Celebrating the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards with Kortney Morrow

Kortney Morrow is the Program Director of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, the nation's only juried literary prize dedicated to honoring authors that are writing about race and diversity. The Awards were created in Cleveland and sponsored by the Saturday Review from their founding in the 1930s to 1963. At that time, Ohio became home to the Awards with the Cleveland Foundation taking over administration of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Morrow herself is also a poet, arts advocate, and organizational strategist with over ten years of experience advocating for literacy and the literary arts. Morrow talks with Ohio Center for the Book Coordinator Don Boozer about her work, the history of the Awards, how they're chosen, the unique venue where the Awards Ceremony is now held, and much more. In This Episode Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards (official website) Announcement of the 2026 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards finalists (Cleveland Foundation, March 3, 2026) 2025 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners examine race amid complex times (Ideastream Public Media, April 10, 2025) Why One of America’s most important literary awards calls Cleveland home (Signal Cleveland, Sept. 1, 2026) Kortney Morrow (official website)