Six authors are now part of the 90-year tradition of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, the nation's only juried prize for works confronting racism and celebrating diversity.
"All year long, they are scouring, reading, devouring books, trying to find those transformative titles that are worthy of the Anisfield-Wolf canon," said Kortney Morrow, incoming director of the Cleveland-based award.
The 2025 winners were announced Thursday, and in the poetry category jurors chose “Yard Show” by Janice Harrington. The book examines race using the Black, Southern tradition of transforming one’s front yard into a curated museum of ordinary objects.
“It investigates the ways in which Black people, throughout time, have carved out space in order to create a sense of liberation, freedom, ownership,” Morrow said. “She does it so masterfully. Her language is subtle.”
The nonfiction prize goes to “The United States Governed By Six Hundred Thousand Despots” by Jonathan D.S. Schroeder. He edited and contextualized the rediscovered 1855 slave narrative by John Swanson Jacobs, brother of Harriet Jacobs. Her autobiography, “Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl,” was published in 1861.
"Traditionally, slave narratives are designed to heighten sentimentality around the brutality of slavery," Morrow said. "John Swanson Jacobs essentially refused. He really points a finger at the lawmakers, the politicians ... slave owners."
In fiction, Danzy Senna’s “Colored Television” tells the story of the daughter of an interracial couple who goes from novelist to television writer.
"I don't want to give too much away because there's a lot of plot twists in this book, but she falls into the underbelly of Hollywood," Morrow said. "On the other side are all these big questions. What does it mean to represent Black culture for a wider populace, and who gets to tell those stories? These are questions that I think are timeless and will continue to be asked."
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards introduce the memoir category this year, and this is the first time any of the awards have gone to a graphic novel. “Feeding Ghosts” finds author Tessa Hulls surveying her lineage, starting with her grandmother’s role as a journalist during the 1949 communist takeover of China.
"The graphics of this book are haunting," Morrow said. "They're very maze-like and have all of these tentacles and fissures that sort of illuminate this multi-generational trauma that she explores."
The lifetime achievement award goes to poet Yusef Komunyakaa, who came of age during the Civil Rights movement and "has fundamentally altered the landscape of contemporary American poetry," according to Morrow. Komunyakaa’s works include 1994's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems” and 1988's "Dien Cai Dau," which Morrow called his "seminal" work.
Changes at Anisfield-Wolf
Morrow, a Northeast Ohio native, has been consulting the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards and joins as director in time for its 90th anniversary.
She said another change this year is the jury decided to reveal the names of the 10 finalists ahead of the winners' announcement, which include Sarah Lewis' "The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America," Susan Muaddi Darraj's "Behind You Is the Sea," Emily Raboteau's "Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against 'the Apocalypse'," Kiley Reid's “Come and Get It,” Adam Shatz’s “The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon” and Danez Smith’s “Bluff.”
"There are so many authors creating incredible works that are transforming, challenging, opening minds," she said. "Why not expand it and give a wider range of folks a chance to be awarded, honored, celebrated. There is such a rich depth of writers writing about race right now. I think the jury wanted a chance to be able to honor more people."
The jury, led by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey, included National Book Awards finalist Deesha Philyaw and former AWBA winners Peter Ho Davies, Charles King and Tiya Miles. The 2025 awards ceremony takes place September 19 during Cleveland Book Week.
