The Cleveland Foundation announced three new judges for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, the literary prizes given annually to “books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.”
The jury for the 2024 awards will be chaired by Natasha Trethewey, the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet and author of the memoirs Memorial Drive, which won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 2021,and The House of Being.
The two other new jurors are Peter Ho Davies, a 2017 Anisfield-Wolf winner for his novel The Fortunes, and Tiya Miles, who won one of the prizes in 2022 for her nonfiction book All That She Carried. They join returning judges Rita Dove and Steven Pinker.
The three new jurors replace retiring judges Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Joyce Carol Oates, and Simon Schama.
The Cleveland Foundation also announced a new director for the awards, Nicholas Roman Lewis, an attorney, educator, and author.
“I believe in the power of literature to drive the conversation on social justice and look forward to expanding the reach of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards nationally and beyond,” Lewis said in a statement.
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which are given in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, were established in 1935. The winners of this year’s prizes will be announced at a ceremony on March 26 in Parma, Ohio, by novelist Percival Everett.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
