A Documentary History
Charles Duguid Doctor and the Aborigines
Michel Fabre The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright
Albie Sachs Justice in South Africa
1975 Eugene D. Genovese Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made
Leon Poliakov The Aryan Myth: A History of Racist and Nationalistic Ideas In Europe
1976 Lucy S. Dawidowicz The War Against the Jews: 1933–1945
Thomas Kiernan The Arabs: Their History, Aims, and Challenge to the Industrialized World
Raphael Patai and Jennifer P. Wing The Myth of the Jewish Race
1977 Richard Kluger Simple Justice: A History of Brown v. Board of Education & Black America's Struggle for Equality
Michi Weglyn Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps
1978 Maxine Hong Kingston The Woman Warrior: Memoirs Of A Girlhood Among Ghosts
Allan Chase The Legacy of Malthus: The Social Costs of the New Scientific Racism
1979 Phillip V. Tobias The Bushmen: San Hunters and Herders of Southern Africa
1980 Richard Borshay Lee The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society
Urie Bronfenbrenner The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design
1981 Carol Beckwith and Tepilit Ole Saitoti Maasai
Jamake Highwater Song from the Earth: American Indian painting
1982 Geoffrey G. Field Evangelist of Race: The Germanic Vision of Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Peter J. Powell People of the Sacred Mountain
1983 Richard Rodriguez Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
Wole Soyinka Aké: The Years of Childhood
1984 Jose Alcina Franch Pre-Columbian Art
Humbert S. Nelli From Immigrants to Ethnics: The Italian Americans
1985 David S. Wyman The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941–1945
1986 Donald Alexander Downs Nazis in Skokie: Freedom, Community and the First Amendment
James North Freedom Rising
Barton Wright and Clifford Bahnimptewa Kachinas: A Hopi Artist's Documentary
1987 Arnold Rampersad The Life of Langston Hughes
Gail Sheehy Spirit of Survival
1988 Jeffrey Jay Foxx and Walter F. Morris Jr. Living Maya
Abigail M. Thernstrom Whose Votes Count?: Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights
1989 Henry Louis Gates Jr. The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers
Taylor Branch Parting the Waters: America in the King Years
George Lipsitz A Life In The Struggle: Ivory Perry and the Culture of Opposition
Peter Sutton Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia
1990 Hugh Honour The Image of the Black in Western Art: Part 1
1991 Walter A. Jackson Gunnar Myrdal and America's Conscience: Social Engineering and Racial Liberalism, 1938–1987
Forrest G. Wood The Arrogance Of Faith: Christianity and Race in America
Carol Beckwith, Angela Fisher, and Graham Hancock African Ark: People and Ancient Cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa
1992 Melissa Fay Greene Praying for Sheetrock: A Work of Nonfiction
Peter Hayes Lessons and Legacies I: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World
Elaine Mensh and Harry Mensh The IQ Mythology: Class, Race, Gender, and Inequality
Marilyn Nelson The Homeplace
1993 Kwame Anthony Appiah In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture
Marija Alseikaite Gimbutas The Civilization of the Goddess
1994 David Levering Lewis W. E. B. Du Bois: A Reader
Ronald Takaki A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America
1995 William H. Tucker The Science and Politics of Racial Research
Brent Staples Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White
1996 Jonathan Kozol Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation
1997 James McBride The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
1998 Toi Derricotte The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey [21]
1999 John Lewis and Michael D'Orso Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (about the American Civil Rights Movement)
2000 Edward W. Said Out of Place: A Memoir
2001 David Levering Lewis W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963
F. X. Toole Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner
2002 Vernon E. Jordan Jr. and Annette Gordon-Reed Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir
Quincy Jones Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones
2003 Samantha Power A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
2004 Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
Ira Berlin Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves
2005 A. Van Jordan Macnolia: Poems
Geoffrey C. Ward Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
2006 Jill Lepore New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan
2007 Scott Reynolds Nelson Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: The Untold Story of an American Legend
2008 Ayaan Hirsi Ali Infidel: My Life[a] [3]
2009 Annette Gordon-Reed The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
2011 David Eltis and David Richardson Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Isabel Wilkerson The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
2012 David Livingstone Smith Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others [4][22]
David Blight American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era
2013 Andrew Solomon Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity [5][6]
2014 Ari Shavit My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel [7]
2015 Richard S. Dunn A Tale of Two Plantations: Slave Life and Labor in Virginia and Jamaica [8]
2016 Lillian Faderman The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle [9]
Brian Seibert What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing
2017 Margot Lee Shetterly Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race [10]
2018 Kevin Young Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News [11]
2019 Andrew Delbanco The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War [12]
2020 Charles King Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century [13][14]
2021 Vincent Brown Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War [15]
Natasha Trethewey Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir
2022 Tiya Miles All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake [16][17]
George Makari Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia
2023 Matthew F. Delmont Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad [18]
2024 Ned Blackhawk The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History [19]
2025 Jonathan D. S. Schroeder The United States Governed By Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery [20]

Lifetime achievement

Lifetime achievement recipients[2]
Year Recipient Ref.
1996 Dorothy West
1997 Albert L. Murray
1998 Gordon Parks
1999 John Hope Franklin
2000 Ernest Gaines
2001 Lucille Clifton
2002 Jay Wright
2003 Adrienne Kennedy
2004 Derek Walcott
2005 August Wilson
2006 William Demby
2007 Taylor Branch
2008 William Melvin Kelley [23]
2009 Paule Marshall
2010 Elizabeth Alexander
2010 William Julius Wilson
2010 Oprah Winfrey
2011 John Edgar Wideman
2012 Wole Soyinka
2012 Arnold Rampersad [4]
2013 Wole Soyinka [5][6]
2014 Sir Wilson Harris [7]
George Lamming
2015 David Brion Davis [8]
2016 Orlando Patterson [9]
2017 Isabel Allende [10]
2018 N. Scott Momaday [11]
2019 Sonia Sanchez [12]
2020 Eric Foner [13][14]
2021 Samuel R. Delany [15]
2022 Ishmael Reed [16][17]
2023 Charlayne Hunter-Gault [18]
2024 Maxine Hong Kingston [19]
2025 Janice N. Harrington [20]

Special Achievement Award

Notes

  1. ^ Because of the death threats against her, the award was not listed in advance, but was a surprise announcement at the ceremony.

References

  1. ^ Chijioke, Chiziterem (2023-03-18). "The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards/ How to Submit (Prize: $10,000 + Publicity)". Creative Writing News. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Winners". Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  3. ^ a b Long, Karen R. (2008-09-12). "An interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali". Cleveland. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  4. ^ a b c "Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize Goes to Arnold Rampersad". Publishers Weekly. 2012-07-12. Retrieved 2025-04-12.
  5. ^ a b c d "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Winners; Carnegie Medals Shortlist". Shelf Awareness . 2013-04-23. Retrieved 2025-04-12.
  6. ^ a b c d "'Yellow Birds' and 'Far From the Tree' Lead 2013 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards". Publishers Weekly. 2013-04-22. Retrieved 2025-04-12.
  7. ^ a b c d "Awards: NCIBA Books of the Year and Anisfield-Wolf Winners". Shelf Awareness. 2014-03-31. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  8. ^ a b c d "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf; Reading the West; Colorado Book". Shelf Awareness. 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  9. ^ a b c d "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf; Books for a Better Life; Deborah Rogers; Theakstons". Shelf Awareness. 2016-04-19. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  10. ^ a b c d "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf; NYPL Young Lions". Shelf Awareness. 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  11. ^ a b c d "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Winners; Shaughnessy Cohen Finalists". Shelf Awareness. 2018-03-30. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  12. ^ a b c d "Awards: Aspen Winner; Anisfield-Wolf Winners; Best Translated Book Longlists". Shelf Awareness. 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  13. ^ a b c d Schaub, Michael (2020-03-20). "Four Authors Take Home Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  14. ^ a b c d "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Winners". Shelf Awareness. 2020-03-31. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  15. ^ a b c d "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Winners". Shelf Awareness. 2021-04-05. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  16. ^ a b c Schaub, Michael (2022-04-05). "Winners of Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Are Revealed". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  17. ^ a b c d "Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Book Winners". Shelf Awareness. 2022-04-05. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  18. ^ a b c d "Awards: PEN/Faulkner for Fiction, Anisfield-Wolf, Windham-Campbell Winners". Shelf Awareness . 2023-04-05. Retrieved 2025-04-12.
  19. ^ a b c d Schaub, Michael (2024-03-27). "Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winners Are Revealed". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2025-04-12.
  20. ^ a b c d e Schaub, Michael (2025-04-11). "Winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Revealed". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2025-04-12.
  21. ^ "Awards: Frost Medal Winner; Int'l Excellence Shortlists". Shelf Awareness. 2020-02-10. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  22. ^ "Awards: Whitman Winner; Desmond Elliott Longlist; Anisfield-Wolf". Shelf Awareness. 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
  23. ^ "Obituary Note: William Melvin Kelley". Shelf Awareness. 2017-02-13. Retrieved 2022-04-06.
External videos
video icon 77th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, September 13, 2012, C-SPAN
video icon 78th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, September 12, 2013, C-SPAN
video icon 83rd annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, October 27, 2018, C-SPAN
video icon 84th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, September 26, 2019, C-SPAN
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