The Cleveland Foundation announced the winners of the annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, given annually to “books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.”
Ned Blackhawk took home the nonfiction award for The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, which previously won the National Book Award and the Mark Lynton History Prize. A reviewer for Kirkus called the book a “well-reasoned challenge for future American historians to keep Native peoples on center stage.”
Teju Cole won the fiction prize for Tremor, his novel about a West African photography teacher living in New England. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, “a provocative and profound meditation on art and life in a world of terror.”
The poetry prize went to Monica Youn for From From, a finalist for the National Book Award. Maxine Hong Kingston, known for the critically acclaimed 1976 memoir The Woman Warrior and the 1989 novel Tripmaster Monkey, was given the lifetime achievement award.
Natasha Trethewey, jury chair for the prizes, said in a statement, “This class joins past recipients, who include literary luminaries and contemporary thought leaders, in leveraging the power of words to explore and confront some of the most challenging topics facing us today.”
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards were established in 1935. Previous winners include Toni Morrison for Beloved, Tommy Orange for There There, Isabel Wilkerson for The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, and Tiya Miles for All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
