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.Several awards in the categories of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and lifetime achievement are given out each September in a ceremony free and open to the public and attended by the honorees. Winners 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 at least 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. Like Gates, Rita Dove has remained a juror to this day; in 1996, she was joined by evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, writer Joyce Carol Oates and historian Simon Schama. After Gould's death in 2002, psychologist Steven Pinker replaced him on the jury.
| 1945 | Earth and High Heaven | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | East River | ||
| 1948 | |||
| 1949 | Cry, the Beloved Country | ||
| 1951 | |||
| 1954 | Simple Takes a Wife | ||
| 1962 | |||
| 1969 | In the Mecca | ||
| 1985 | |||
| 1988 | |||
| Beloved | |||
| 1990 | |||
| 1993 | Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories | ||
| 1994 | |||
| 1995 | |||
| 1996 | All Souls' Rising | ||
| 1997 | Autobiography of My Mother | ||
| 1998 | Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned | ||
| 1999 | Cloudsplitter | ||
| 2000 | |||
| 2002 | John Henry Days | ||
| 2003 | |||
| World Hotel | |||
| 2004 | |||
| 2005 | |||
| 2006 | On Beauty | ||
| 2007 | Half of a Yellow Sun | ||
| Blue Front | |||
| 2008 | |||
| 2009 | |||
| 2010 | Burnt Shadows | ||
| 2011 | |||
| Great House | |||
| 2012 | Half-Blood Blues | ||
| 2013 | My Favorite Warlord | ||
| Kind One | |||
| 2014 | |||
| 2015 | |||
| 2016 | |||
| 2017 | |||
| 2018 | Sing, Unburied, Sing | ||
| 2019 | There There | ||
| 2020 | |||
| 2021 | Deacon King Kong | ||
| 2022 | |||
| 2023 | [2] | ||
| Horse[3] |
| 2015 | The New Testament | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Hard Love Province | |||
| 2016 | Heaven | ||
| 2017 | Olio | ||
| 2018 | In the Language of My Captor | ||
| 2019 | Wade in the Water | ||
| 2020 | Deaf Republic | ||
| 2021 | Obit | ||
| 2022 | The Renunciations | ||
| 2023 | [4] |
| 1936 | Negro Politicians: Rise of Negro Politics in Chicago | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1937 | and A. C. Haddon | We Europeans: A Survey of "Racial" Problems | |
| 1939 | An Analysis of the Political, Economic and Social Status of the Non-European Peoples in South Africa | ||
| The Negro College Graduate | |||
| 1940 | The Negro Family in the United States | ||
| 1941 | From Many Lands | ||
| 1942 | The Haitian People | ||
| Quest: An Autobiography | |||
| 1943 | Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography | ||
| 1944 | New World A-Coming | ||
| The World of Sholom Aleichem | |||
| 1945 | An American Dilemma | ||
| 1946 | and Horace Cayton | Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City | |
| and the editors of Look | One Nation | ||
| 1947 | Latin Americans in Texas | ||
| 1948 | The Indians of the Americas | ||
| 1949 | Anatomy of Paradise | ||
| 1950 | Punishment Without Crime | ||
| Your Most Humble Servant | |||
| 1951 | Twilight in South Africa | ||
| 1952 | Venture to the Interior | ||
| Race Relations | |||
| 1953 | People of the Deer | ||
| A Many-Splendoured Thing | |||
| 1954 | Struggle for Africa | ||
| 1955 | Report on Africa | ||
| Cultural Differences and Medical Care | |||
| 1956 | and Alex Rosen | A Manual of Intergroup Relations | |
| They Wait in Darkness | |||
| 1957 | Naught for Your Comfort | ||
| The Masters and the Slaves: A Study in the Development of Brazilian Civilization | |||
| 1958 | Handbook on Race Relations | ||
| White Mother | |||
| 1959 | Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story | ||
| and J. Milton Yinger | Racial and Cultural Minorities:: An Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination | ||
| 1960 | I Speak for Myself | ||
| The Lost Cities of Africa | |||
| 1961 | To Sir, With Love | ||
| The Reluctant African | |||
| 1962 | Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America | ||
| Black Like Me | |||
| 1963 | Mankind Evolving | ||
| 1964 | The New World of Negro Americans | ||
| Faith and Prejudice | |||
| and Daniel P. Moynihan | Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City | ||
| 1965 | Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins | ||
| The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction | |||
| A History of the Jews, Revised Edition | |||
| Mississippi: The Closed Society | |||
| 1966 | The Unity of Mankind in Greek Thought | ||
| Manchild in the Promised Land | |||
| and Alex Haley | The Autobiography of Malcolm X | ||
| Your Heredity and Environment | |||
| 1967 | The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture | ||
| La Vida | |||
| 1968 | Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion | ||
| Children of Crisis: A Study of Courage and Fear | |||
| The Destruction of the European Jews | |||
| The Jews among the Nations | |||
| 1969 | and W. Grant Dahlstrom | Negro and White Children: A Psychological Study in the Rural South | |
| The Leo Frank Case | |||
| and Nancy O. Lurie | The American Indian Today | ||
| 1970 | Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South | ||
| Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto | |||
| The Negro in Brazilian Society | |||
| and Anne Loftis | The Great Betrayal: The Evacuation of the Japanese-Americans during World War II | ||
| 1971 | A History of the African People | ||
| Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 through the Civil War | |||
| La Raza: The Mexican Americans | |||
| The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca | |||
| 1972 | The Black Image in the White Mind: The Debate on Afro-American Character and Destiny, 1817 | ||
| Outcasts from Evolution: Scientific Attitudes of Racial Inferiority, 1859-1900 | |||
| Slavery in the Structure of American Politics, 1765-1820 | |||
| The Healing of a Nation | |||
| The Autobiography of an Unknown South African | |||
| 1973 | The Water Is Wide | ||
| Men & Brothers | |||
| Behind Ghetto Walls: Black Family Life in a Federal Slum | |||
| 1974 | The Dreyfus Case: A Documentary History | ||
| Doctor and the Aborigines | |||
| Michel Fabre | The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright | ||
| Justice in South Africa | |||
| 1975 | Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made | ||
| The Aryan Myth: A History of Racist and Nationalistic Ideas In Europe | |||
| 1976 | The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945 | ||
| The Arabs: Their History, Aims, and Challenge to the Industrialized World | |||
| and Jennifer P. Wing | The Myth of the Jewish Race | ||
| 1977 | Simple Justice: A History of Brown v. Board of Education & Black America's Struggle for Equality | ||
| Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's Concentration Camps | |||
| 1978 | The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts | ||
| Allan Chase | The Legacy of Malthus: The Social Costs of the New Scientific Racism | ||
| 1979 | The Bushmen: San Hunters and Herders of Southern Africa | ||
| 1980 | The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society | ||
| The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design | |||
| 1981 | and Tepilit Ole Saitoti | Maasai | |
| Song from the Earth: American Indian painting | |||
| 1982 | Evangelist of Race: The Germanic Vision of Houston Stewart Chamberlain | ||
| People of the Sacred Mountain | |||
| 1983 | Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez | ||
| Aké: The Years of Childhood | |||
| 1984 | Pre-Columbian Art | ||
| From Immigrants to Ethnics: The Italian Americans | |||
| 1985 | The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945 | ||
| 1986 | Nazis in Skokie: Freedom, Community and the First Amendment | ||
| Freedom Rising | |||
| and Clifford Bahnimptewa | Kachinas: A Hopi Artist's Documentary | ||
| 1987 | The Life of Langston Hughes | ||
| Spirit of Survival | |||
| 1988 | and Walter F. Morris Jr. | Living Maya | |
| Whose Votes Count?: Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights | |||
| 1989 | The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers | ||
| A Life In The Struggle: Ivory Perry and the Culture of Opposition | |||
| Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia | |||
| 1990 | The Image of the Black in Western Art: Part 1 | ||
| 1991 | Gunnar Myrdal and America's Conscience: Social Engineering and Racial Liberalism, 1938-1987 | ||
| The Arrogance Of Faith: Christianity and Race in America | |||
| , Angela Fisher, and Graham Hancock | African Ark: People and Ancient Cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa | ||
| 1992 | Praying for Sheetrock: A Work of Nonfiction | ||
| Lessons and Legacies I: The Meaning of the Holocaust in a Changing World | |||
| and Harry Mensh | The IQ Mythology: Class, Race, Gender, and Inequality | ||
| The Homeplace | |||
| 1993 | In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture | ||
| The Civilization of the Goddess | |||
| 1994 | W. E. B. Du Bois: A Reader | ||
| A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America | |||
| 1995 | The Science and Politics of Racial Research | ||
| Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White | |||
| 1996 | Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation | ||
| 1997 | The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother | ||
| 1998 | The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey | [6] | |
| 1999 | and Michael D'Orso | Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement (about the American Civil Rights Movement) | |
| 2000 | Out of Place: A Memoir | ||
| 2001 | |||
| Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner | |||
| 2002 | and Annette Gordon-Reed | Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir | |
| Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones | |||
| 2003 | A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide | ||
| 2004 | Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx | ||
| Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves | |||
| 2005 | Macnolia: Poems | ||
| Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson | |||
| 2006 | New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan | ||
| 2007 | Steel Drivin' Man: John Henry: the Untold Story of an American Legend | ||
| 2008 | [7] | ||
| 2009 | The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family | ||
| 2011 | and David Richardson | Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade | |
| The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration | |||
| 2012 | Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others | [8] | |
| American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era | |||
| 2013 | Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity | ||
| 2014 | My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel | [9] | |
| 2015 | A Tale of Two Plantations: Slave Life and Labor in Virginia and Jamaica | [10] | |
| 2016 | [11] | ||
| What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing | |||
| 2017 | Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race | [12] | |
| 2018 | Bunk: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News | [13] | |
| 2019 | The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War | [14] | |
| 2020 | Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century | [15] [16] | |
| 2021 | Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of An Atlantic Slave War | [17] | |
| Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir | |||
| 2022 | All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake | [18] [19] | |
| Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia | |||
| 2023 | Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad[20] |
| 1996 | |||
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| 2008 | [21] | ||
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| 2014 | Sir | ||
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| 2023 | [22] |