Some of the most consequential voices in American literature, from Langston Hughes and Toni Morrison to Martin Luther King Jr. and Colson Whitehead, share a connection to Cleveland.

For more than 90 years, the city has been home to the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, the only American book prize focused on works that address racism and diversity. Since its founding in 1935, the awards have recognized more than 250 writers whose work has helped shape conversations about race, culture, history and the human experience.

Despite that national and international reach, the awards have never lost their connection to the city where they began.

“The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards are a uniquely Cleveland prize,” said Kortney Morrow, program director of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. “All roads lead back to this city that shaped our founder and continues to steward one of the most important international book awards.”

That story begins with a Cleveland poet and philanthropist named Edith Anisfield Wolf.

A Cleveland idea takes root

Edith Anisfield Wolf established the book prizes in 1935 in honor of her father, John Anisfield, and her husband, Eugene Wolf, reflecting her family’s passion for social justice.

From the beginning, the awards were built around an idea that remains central to their mission today: literature can help readers better understand racism while deepening their appreciation for the diversity of human cultures. It was an unusual mission for a literary prize in 1935.

Past winners include writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King Jr., Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, Isabel Wilkerson, Isabelle Allende, Maxine Hong Kingston and Colson Whitehead. Their books and scholarship have examined race and identity from different periods, places and perspectives while becoming part of a literary canon that continues to challenge readers.

And Cleveland has remained at the center of it.

The Cleveland Foundation has administered the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards since 1963, continuing to steward the prize and the vision that began with Anisfield Wolf.

The 2026 Class

More than nine decades after its founding, Anisfield-Wolf continues to recognize emerging literary voices alongside established ones.

For 2026, every winner in a competitive genre category is a debut author.

Carrie R. Moore received the fiction award for Make Your Way Home. Bench Anisfield won in nonfiction for Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City. Sarah Aziza received the memoir award for The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders, and Gbenga Adesina won in poetry for Death Does Not End at the Sea.

Historian Nell Irvin Painter, whose work includes The History of White People and Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol, is receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award.

“They include voices we are meeting for the very first time, at the exact moment their ideas are reshaping how we think about race, culture, history and one another,” Morrow said.

The organization is also increasing its investment in those voices. Award recipients in the genre categories now receive $30,000, tripling the previous cash prize.

For Morrow, that growth represents an important evolution in the award’s mission.

“The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards are making monumental strides to invest in the authors of our times,” she said. “We’ve tripled the cash prize to $30K each for our genre categories, built a two-day literary festival, and are presenting a new canon of writers that are committed to rigorous historical excavation all in search of truth and freedom.”

A weekend of books and ideas

Each September, the award’s national reach becomes distinctly local when its newest class of authors travels to Cleveland.

This year’s celebration begins Friday, Sept. 18, when the 91st Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Ceremony takes place at the Maltz Performing Arts Center.

More than 1,000 attendees are expected to gather as the 2026 winners formally join the Anisfield-Wolf canon.

The organization describes the ceremony as “the literary evening of the year in Cleveland,” but the experience doesn’t end when the awards are handed out.

Following the ceremony, attendees will travel along East 105th Street to the Ballroom at Park Lane for a public reception featuring book signings, food and music.

Memoir winner Sarah Aziza will appear at a special City Club of Cleveland Forum in conversation with WEWS reporter Nadeen Abusada.

Then, on Saturday, Sept. 19, the celebration moves out into the community.

Saturday’s programming is designed as a literary book crawl, pairing this year’s winning authors with national thought leaders for conversations and readings at venues across Cleveland.

Rather than simply hearing an author accept an award, Clevelanders will have an opportunity to dig into the ideas behind each winning work.

The conversations will explore subjects including housing, migration, borders, faith, race and history, giving audiences the opportunity to consider how the ideas contained in these books connect to their own city and communities.

“Our celebration weekend gives Clevelanders the rare chance to engage firsthand with these authors and ideas,” Morrow said.

That’s part of what distinguishes Anisfield-Wolf from an award that simply happens to be based in Cleveland. Each September, the winning writers come to the city, meet readers and discuss their work with Cleveland audiences.

The Anisfield-Wolf celebration is also part of a much larger literary moment for Cleveland.

The September awards weekend will anchor Cleveland Book Fest, a month-long showcase of literary programming throughout Northeast Ohio expected to bring together thousands of readers, writers and residents.

The festival includes author talks, readings, writing workshops, publishing panels and other events organized by institutions across the region.

Official partners include the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, The City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland Public Library, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Great Lakes African American Writers Conference, Lake Erie Ink, Literary Cleveland and Writers in Residence.

Together, the organizations are creating something larger than any individual event: a month in which books, writers and ideas take center stage throughout Cleveland.

More than an awards ceremony 

The work of Anisfield-Wolf extends beyond September.

Through its Book Club, educational resources and other programming, the organization creates opportunities for readers and educators to continue engaging with the books and ideas represented in the Anisfield-Wolf canon throughout the year.

That ongoing work reflects the original purpose of the prize.

Anisfield Wolf didn’t establish an award simply to recognize exceptional writing. She created one centered on books capable of expanding understanding across racial and cultural differences.

More than 90 years after Edith Anisfield Wolf established the prize, the awards continue to bring writers and readers together around many of the same questions that inspired their creation.

And each September, that work returns to the city where it began.

The 91st Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards celebration takes place Sept. 18-19, 2026, in Cleveland. Learn more about the 2026 winners, celebration weekend and Cleveland Book Fest at Anisfield-Wolf.org.