Literary Cleveland, Anisfield-Wolf and Great Lakes Af-Am Writers Conference Join Forces for Cleveland Book Week 2022

Three literary events in Cleveland will combine for a first-of-its-kind mega book week in September, 2022.

Literary Cleveland, the literary arts nonprofit that, among other things, hosts the annual Inkubator Writers Conference; the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which annually honors work that contribute to our understanding of racism; and the Great Lakes African-American Writers Conference (GLAAWC, pronounced "Glossy,") , which hosts an annual event celebrating regional African-American literature, will all host shindigs between Sept. 9-18, 2022. Combined, the supercharged, jam-packed book week will be, per the organizations, Cleveland's "largest and most collaborative" to date.

Anisfield-Wolf and GLAAWC have teamed up since 2018 to present Cleveland Book Week. Literary Cleveland and its Inkubator Writers Conference jumped on board this year as a partner. All three organizations have been planning festivities since last year.

As in years past, Inkubator will be held at the Cleveland Public Library's main branch downtown. The event is set to take place Sept. 9-10 and will feature writing workshops, craft talks, panel discussions and keynote addresses.

GLAAWC will be held  on Sept. 17, also at the downtown library, and will feature literary arts programming all day long, including live music, spoken word poetry and a keynote address from writer Walter Mosley. 

“Cleveland Book Week began as an effort to bring literary excellence out of boutique spaces and into unexpected places in our city,” said Karen Long, manager of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, in a press release. “Imagine our delight that first GLAAWC and now Literary Cleveland are enriching the experiences of readers and writers and widening the welcome."

The week's centerpiece will of course be the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards themselves, the winners of which were announced earlier this month. (Poet, novelist and essayist Ishmael Reed will win the lifetime achievement award.) Related events will take place from Sept. 11-16, with the actual ceremony at Playhouse Square Sept. 15.

The directors of all three local organizations acknowledged that their reach can grow when they amplify each other's work.

“By coming together," said Literary Cleveland's Matt Weinkam, "we have an opportunity to  pool resources, reach more people through writing and literature, and put Cleveland on the national literary map.”

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