Your Guide to Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Weekend

Every September, Cleveland spends a few days at the center of the literary world. The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards (AWBA), the only national juried prize dedicated to literature that addresses race and diversity, brings its winners home to the city where the award began in 1935. This year marks the prize’s 91st anniversary, and AWBA Weekend runs September 18–19 as the marquee stretch of the month-long Cleveland Book Fest. Here’s everything to know before you go.

Why This Weekend Matters

The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards is the only U.S. book prize built entirely around themes of race and justice, and it has been headquartered in Cleveland since poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfield Wolf established it in 1935. The annual AWBA weekend is the moment when that legacy becomes tangible: national literary figures visiting Cleveland, reading in its theaters, and talking with the people who live here.

Weekend Warm-Up: The City Club Forum

The morning before the ceremony, the City Club of Cleveland will host Sarah Aziza, 2026 AWBA winner in memoir, in conversation with WEWS journalist Nadeen Abusada. The discussion will dig into generational displacement, ancestral memories, and finding a way forward in ‘the land of the living.’ Forum begins at 11:30 a.m.; ticket sales run through September 16 on cityclub.org.

The Ceremony: Friday, September 18

Friday evening is the main event: the 91st Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Ceremony, held at the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center (1855 Ansel Road) at 6:30 p.m. Here, AWBA jurors, including Pulitzer Prize winner and jury chair Natasha Trethewey, will welcome the 2026 winners as formal inductees to the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award canon, which already includes names like Toni Morrison, Isabel Wilkerson, Colson Whitehead and Maxine Hong Kingston.

This year’s competitive-category winners are:

• Fiction: Make Your Way Home by Carrie R. Moore

• Nonfiction: Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City by Bench Ansfield

• Memoir: The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders by Sarah Aziza

• Poetry: Death Does Not End at the Sea by Gbenga Adesina

Every winner in a competitive category this year is a debut author — a fact AWBA program director Kortney Morrow calls “A rare chance for Cleveland audiences to meet consequential new voices at the very moment their ideas are reshaping conversations about race, culture and history.”

Historian Nell Irvin Painter will also be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing a career spent reframing how Americans understand race and identity — most notably in her landmark book The History of White People, which traces “whiteness” as a constructed, evolving category rather than a fixed one.

Good to know: Tickets are free but required, and availability is very limited. There’s a two-ticket limit per order; a standby line will operate at the venue on a first-come, first-served basis if space allows; and a livestream option is available for anyone who can’t attend in person. Free parking requires no advance purchase.

The Afterparty: Ballroom at Park Lane

The night continues right after the ceremony with a public reception at the Ballroom at Park Lane, starting around 7:30 p.m. and running roughly two and a half hours. Expect food, a full bar, live music and a book signing, with copies of the winning titles sold on-site by Mac’s Backs Books.

Saturday, September 19: A Full Day of Author Events

The day after the ceremony belongs to the winners themselves, spread across four intimate conversations at venues across Ohio City. Each session has been thoughtfully organized, pairing an honoree with a collaborator suited to their work, and located in spaces that evoke the themes and emotions of the books.

Guests are encouraged to walk between sites, both to decrease traffic congestion and allow for more discussion and digestion.

11–11:45 a.m. — Fireside Chat at Market Garden

Nonfiction winner Bench Ansfield will discuss Born in Flames alongside civil rights activist and Campaign Zero executive director DeRay Mckesson and Tenant Union Federation director Tara Raghuveer. Together, they’ll connect the book’s history to contemporary tenant organizing and the shaping of modern cities.

12–12:45 p.m. — Performance & Conversation at Jaja

Memoir winner Sarah Aziza’s The Hollow Half will be interpreted through a performance by Masrah Cleveland Al-Arabi, Cleveland Public Theatre’s Arabic-language ensemble. Aziza will then sit down with three-time Arab American Book Award winner Philip Metres for a conversation on Arabic, translation and the politics of language.

A programming break between 1 and 2:30 p.m. will allow for attendees to grab a bite to eat, explore the area, and make their way to the Foundry for the day’s remaining sessions.

2:30–3:15 p.m. — Author Conversation at The Foundry Carriage House

The Carriage House at the Foundry is on the site of one of Cleveland’s oldest churches, right on the bank of the Cuyahoga River. Here, fiction winner Carrie R. Moore will speak with writer and cultural educator Stevona Elem-Rogers about Make Your Way Home, touching on Black romance, faith and the American South.

3:30–4:15 p.m. — Poetry Reading at The Foundry Tank House

With the rushing water of the Tank House as background, poetry winner Gbenga Adesina will read from his winning collection Death Does Not End at the Sea. He will be joined by poet, performer and educator Ajanaé Dawkins for a conversation rooted in grief, migration, borders and faith.

Plan Your Visit

• City Club Forum: Friday, Sept. 18, 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

• Ceremony: Maltz Performing Arts Center, 1855 Ansel Road, Cleveland — Friday, Sept. 18, 6:30–8:30 p.m. Free, registration required. Reception to follow at the Ballroom at Park Lane.

• Saturday events: Four venues around Ohio City, Sept. 19, from 11 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

More information and links to registration are available on anisfield-wolf.org.

Whether you catch one conversation or spend the whole weekend, the AWBA celebration offers a rare encounter with the authors reshaping how the country talks about race, identity and belonging – all hosted right here in Cleveland.