The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards recognize works that make important contributions to our understanding of racism and cultural diversity. The awards, now in their 80th year, are presented by the Cleveland Foundation. Winners each receive a $10,000 prize.
The prize jury is headed by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. This year’s Anisfield-Wolf awards will be presented at the Ohio Theatre in Cleveland on September 10.
Marlon James, an associate professor of English at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, will be awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in the fiction category. He is being honored for his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings (Riverhead Press, 2014). The book relates an account of an attempted assassination of music legend Bob Marley. The book is James’ third novel.
James has been on the faculty at Macalester College since 2007. A native of Jamaica, James is a graduate of the University of the West Indies. He holds a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Jericho Brown is an assistant professor of English at Emory University in Atlanta. He will be awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in the poetry category for his collection The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press, 2015).
A native of Shreveport, Louisiana, Dr. Brown is a magna cum laude graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans. He holds a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of New Orleans and a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston.
