Samuel R. Delany received a Life Achievement Award today as one of the winners of the 86th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. The awards “recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures.”
The 2021 recipients of the only national juried prize for literature that confronts racism and explores diversity are:
Fiction
- James McBride, Deacon King Kong
Nonfiction
- Vincent Brown, Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of An Atlantic Slave War, co-winner
- Natasha Trethewey, Memorial Drive, co-winner
Poetry
- Victoria Chang, “Obit”
Lifetime Achievement
(The links go to biographies of the winners.)
The Anisfield-Wolf jury members are chair Henry Louis Gates Jr, poet Rita Dove, novelist Joyce Carol Oates, historian Simon Schama and psychologist Steven Pinker.
“The new Anisfield-Wolf winners bring us fresh insights on race and the human condition,” said Gates Jr. “This year, we honor a brilliant military history, a breakout poetry collection that wrestles with mortality, a novel bursting with love and trouble centered around a Brooklyn church, and a memoir by a daughter reclaiming her mother’s story. All of which is capped by the lifetime achievement of Samuel R. Delany, who has broadened our humanity and sharpened our minds through his groundbreaking science fiction.”
[Based on a press release. Thanks to Todd Mason and Andrew Porter for the story.]