Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards to Captivate Once Again

Submitted by Charles on Sat, 05/20/2006 - 00:44.
09/07/2006 - 17:30
09/07/2006 - 20:30
Etc/GMT-4

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. chairs the event

One of the quiet treasures of northeast Ohio is taking place once again, administered by The Cleveland Foundation. The event's fact sheet summarizes its purpose in the following way:

  • Established in 1935, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards recognize outstanding
    books that contribute to our understanding of racism or appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.
       
  • The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards is the only American literary competition devoted to recognizing books that have made an important contribution to society’s understanding of racism and the diversity of cultures.  Traditionally, an academic work and a work of fiction, poetry or memoir are selected each year. 

If you attend you will have a chance to meet the authors, hear them read their works, and buy their books. For more information (including the present winners and a list of past winners), visit www.anisfield-wolf.org. Although registration has not opened as of this writing, register well in advance of the event. In recent years they have had a capacity crowd.

I heard author F.X. Toole read from his work Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner, a collection of short stories about boxing in 2001. In 2004 Clint Eastwood directed Million Dollar Baby, a movie based on one of the stories in Rope Burns.

The awards are chaired by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies, and director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, the country's oldest think tank in black studies.

Location

The Cleveland Playhouse, Bolton Theater

Where's 2004 and Edward P. Jones?

I went to the website looking for evidence of Edward P. Jones (Lost in the City and The Known World) and didn't find any. However, I didn't find the awards for 2004, either. Those for 2005 are there as new, but the old award listings end at 2003.

You're right - we could fix that

I'm glad you mentioned that - i hadn't bothered to check out their site and it is interesting - good looking but high maintenance, so out of date - typical. If the judge list is still correct, that is awesome:

Henry Louis Gates Jr., Chairperson
Harvard University

Rita Dove
University of Virginia

Steven Pinker
Harvard University

Joyce Carol Oates
Princeton University

Simon Schama
Columbia University