An Expanded (and Free) Cleveland Book Week Showcases World-Class Work

No other spot in the country offers literary excellence at no cost better than Cleveland Book Week.

The 2023 Cleveland Book Week, September 22-30, is a collaboration between the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards (AWBA), presented by the Cleveland Foundation, the Great Lakes African American Writers Conference (GLAAWC pronounced “glossy”), and Literary Cleveland. All three marquee events are entirely free. And the caliber of the headliners matches other convenings that frequently charge participants hundreds of dollars.

“Cleveland has a spirit – visible in its world-class public libraries – that information and the literary arts want to be free,” said Karen R. Long, manager of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards for the Cleveland Foundation. “A wonderful group of people and nonprofits work each year to make Cleveland Book Week a destination.”

The goal is to elevate Cleveland as a national center of literary excellence, lift brilliant writers that other places overlook, and sharpen our local literary conversations.

Literary Cleveland will kick off Book Week with the ninth annual Inkubator Writing Conference, the largest free writing conference in the nation. “We’re stepping into a more regional focus with presenters from around the Midwest including Peter Ho Davies, Manuel Iris, and Elissa Washuta,” said Matt Weinkam, executive director of Literary Cleveland. The conference features virtual events September 18-20, 40+ workshops at the downtown Cleveland Public Library on September 22-23, a keynote with author Elizabeth Acevedo, and community programs throughout the month, including a poetry bike ride and a literary pop up at the West Side Market.

Next, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards will honor groundbreaking books that advance our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures. This year, Anisfield-Wolf events run September 26-30, with the awards ceremony to be held Thursday, September 28 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. The 2023 AWBA winners coming to Cleveland are Geraldine Brooks for Horse (Fiction), Lan Samantha Chang for The Family Chao (Fiction), Matthew F. Delmont for Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad (Nonfiction), Saeed Jones for Alive at the End of the World (Poetry) and Lifetime Achievement winner Charlayne Hunter-Gault.

Book Week programs will culminate in the Great Lakes African American Writers Conference (GLAAWC) on September 30 at the downtown Cleveland Public Library with a focus on “Black Books, Black Business, Black Excellence.” “GLAAWC’s goal is to expand artistic and business knowledge, skills, and access for aspiring and published writers,” said Dr. Leah Lewis, founder and director of GLAAWC. The 2023 conference will feature Alice Dunbar Nelson Professional Keynote Speaker playwright Janice Lowe, plus panels on playwriting, entrepreneurs, comic books, Divine Nine (Black Sororities and Fraternities) authors, and much more. The free sessions open to the public will run from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

To celebrate Cleveland Book Week, Scene is featuring poetry by local writers alongside Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners as well as an interview with Janice Lowe, who is a Cleveland native and the 2023 GLAAWC Alice Dunbar-Nelson Professional Keynote Speaker.

See the full schedule of book week events at https://www.anisfield-wolf.org/.

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