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. 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 winnersYearAuthorTitle1945Earth and High Heaven1947East River19481949Cry, the Beloved Country1951The Wall1954Simple Takes a Wife19621969In the Mecca1985Mouroir: Mirrornotes of a Novel1988Beloved19901993Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories19941995Sweetbitter: A Novel1996All Souls' Rising1997Autobiography of My Mother1998Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned1999Cloudsplitter20002002John Henry Days2003World Hotel200420052006On Beauty2007Half of a Yellow SunBlue Front200820092010Burnt Shadows2011Great House2012Half-Blood Blues2013Kind One20142015201620172018Sing, Unburied, Sing2019There There20202021Deacon King Kong20222023 Horse2024Tremor2025Colored Television2026Make Your Way Home
Poetry +Poetry winnersYearAuthorTitle2013My Favorite Warlord20142015Hard Love Province2016Heaven2017Olio2018In the Language of My Captor2019Wade in the Water2020Deaf Republic2021Obit202220232024From From2025Yard Show 2026Death Does Not End at the Sea
Memoir/Autobiography +Memoir/Autobiography winnersYearAuthorTitle2025Feeding Ghosts2026
Nonfiction +Nonfiction winnersYearAuthorTitle1936Negro Politicians: Rise of Negro Politics in Chicago1937 and A. C. HaddonWe Europeans: A Survey of "Racial" Problems1939 19401941From Many Lands1942Quest: An Autobiography1943Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography1944New World A-Coming19451946 and Horace CaytonBlack Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City and the editors of LookOne Nation1947Latin Americans in Texas19481949Anatomy of Paradise1950Punishment Without CrimeYour Most Humble Servant1951Twilight in South Africa1952Venture to the InteriorRace Relations1953People of the Deer1954Struggle for Africa1955Report on AfricaCultural Differences and Medical Care1956 and Alex RosenThey Wait in Darkness1957Naught for Your ComfortThe Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization1958Handbook on Race RelationsWhite Mother1959Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story and J. Milton YingerRacial and Cultural Minorities: An Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination1960I Speak for Myself1961To Sir, With Love1962Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in AmericaBlack Like Me1963Mankind Evolving1964Faith and Prejudice and Daniel P. MoynihanBeyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City1965Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National OriginsA History of the Jews, Revised EditionMississippi: The Closed Society1966Manchild in the Promised Land and Alex HaleyYour Heredity and Environment1967La Vida1968Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of ZionChildren of Crisis: A Study of Courage and Fear1969 and W. Grant DahlstromNegro and White Children: A Psychological Study in the Rural South and Nancy O. Lurie1970Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto and Anne Loftis1971A History of the African PeopleBlack Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 through the Civil WarLa Raza: The Mexican Americans1972Outcasts from Evolution: Scientific Attitudes of Racial Inferiority, 1859–1900Slavery in the Structure of American Politics, 1765–18201973Men & BrothersBehind Ghetto Walls: Black Family Life in a Federal Slum1974Doctor and the AboriginesMichel FabreJustice in South Africa1975Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made1976 and Jennifer P. Wing1977Simple Justice: A History of Brown v. Board of Education & Black America's Struggle for EqualityYears of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps1978Allan Chase197919801981 and Tepilit Ole Saitoti MaasaiSong from the Earth: American Indian painting1982Evangelist of Race: The Germanic Vision of Houston Stewart ChamberlainPeople of the Sacred Mountain1983Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard RodriguezAké: The Years of Childhood1984Pre-Columbian ArtFrom Immigrants to Ethnics: The Italian Americans19851986Nazis in Skokie: Freedom, Community and the First AmendmentFreedom Rising and Clifford BahnimptewaKachinas: A Hopi Artist's Documentary1987Spirit of Survival1988 and Walter F. Morris Jr.Living MayaWhose Votes Count?: Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights1989Parting the Waters: America in the King YearsDreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia 19901991Gunnar Myrdal and America's Conscience: Social Engineering and Racial Liberalism, 1938–1987, Angela Fisher, and Graham HancockAfrican Ark: People and Ancient Cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa1992Praying for Sheetrock: A Work of NonfictionLessons and Legacies I: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World and Harry Mensh1993In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture1994W. E. B. Du Bois: A Reader1995Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White1996Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation199719981999 and Michael D'OrsoWalking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (about the American Civil Rights Movement)2000Out of Place: A Memoir2001W. E. B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner2002 and Annette Gordon-ReedVernon Can Read!: A MemoirQ: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones20032004Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the BronxGenerations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves2005Macnolia: PoemsUnforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson 2006New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan2007Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: The Untold Story of an American Legend2008Infidel: My Life20092011 and David RichardsonAtlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade2012Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate OthersAmerican Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era2013Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity2014My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel20152016What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing2017Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race2018Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News20192020Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century2021Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave WarMemorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir2022All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family KeepsakeOf Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia2023Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad202420252026Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City
Lifetime achievement +Lifetime achievement recipientsYearRecipient199619971998199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201020102011201220122013201420152016201720182019202020212022202320242025Yusef Komunyakaa
Special Achievement Award 1992 – Ralph Ellison for Invisible Man
Notes
References
External links Anisfield-Wolf.org – official website Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards at lovethebook.com