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Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

@anisfieldwolf

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The only juried American book prize focusing on works that address racism and diversity.
Presented by the Cleveland Foundation

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Thank you @clevefoundation and @anisfieldwolf for this amazing opportunity. I am forever grateful and hope to join you all again next year! #anisfieldwolfbookawards #clevelandfoundation #literaryawards #bookawards #literature

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A few weeks ago, we had the honor to host part of the @anisfieldwolf book awards, presented by @clevefoundation ,in our Carriage House and Tank House!

There was something truly special about seeing our historic spaces filled with writers, readers, and a shared love of literature. 🧡

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Today was a good day for books.

Craig had the honor of speaking at The City Club of Cleveland alongside fellow independent bookstore leaders about the importance of local bookstores and the communities they serve.

We’re grateful to be part of a city that values literacy, curiosity, and independent bookstores. Cheers to every reader who helps keep a culture of reading alive.

Stay curious. Enter New Worlds.

#paralleluniversebookstore #cityclubofcleveland #independentbookstore #community

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Writing can be lonely. Luckily, I am spoiled by the Cleveland writing & bookish community!

Still not over the amazing Anisfield Wolf Book Awards! @anisfieldwolf

⁉️What are you reading?

#anisfieldbookawards #clevelandohio #clevelandwriters #booklovers #writingcommunity

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As writer and Anisfield-Wolf Book Award juror @peterhodavies reminded us at the opening ceremony this past Friday, the books that comprise the @anisfieldwolf canon are selected because they represent “the truest, most necessary books” of our time and their writers have a “courage we cannot overstate.” It has been an honor and a privilege serving on the AWBA host committee as we contemplate how the written word changes how we move in the world. Questions asked over the course of an epic weekend included: What is the civic function of literature? How do we love on the edge of disaster? How do we come to grips with the fact that place is also a condition? As “the only juried American book prize focusing on works that address racism and diversity” founded right here in Cleveland in 1935 by visionary Edith Anisfield Wolf, the awards root me in my purpose as an educator—to teach that words have power and world-building capacity, to push towards a humanities eco-system that animates and activates the fabric of our civic life. Over the course of the weekend, we inhabited spaces and breathed into them new narratives that challenge us to see Cleveland as a “literary city.” As winner @benchansfield put it in the inscription to our book, “Dreaming of the cities we deserve.” ❤️

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We were honored to welcome this year's Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winners and the talented AWBA Jury to the Cleveland Foundation this past weekend.

The Barbara Haas Rawson Community Stair in our headquarters is home to an art installation of all the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winners. During the closing reception of our Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards weekend, we presented each author with their glass book cover which will be added to the installation.

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Still impressed with the Anisfield Wolf Book Awards!

So many incredible books and authors 💕 📚

#anisfieldwolfbookawards #clevelandohio #maltzperformingartscenter #writinginspiration #bookawards

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What is more delicious than fresh hand-picked literature FOR FREE at the @westsidemarket?

Our fourth annual Books at the Market featured free children’s books from @clevelandpubliclibrary, free Toni Morrison books with @ohiocelebratesmorrison, free comics from @comicsatthecorner, free letterpress from @cwruenglish New Gutenberg Annex, and free signed copies of @tessahulls graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts from @anisfieldwolf and @macs_backs.

Plus @rustbeltlab organized a graphic map making class for students from @cwru and @tric_edu led by Tessa Hulls!

What a way to cap off #ClevelandBookFest!

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This weekend was incredible!

As the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards social media manager I got to go behind the scenes for every event this weekend! After spending the year sharing their books on the @anisfieldwolf socials I was finally able to meet and talk to the five authors who won this year’s Awards.

My whole phone is filled with videos of poetry readings, author conversations, book signings, floral arranging, theatre productions, gallery openings, and more books than I can count!

I cannot wait to finally relax after spending the weekend celebrating AWBA. And by relax, I mean read more books.

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The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards were established in 1935 by Cleveland poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfield Wolf, who endowed the awards through the Cleveland Foundation. Edith established the prize to reflect her family’s commitment to social justice. Today, it remains the only juried American book prize focused on works that confront racism and celebrate human diversity.

Past recipients include Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King Jr., Toni Morrison, August Wilson, Percival Everett, Isabel Wilkerson, Tommy Orange, and more than 250 other distinguished writers whose work has left a lasting mark on literature and our understanding of the human experience.

I was invited to Cleveland this weekend to attend the 91st annual awards. This year’s honorees and recipients include:

Bench Ansfield, Born in Flames — Nonfiction
Carrie R. Moore, Make Your Way Home — Fiction
Sarah Aziza, The Hollow Half — Memoir
Gbenga Adesina, Death Does Not End at the Sea — Poetry
Nell Irvin Painter — Lifetime Achievement

Something remarkable happened this year across every award category except Lifetime Achievement: for the first time, each selected book represents its author’s debut work. It is an extraordinary accomplishment for all four writers and a testament to the power and impact of their voices.

Yesterday, I also had the opportunity to return to the City Club of Cleveland for a forum featuring one of this year’s awardees, Sarah Aziza, in conversation with Cleveland-based media professional Nadeen Abusada.

In 2019, Aziza nearly lost her life after being hospitalized with an eating disorder. During her recovery, she began to uncover and reconnect with her Palestinian roots. The daughter and granddaughter of Gazan refugees, Aziza draws on that journey in The Hollow Half, which tells the story of three generations of Palestinian displacement, survival, and resilience.

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SUNDAY! Stop by the @westsidemarket for another free book giveaway from 10am-2pm on September 20 with @clevelandpubliclibrary @rustbeltlab @comicsatthecorner @anisfieldwolf and more as one of the final events of Cleveland Book Fest.

We will be giving away free Toni Morrison books as part of @ohiocelebratesmorrison so stop by early before they’re gone.

Best of all: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner @tessahulls will be on hand in the afternoon signing copies of her blockbuster graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts!! 🤩

Bring a friend. Spread the word.

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