Literary award · United States · since 1935

Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

US literary award. Established 1935 in United States.

About Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

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. 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.

From the Wikipedia article “Anisfield-Wolf Book Award”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Recent winners

YearWinnerWinning work
2025Tessa Hulls—
2025Feeding Ghosts—
2022Tiya Miles—
2019Sonia Sanchez—
2019There There—
2018Sing, Unburied, Sing—
2018Tracy K. Smith—
2017Tyehimba Jess—
2017Margot Lee Shetterly—
2017Karan Mahajan—
2017Peter Ho Davies—
2017Isabel Allende—
2016Rowan Ricardo Phillips—
2016Lillian Faderman—
2016Mary Morris—

From Wikidata; the list may be incomplete for some years.

Eligibility and entering

Check the official rules of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards for the current eligibility window, accepted formats, residency or language requirements and any entry fee. For most established prizes the publisher submits on the author's behalf, often with a limit on entries per imprint.

If you are self-published, look for an explicit statement that independently published books are accepted, and budget for entry fees and copies for judges.

Sources & data