Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Announce 2023 Winners

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards this week announced the 2023 winners of the prestigious Cleveland-based competition, now celebrating its 88th year and the only literature arts prize given specifically to works that “confront racism and explore diversity.”

This year’s winners include:

Geraldine Brooks, “Horse,” Fiction (Viking)
Lan Samantha Chang, “The Family Chao,” Fiction (W.W. Norton)
Matthew F. Delmont, “Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad,” Nonfiction (Viking)
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Lifetime Achievement
Saeed Jones, “Alive at the End of the World,” Poetry (Coffee House Press)

“These remarkable books deliver groundbreaking insights on race and diversity,” said jury chair Henry Louis Gates Jr. said in a release. “This year, we honor a profound and funny novel centered in a Chinese restaurant, a brilliant story of 19th-century horseracing with contemporary echoes, a stunning poetry collection that captures who we are now, and a meticulous history that recasts our understanding of World War II. All are capped by the lifetime achievement of Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who remade this country with her courage and her nuanced reporting.”

Gates was joined by other members of the jury in announcing the winners and explaining why they were chosen in a short video, viewable below.