88th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

The 88th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards is an original one-hour special hosted by Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., popular public television personality and Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards jury chair. The program features visits to the hometowns of the 2023 honorees – former reporter Geraldine Brooks, novelist Lan Samantha Chang, poet Saeed Jones, historian Matthew F. Delmont and civil rights icon Charlayne Hunter-Gault.

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards was created in 1935 by Cleveland, Ohio, native Edith Anisfield Wolf to honor and celebrate literary greats who dedicate their craft to combatting racism, celebrating diversity and demanding equality.

Past winners include Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. It is the only American book prize focusing on works that address racism and diversity.

Watch the 88th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

An old black and white of a white woman sitting. She has short hair and wears a black gown with puffy sleeve and frilly white collar.

^{Edith Anisfield Wolf [Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards]}

“Horse” by Geraldine Brooks

Fiction

A woman in a white short-sleeve top and a glove caresses a brown horse's mane.

^{Geraldine Brooks and her pet horse, Valentine. [Natalia Garcia / Ideastream Public Media]}

“You have to know that bigots are unwittingly handing you an edge. By thinking you’re lesser than they are, they underestimate you. Lean on that. Learn to use it, and you’ll get the upper hand.”
“Horse” by Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks, award-winning war correspondent and Pulitzer-winning novelist, upended her life 16 years ago when she took a trail ride and found herself horse-smitten.

When a horse of her own arrived at her Martha’s Vineyard home, her writing stalled. But a chance conversation over lunch provided Brooks a way to wed her equine mania with her penchant for writing bestselling historical fiction.

Watch the segment featuring Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks stands holding the reins of a horse standing behind her.

^{[Randi Baird]}

^{[Geraldine Brooks]}

A woman with her left hand on her chest speaks into a microphone at a podium.

^{Geraldine Brooks at the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards ceremony on Sept. 28, 2023, in Cleveland, Ohio. [The Dark Room Co.]}

A brown-haired woman in a black top and orange necklace stands behind a clear podium and points behind her.

^{Geraldine Brooks at Dunham Tavern Museum & Gardens in Cleveland on Sept. 27, 2023. [Jonathan Stone]}

“The Family Chao” by Lan Samantha Chang

Fiction

Lan Samantha Chang in a floral blouse smiles while speaking to a person wearing a white top.

^{Lan Samantha Chang at Cleveland's Asia Plaza on Sept. 29, 2023. [Kamron Khan]}

“What Chinese identity?” Ming shouts. To his horror, she looks, again, like a little girl. He sees her at six years old, standing on the playground, watching the sun shine on the blond hair of her classmates. He can’t stand it. Even though he’s been there, is familiar with the origins of self-hatred, knows he can’t bear it because it reminds him of himself, he can’t speak to her any more. He puts his headphones on and turns up the sound.”
“The Family Chao” by Lan Samantha Chang

Watch the segment featuring Lan Samantha Chang

^{[Lan Samantha Chang]}

It took author Lan Samantha Chang a dozen years to compose “The Family Chao” amid her responsibilities directing the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, mentoring and teaching.

Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards juror Joyce Carol Oates called the novel “an outstanding work of fiction,” saying she had read nothing else of late as ambitious or accomplished.

“Alive at the End of the World” by Saeed Jones

Poetry

A Black man rests his chin on his knuckles while sitting and looking in the distance.

^{Saeed Jones at Karamu House in Cleveland on Sept. 26, 2023. [The City Club of Cleveland]}

“Alive at the End of the World” is Saeed Jones’ second collection, containing 46 poems.

Anisfield-Wolf juror Rita Dove called the book “an aching reminder that a queer Black man leads a meta existence; he cannot live without thinking about living, constantly negotiating the everyday with an eye to the peril that can intrude at any time, from police violence to the minutest reactions from highbrow bigots.”

Watch the segment featuring Saeed Jones

A Black man in sunglasses and green sweater sits at a table on a rooftop.

^{Saeed Jones looks over Columbus, Ohio. [Natalia Garcia / Ideastream Public Media]}

A Black man in a green sweater raises his arms to gesticulate as he talks while sitting.

^{Saeed Jones in his Columbus, Ohio, home. [Natalia Garcia / Ideastream Public Media]}

A Black man in a green sweater rests his chin on his hand.

^{Saeed Jones co-hosts a podcast called "Vibe Check." [Natalia Garcia / Ideastream Public Media]}

The end of the world was mistaken

for just another midday massacre

in America. Brain matter and broken

glass, blurred boot prints in pools

of blood. We dialed the newly dead

but they wouldn’t answer. We texted,

begging them to call us back, but

the newly dead don’t know how to

read. In America, a gathering of people

is called target practice or a funeral,

depending on who lives long enough

to define the terms. But for now, we

are alive at the end of the world

“Alive at the End of the World” by Saeed Jones

Book cover for "Alive at the End of the World" with a person in a space helmet wearing an orange jumpsuit touching the trunk of s silver reflective car in a field.

^{[Saeed Jones]}

A Black man wears sunglasses standing on a street.

^{Saeed Jones grew up in the American South, lived much of his adult life in New York and now lives in Columbus, Ohio. [Natalia Garcia / Ideastream Public Media]}

“Half American” by Matthew F. Delmont

Non-Fiction

A Black man in a blue suit and tie stands in front of a microphone at a podium.

^{Matthew F. Delmont at the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards ceremony on Sept. 28, 2023. [The Dark Room Co.]}

Book cover for "Half American: The epic story of African Americans fighting World War II at home and abroad" with a triangular image of a Black soldier shaded in blue and another triangular image of rows of Black soldiers.

^{[Matthew F. Delmont]}

A Black man sit at a table in front of a row of high school lockers signing a book and talking to a person in a jean jacket who is slightly leaning over the table.

^{Matthew F. Delmont autographs copies of his book, “Half American,” at East Tech High School in Cleveland on Sept. 30, 2023. [The City Club of Cleveland]}

In his book “Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad,” Matthew F. Delmont reveals, “the war really started for most Black Americans before Pearl Harbor. Fascism in Europe is something that Blacks understood as white supremacism.”

^{Two recruits in a light tank during training in mechanized warfare at Montford Point Camp, North Carolina. [National Archives]}

^{Two recruits in a light tank during training in mechanized warfare at Montford Point Camp, North Carolina. [National Archives]}

Anisfield-Wolf Juror Steven Pinker praised the book saying it, “rewrites our understanding of ‘the greatest generation’ in the ‘good war,’ given the shocking discrimination and harassment of millions of patriots willing to risk their lives in it.”

Watch the segment featuring Matthew F. Delmont

"Stories that ignore the intense battles Black Americans fought against racism and Jim Crow segregation on the home front make it appear that World War II was a simpler and more unified time in America, when in reality it was anything but."
“Half American” by Matthew F. Delmont

Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Lifetime Achievement

A Black woman sits holding open a program.

^{Charlayne Hunter-Gault at her Martha's Vineyard home. [Natalia Garcia / Ideastream Public Media]}

Charlayne Hunter-Gault was just a teenager in 1961 when she desegregated the all-white University of Georgia. She was met with violence, rioting, vandalism and taunts.

^{Hunter-Gault gifted herself this tattoo on her 81st birthday. It's a symbol of her feeling like a "queen" when slurs were hurled her way as a University of Georgia student. [Natalia Garcia / Ideastream Public Media]}

^{Hunter-Gault gifted herself this tattoo on her 81st birthday. It's a symbol of her feeling like a "queen" when slurs were hurled her way as a University of Georgia student. [Natalia Garcia / Ideastream Public Media]}

In her bio, Hunter-Gault defines herself as a journalist, author and lecturer. But the wider world considers her a civil rights icon, recalling that she persevered, even when her clothes were covered with glass shards, splintered from a brick thrown through her dormitory window during two nights of rioting and tear gas over her temerity for being there.

Watch the segment featuring Charlayne Hunter-Gault

“While the challenges keep on coming, Black history teaches us that the civil rights movement’s anthem of keep on keepin’ on yields positive results.”
“My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives” by Charlayne Hunter-Gault

A man and a woman in graduation gowns and caps.

^{Childhood friends Hamilton Holmes (left) and Charlayne Hunter-Gault (right) became the University of Georgia's first Black graduates in 1963. [AP]}

^{[Charlayne Hunter-Gault]}

A Black woman sitting in front of a home garden with flower beds, shows off the tattoo on her left arm.

^{Charlayne Hunter-Gault shows off her crown tattoo. [Natalia Garcia / Ideastream Public Media]}

A Black woman in a green blouse and gray and purple wrap speaks with two young Black girls in front of a book shelf.

^{Charlayne Hunter-Gault speaks with two young people after her appearance at The City Club of Cleveland on Sept. 29, 2023. [The City Club of Cleveland]}

A Black woman in a blue white and leopard blouse speaks at a microphone behind a podium.

^{Charlayne Hunter-Gault at the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards ceremony on Sept. 28, 2023. [The Dark Room Co.]}

“Horse” by Geraldine Brooks

“The Family Chao” by Lan Samantha Chang

“Alive at the End of the World” by Saeed Jones

Image captions

“Half American” by Matthew F. Delmont

Charlayne Hunter-Gault