NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Former MSNBC host Joy Reid and authors Percival Everett and John Edgar Wideman are among this years\u2019 recipients of the 46th annual American Book Awards, which celebrate diversity in American art and culture. The awards are presented by the Before Columbus Foundation, the nonprofit that author-playwright Ishmael Reed helped found in 1976.<\/p>\n
Reid, who left MSNBC in February soon after the network canceled her prime time show \u201cThe ReidOut, was awarded the foundation\u2019s anti-censorship prize. Wideman, an acclaimed fiction and nonfiction writer since the 1960s, has won a lifetime achievement award. Honorees for current works include Everett for \u201cJames,\u201d his Pulitzer Prize-winning retelling of \u201cThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn\u201d<\/a>; Kaveh Akbar for \u201cMartyr!\u201d<\/a>; Danzy Senna for \u201cColored Television\u201d and Claire Messud for \u201cThis Strange Eventful History.\u201d<\/p>\n Other recipients announced Monday ranged from Amy M. Alvarez for her poetry collection \u201cMakeshift Altar\u201d to Sarah Lewis\u2019 nonfiction \u201cThe Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America.\u201d Penguin Random House editor Erroll McDonald, whose authors have include Wideman and Nobel laureates Toni Morrison and Wole Soyinka, won the editor\/publisher award.<\/p>\n \u201cThe purpose of the awards is to recognize literary excellence without limitations or restrictions,\u201d the foundation\u2019s announcement reads in part. \u201cThe award winners range from well-known and established writers to under-recognized authors and first works. There are no quotas for diversity; the winners list simply reflects it as a natural process.\u201d<\/p>\n Previous winners include bell hooks,Dave Eggers and the new poet laureate, Arthur Sze.<\/p>\n \n We’re not going anywhere.\n <\/p>\n \n Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on!\n <\/p>\n