American Book Awards
Literary award in the United States
The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "there are no categories, no nominees, and therefore no losers."[ 1]
The Award is administered by the multi-cultural focused nonprofit Before Columbus Foundation , which established it in 1978 and inaugurated it in 1980.[ 2] [ 3] [ 4] Toni Morrison , Edward Said , MacKenzie Bezos , Isabel Allende , bell hooks , Don DeLillo , Derrick Bell , Robin Kelley , Joy Harjo and Tommy J. Curry .
National Book Awards
In 1980, the unrelated National Book Awards was renamed American Book Awards. In 1987 it was renamed back to National Book Awards.[ 5]
Recipients
1980s
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990s
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
Alice McDermott for Charming Billy Anna Linzer for Ghost Dancing Brian Ward for Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations Chiori Santiago for Home to Medicine Mountain E. Donald Two-Rivers for Survivor's Medicine: Short Stories Edwidge Danticat for The Farming of Bones Judith Roche , Meg McHutchison for First Fish, First People: Salmon Tales of the North Pacific Rim Gioia Timpanelli for Sometimes the Soul: Two Novellas of Sicily Gloria Naylor for The Men of Brewster Place , a novelJames D. Houston for The Last Paradise Jerry Lipka , Gerald V. Mohatt , Ciulistet Group for Transforming the Culture of Schools: Yup¡k Eskimo Examples Trey Ellis for Right Here, Right Now Josip Novakovich for Salvation and Other Disasters Lauro Flores for The Floating Borderlands: Twenty-Five Years of U.S. Hispanic Literature Luís Alberto Urrea for Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life Nelson George for Hip Hop America: Hip Hop and the Molding of Black Generation X Speer Morgan for The Freshour Cylinders Gary Gach for What Book!?: Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop Chiori Santiago , author, Judith Lowry , illustrator, Home to Medicine Mountain [ 7]
2000s
2000
2001
Aaron A. Abeyta , Colcha Susanne Antonetta , The Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir Rilla Askew , Fire in Beulah Tananarive Due , The Living Blood Gloria Frym , Homeless at Home Dana Gioia , Interrogations at Noon LeAnne Howe , Shell Shaker Alex Kuo , Lipstick and Other Stories Michael N. Nagler , Is There No Other Way? The Search for a Nonviolent Future Donald Phelps , Reading the Funnies : Looking at Great Cartoonists Throughout the First Half of the 20th Century Al Young , The Sound of Dreams Remembered: Poems, 1990–2000 Jessel Miller , Angels in the Vineyards Lerone Bennett , Lifetime AchievementJack Hirschman , Lifetime AchievementKevin Baker , Paradise Alley Debra Magpie Earling , Perma Red Daniel Ellsberg , Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers Rick Heide , ed., Under the Fifth Sun: Latino Literature from California Igor Krupnik , Willis Walunga , Vera Metcalf , and Lars Krutak , eds, Akuzilleput Igaqullghet, Our Words Put to Paper: Sourcebook in St. Lawrence Island Yupik Heritage and History Alejandro Murguía , This War Called Love: Nine Stories Jack Newfield , The Full Rudy: The Man, the Myth, the Mania Joseph Papaleo , Italian Stories Eric Porter , What Is This Thing Called Jazz?: African American Musicians as Artists, Critics, and Activists Jewell Parker Rhodes , Douglass' Women , a novelRachel Simon , Riding the Bus with My Sister: A True Life Journey Velma Wallis , Raising Ourselves: A Gwich'in Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River Max Rodriguez , QBR: The Black Book Review Diana Abu-Jaber , Crescent , a novelDavid Cole , Enemy Aliens: Double Standards And Constitutional Freedoms In The War On Terrorism Charisse Jones and Kumea Shorter-Gooden , Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America Kristin Hunter Lattany , Breaking Away A. Robert Lee, Multicultural American Literature: Comparative Black, Native, Latino/a and Asian American Fictions
Diane Sher Lutovich , What I Stole Ruth Ozeki , All Over Creation Renato Rosaldo , Prayer to Spider Woman / Rezo a la Mujer Arana Scott Saul , Freedom Is, Freedom Ain't: Jazz and the Making of the Sixties Michael Walsh , And All the Saints Bernard W. Bell , The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots And Modern Literary Branches Cecelie Berry , Rise Up Singing: Black Women Writers on Motherhood Jeff Chang , Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation Julie Chibbaro , Redemption Richard A. Clarke , Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror Alisha S. Drabek and Karen R. Adams , The Red Cedar of Afognak, A Driftwood Journey Ralph M. Flores , The Horse in the Kitchen: Stories of a Mexican-American Family Hiroshi Kashiwagi , Swimming in the American: A Memoir And Selected Writings Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. , Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy Don Lee , Country of Origin , a novelLamont B. Steptoe , A Long Movie of Shadows Don West , No Lonesome Road: Selected Prose and Poems , eds Jeff Biggers and George Brosi Journalism: Bill Berkowitz MacKenzie Bezos , The Testing of Luther Albright Matt Briggs , Shoot the Buffalo David P. Diaz , The White Tortilla: Reflections of a Second-Generation Mexican-American Darryl Dickson-Carr , The Columbia Guide to Contemporary African American Fiction Thomas Ferraro , Feeling Italian: The Art of Ethnicity in America Tim Z. Hernandez , Skin Tax Josh Kun , Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America P. Lewis , Nate Peter Metcalfe , Gumboot Determination: The Story of the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium Kevin J. Mullen , The Toughest Gang in Town: Police Stories from Old San Francisco Doris Seale and Beverly Slapin, eds., A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children Matthew Shenoda , Somewhere Else Carlton T. Spiller , Scalding Heart Chris Hamilton-Emery , EditorJay Wright , Lifetime Achievement
2007
Daniel Cassidy , How the Irish Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the Crossroads Michael Eric Dyson , Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster Rigoberto González , Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa Reyna Grande , Across a Hundred Mountains , a novelErnestine Hayes , Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir Patricia Klindienst , The Earth Knows My Name: Food, Culture, and Sustainability in the Gardens of Ethnic Americans Gary Panter , Jimbo's Inferno Jeffrey F. L. Partridge , Beyond Literary Chinatown Judith Roche , Wisdom of the Body Kali VanBaale , The Space Between Moustafa Bayoumi , How Does It Feel to Be a Problem Being Young and Arab in America Douglas A. Blackmon , Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II Jonathan Curiel , Al’ America: Travels Through America's Arab and Islamic Roots Nora Marks Dauenhauer , Richard Dauenhauer , and Lydia T. Black . Anóoshi Lingít Aaní Ká . Russians in Tlingit America: The Battles of Sitka, 1802 and 1804 Maria Mazziotti Gillan , All That Lies Between Us Nikki Giovanni , The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968–1998 C. S. Giscombe , Prairie Style Angela Jackson , Where I Must Go , a novelL. Luis Lopez , Each Month I Sing Tom Lutz , Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America Fae Myenne Ng , Steer Toward Rock Yuko Taniguchi , The Ocean in the Closet Lorenzo Thomas , Don't Deny My Name: Words and Music and the Black Intellectual Tradition , ed. Aldon Lynn Nielsen Frank B. Wilderson III , Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid J. J. Phillips , Lifetime Achievement
2009
Houston A. Baker, Jr. , Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Right Era Danit Brown , Ask for a Convertible Jericho Brown , Please José Antonio Burciaga , The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: Selected Works of José Antonio Burciaga , eds Mimi R. Gladstein and Daniel Chacón Claire Hope Cummings , Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds Stella Pope Duarte , If I Die in Juarez Linda Gregg , All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems Suheir Hammad , Breaking Poems Richard Holmes , The Age of Wonder George E. Lewis , A Power Stronger than Itself: The A.A.C.M. and American Experimental Music Patricia Santana , Ghosts of El Grullo Jack Spicer , My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer , ed. Peter Gizzi and Kevin Killian Miguel Algarín , Lifetime Achievement
2010s
Amiri Baraka , Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music Sherwin Bitsui , Flood Song Nancy Carnevale , A New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890–1945 Dave Eggers , Zeitoun Sesshu Foster , World Ball Notebook Stephen D. Gutierrez , Live from Fresno y Los Victor LaValle , The Big Machine François Mandeville , This Is What They Say , translated by Ron Scollon from Chipewyan Bich Minh Nguyen , Short Girls Franklin Rosemont and Robin D. G. Kelley , eds., Black, Brown, & Beige: Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora Jerome Rothenberg and Jeffrey C. Robinson , eds., Poems for the Millennium: Volume Three: The University of California Book of Romantic and Postromantic Poetry Kathryn Waddell Takara , Pacific Raven: Hawai`i Poems Pamela Uschuk , Crazy Love: New Poems Katha Politt , Lifetime AchievementQuincy Troupe , Lifetime AchievementKeith Gilyard , John Oliver Killens Akbar Ahmed , Journey Into America: The Challenge of Islam Camille Dungy , Suck on the Marrow Karen Tei Yamashita , I Hotel William W. Cook and James Tatum, African American Writers and Classical Tradition Gerald Vizenor , Shrouds of White Earth Eric Gansworth , Extra Indians Ivan Argüelles , The Death of Stalin Geoffrey Alan Argent , ed., The Complete Plays of Jean Racine : Volume 1: The Fratricides , translated by Argent from French Neela Vaswani , You Have Given Me a Country Sasha Pimentel Chacón , Insides She Swallowed Miriam Jiménez Román and Juan Flores , eds., The Afro-Latin@ Reader: History of Culture in the United States Carmen Giménez Smith , Bring Down the Little Birds Luis Valdez , Lifetime AchievementJohn A. Williams , Lifetime AchievementAnnia Ciezadlo , Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War Arlene Kim , What Have You Done to Our Ears to Make Us Hear Echoes? Ed Bok Lee , Whorled Adilifu Nama , Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes Rob Nixon , Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor Shann Ray , American Masculine Alice Rearden , translator; Ann Fienup-Riordan , ed., Qaluyaarmiuni Nunamtenek Qanemciput: Our Nelson Island Stories Touré , Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means to Be Black Now Amy Waldman , The Submission Mary Winegarden , The Translator's Sister Kevin Young , Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels Eugene B. Redmond , Lifetime AchievementWill Alexander , Singing In Magnetic Hoofbeat: Essays, Prose, Texts, Interviews, and a Lecture , Essay PressJacob M. Appel , The Man Who Wouldn't Stand Up , CargoPhilip P. Choy , San Francisco Chinatown: A Guide To Its History & Architecture , City LightsAmanda Coplin , The Orchardist Natalie Diaz , When My Brother Was An Aztec , Copper Canyon PressLouise Erdrich , The Round House Alan Gilbert , Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence , University of ChicagoJudy Grahn , A Simple Revolution: The Making of an Activist Poet , Aunt Lute BooksJoy Harjo , Crazy Brave: A Memoir , W.W. Norton & Co.Demetria Martinez , The Block Captain's Daughter , University of Oklahoma PressDaniel Abdal-Hayy Moore , Blood Songs , The Ecstatic Exchangedg nanouk okpik , Corpse Whale , University of Arizona PressSeth Rosenfeld , Subversives: The FBI's War On Student Radical and Reagan's Rise to Power , Farrar, Straus & GirouxChristopher B. Teuton , Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liar's Club , University of North CarolinaLew Welch , Ring of Bone: Collected Poems , City LightsIvan Argüelles , Lifetime AchievementGreil Marcus , Lifetime AchievementFloyd Salas , Lifetime AchievementAndrew Bacevich , Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country , Metropolitan BooksJoshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin, Jr., Black Against Empire; The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party , University of California Press
Juan Delgado (poetry) and Thomas McGovern (photography), Vital Signs , Heyday Books
Alex Espinoza , The Five Acts of Diego León , Random House[ 12] Jonathan Scott Holloway , Jim Crow Wisdom: Memory and Identity in Black America Since 1940 , University of North Carolina PressJoan Naviyuk Kane , Hyperboreal , University of Pittsburgh PressJamaica Kincaid , See Now Then , Farrar, Straus and GirouxTanya Olson, Boyishly , YesYes Books
Sterling D. Plumpp , Home/Bass , Third World PressEmily Raboteau , Searching For Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora , Atlantic Monthly PressJerome Rothenberg with Heriberto Yepez, Eye of Witness: A Jerome Rothenberg Reader , Commonwealth BooksNick Turse , Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam , Metropolitan BooksMargaret Wrinkle , Wash , Atlantic Monthly PressKoon Woon , Water Chasing Water , Kaya PressArmond White , Anti-Censorship AwardMichael Parenti , Lifetime AchievementHisham Aidi , Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture (Vintage)Arlene Biala , her beckoning hands (Word Poetry)Arthur Dong , Forbidden City, USA: Chinese American Nightclubs, 1936-1970 (DeepFocus Productions)Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz , An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Peter J. Harris , The Black Man of Happiness (Black Man of Happiness Project)Marlon James , A Brief History of Seven Killings Naomi Klein , This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate Laila Lalami , The Moor's Account Manuel Luis Martinez , Los Duros (Floricanto Press)Craig Santos Perez , from unincorporated territory [guma’] (Omnidawn)Carlos Santana with Ashley Kahn and Hal Miller, The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light (Little, Brown and Company)Ira Sukrungruang , Southside Buddhist (University of Tampa Press)Astra Taylor , The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age Anne Waldman , Lifetime AchievementLaura Da' , Tributaries (University of Arizona)Susan Muaddi Darraj , Curious Land: Stories from Home (University of Massachusetts)Deepa Iyer , We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multicultural Future (The New Press)Mat Johnson , Loving Day John Keene , Counternarratives (New Directions)William J. Maxwell , F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover's Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature (Princeton University)Lauret Savoy , Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape (Counterpoint)Ned Sublette and Constance Sublette , The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry (Lawrence Hill Books)Jesús Salvador Treviño , Return to Arroyo Grande (Arte Público)Nick Turse , Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa (Haymarket Books)Ray Young Bear , Manifestation Wolverine: The Collected Poetry of Ray Young Bear (Open Road Integrated Media)Louise Meriwether , Lifetime AchievementLyra Monteiro and Nancy Isenberg , Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism AwardChiitaanibah Johnson , Andrew Hope Award
2020s
Author(s)
Title
Publisher
Reginald Dwayne Betts Felon: Poems W.W. Norton
Sara Borjas Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff Noemi Press
Neeli Cherkovski , Raymond Foye, Tate Swindell (editors)Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman City Lights
Staceyann Chin Crossfire: A Litany for Survival Haymarket
Kali Fajardo-Anstine Sabrina & Corina: Stories One World
Tara Fickle
The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities New York University Press
Erika Lee America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States Basic Books
Yoko Ogawa The Memory Police Pantheon
Jake Skeets
Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers Milkweed Editions
George Takei , Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony BeckerThey Called Us Enemy Top Shelf Productions
Ocean Vuong On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Penguin
De'Shawn Charles Winslow
In West Mills Bloomsbury Publishing
Albert Woodfox with Leslie GeorgeSolitary: My Story of Transformation and Hope Grove Press
Eleanor W. Traylor Lifetime Achievement Award
Kofi Natambu
Editor Award: The Panopticon Review
Jasper Bernes, Joshua Clover, and Juliana Spahr
Publisher Award: Commune Editions
Amalia Leticia Ortiz
Oral Literature Award
Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll (editors)
Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award: Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy
Author(s)
Title
Publisher
Ayad Akhtar Homeland Elegies Little, Brown & Co.
Maisy Card
These Ghosts Are Family Simon & Schuster
Anthony Cody
Borderland Apocrypha Omnidawn Press
Ben Ehrenreich Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time Counterpoint
Johanna Fernández
The Young Lords: A Radical History University of North Carolina Press
Carolyn Forché In the Lateness of the World: Poems Penguin Press
John Giorno Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Cathy Park Hong Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning One World
Randall Horton
{#289-128}: Poems University of Kentucky
Gerald Horne The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century Monthly Review Press
Robert P. Jones White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity Simon & Schuster
Judy Juanita Manhattan my ass, you're in Oakland Equidistance Press
William Melvin Kelley (author), Aiki Kelley (illustrator)Dunfords Travels Everywheres Anchor Books
Maryemma Graham Lifetime Achievement Award
Shana Redmond Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award: Everything Man: The Form and Function of Paul Robeson
Jacob Soboroff
Anti-Censorship Award: Separated: Inside an American Tragedy
Author(s)
Title
Publisher
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo When We Were Birds Doubleday
Edgar Gomez
High-Risk Homosexual Soft Skull
Kelly Lytle Hernández Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands W.W. Norton & Company
Everett Hoagland
The Ways: Poems of Affirmation, Reflection and Wonder North Star Nova Press
Anne Hyde Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West W.W. Norton & Company
Jamil Jan Kochai The Haunting of Haji Hotak and Other Stories Viking
Aidan Levy
Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins Hachette Books
Bojan Louis
Sinking Bell: Stories Gray Wolf Press
Leila Mottley Nightcrawling Knopf
Darryl Pinckney Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Sherry Shenoda
Mummy Eaters University of Nebraska Press
Mosab Abu Toha Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza City Lights Books
Javier Zamora Solito: A Memoir Hogarth
Maxine Hong Kingston Lifetime Achievement Award
Neta Crawford Anti-Censorship Award
Bell hooks Walter & Lilliam Lowenfels Award for Criticism
References
^
"For Immediate Release:" (August 5, 2010). Before Columbus Foundation. Retrieved February 17, 2012. Archived July 13, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
^ a b "Previous Winners of the American Book Award" (PDF) . Before Columbus Foundation. 2002. Retrieved September 13, 2014 .^ "About" . Before Columbus Foundation. Archived from the original on September 13, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014 .^ "American Book Awards" . Before Columbus Foundation. Archived from the original on September 13, 2014. Retrieved September 13, 2014 .^ "History Of The National Book Awards" . National Book Foundation. Retrieved February 17, 2012.^ Zarco, Cyn (1986). Cir'cum.nav'i.ga'tion . Tooth of Time Books. ISBN 978-0-940510-13-5 ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l American Booksellers Association (2013). "The American Book Awards / Before Columbus Foundation [1980–2013]" . BookWeb . Archived from the original on March 13, 2013. Retrieved September 25, 2013 . ^ a b c d e
"The Before Columbus Foundation announces the American Book Awards" (Index to lists of winners through 2006). Alaska Native Knowledge Network (ankn.uaf.edu). Retrieved July 7, 2012.
^ "Winners of the 2011 American Book Awards" Archived May 8, 2012, at the Wayback Machine . Before Columbus Foundation. Retrieved July 7, 2012.^ "The Before Columbus Foundation announces the ... {2013 winners}" . Before Columbus Foundation. Press release September 19, 2013. Retrieved October 16, 2013. Archived December 4, 2013, at the Wayback Machine ^ "(For Immediate Release) ... Winners of the Thirty-Fifth Annual American Book Awards" (PDF) . Before Columbus Foundation. August 18, 2014. Retrieved September 7, 2014 .^ "Alex Espinoza Wins American Book Award" . huizachemag.org . Retrieved July 23, 2022 .^ "(For Immediate Release) ... Winners of the Thirty-Sixth Annual American Book Awards" . Before Columbus Foundation. July 20, 2015. Archived from the original on July 23, 2015. Retrieved September 7, 2015 .^ "For Immediate Release: The Before Columbus Foundation announces the Winners of the Thirty-Seventh Annual American Book Awards" (PDF) . August 12, 2016.^ "For Immediate Release: The Before Columbus Foundation announces the Winners of the Thirty-Eighth Annual American Book Awards" (PDF) . August 4, 2017.^ "For Immediate Release: The Before Columbus Foundation announces the Winners of the Thirty-Ninth Annual American Book Awards" (PDF) . August 13, 2018.^ "For Immediate Release: The Before Columbus Foundation announces the Winners of the Fortieth Annual American Book Awards" (PDF) . August 19, 2019.^ Before Columbus Foundation. "The Before Columbus Foundation announces the winners of the Forty-first Annual AMERICAN BOOK AWARDS" (PDF) . Before Columbus Foundation . Retrieved September 20, 2020 . ^ Before Columbus Foundation. "The Before Columbus Foundation announces the winners of the Forty-Second Annual AMERICAN BOOK AWARDS" . Before Columbus Foundation . Archived from the original on August 28, 2021. Retrieved August 28, 2021 . ^ Before Columbus Foundation. "The Before Columbus Foundation announces the winners of the Forty-Third Annual AMERICAN BOOK AWARDS" . Before Columbus Foundation . Archived from the original on September 8, 2022. Retrieved September 8, 2022 . ^ "The American Book Award" . Retrieved February 4, 2024 .