Calendar

A Conversation with Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winner Jonathan D.S. Schroeder

Join us at the 2025 AWBA ceremony to honor the 2025 winners as they join the esteemed canon of America’s only juried book prize focusing on works that address racism and diversity. A reception, book sale and author signing will follow the ceremony.  

Saturday’s AWBA events start at the Martin L. King, Jr. Branch of the Cleveland Public Library with an opening keynote and complimentary refreshments, followed by a series of rich conversations and readings featuring past AWBA winners and jurors—leading writers who have fundamentally shaped how we think about race relations and cultural diversity.

Join us at Bop Stop, Cleveland’s beloved jazz club, for a vibrant conversation honoring Danzy Senna, winner of the 2025 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction, for her sharp, genre-bending collection Colored Television.

Join us at Transformer Station for an afternoon of storytelling, art, and conversation with two groundbreaking creators: Maxine Hong Kingston, a foundational voice in American literature, and Tessa Hulls, artist and author of Feeding Ghosts, the first-ever graphic memoir to win an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award—and the inaugural winner in the memoir category.

Join us for a moving performance and reflection as the Karamu House Ensemble breathes life into John Swanson Jacobs slave narrative —an extraordinary account nearly forgotten by history, but recently rediscovered by Jonathan D. S. Schroeder in his AWBA winning text, The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery; A Rediscovered Narrative, with a Full Biography.

A poetry reading and cultural gathering with acclaimed writer Janice N. Harrington, celebrating her Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winning collection, Yard Show. Set amidst one of the nation’s largest urban farms, this event honors the Black midwestern tradition of the yard show—where everyday materials and personal memory transform outdoor spaces into vibrant, living art.