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.
- ^ Chijioke, Chiziterem (2023-03-18). "The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards/ How to Submit (Prize: $10,000 + Publicity)". Creative Writing News. Retrieved 2023-06-26.