CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 Until early in 2023, I didn\u2019t realize the literary landscape here nurtured poets and writers the way it does. <\/p>\n
From East Side to West Side, I can find a writers group<\/a> (or a book club), and I don\u2019t need to put much energy into searching for a writing workshop<\/a> like the one held last Friday and Saturday at the Main Branch of the Cleveland Public Library. <\/p>\n But wait, there\u2019s more. <\/p>\n As helpful as I found the latter, a similar one this weekend might, well \u2026 trump it. Because back in town for its 90th anniversary is the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards<\/a>, which features a full slate of workshops and lectures Saturday \u2014 all designed to highlight the \u201cpower of literature to open and challenge minds.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019d heard a lot about the award. A South Euclid librarian mentioned it to me a handful of times, so did poets Quartez Harris<\/a> and Kourtney Morrow<\/a>. All of them said the Anisfield-Wolf event was worth telling others about. <\/p>\n None of them asked me to write about the event. In general, I don\u2019t take requests. What I do take is ideas, and if I like the idea, I\u2019ll find a way to explore it. <\/p>\n Now, I didn\u2019t like the idea of writing about the Anisfield-Wolf event; I loved the idea. All I needed to hear was that James Baldwin<\/a>, Walter Mosley<\/a> and Toni Morrison<\/a> had won one of the awards, and I hurried to my desktop to type a commentary that might encourage readers and writers to attend the event. <\/p>\n Besides the workshops, the two-day affair opens with an awards ceremony tonight at 6:30 in the Maltz Performing Arts Center<\/a>. When the spotlights shine and the mic comes on, attendees will see:<\/p>\n \u2022 Danzy Senna honored for her fictional work Colored Television<\/a><\/p>\n \u2022 In nonfiction, John Swanson Jacobs will stand under the lights and hear applaus for The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery; A Rediscovered Narrative, with a Full Biography<\/p>\n \u2022 In the memoir category, Tessa Hulls will receive an award for Feeding Ghosts <\/p>\n \u2022 In poetry, Janice N. Harrington will get an Anisfield-Wolf award for Yard Show <\/p>\n \u2022 Also, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa <\/a>will receive the grandest prize of all: The Lifetime Achievement Award<\/p>\n For those who follow the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, they know Komunyakaa\u2019s work and the works of the other honorees have served to stimulate \u201cthe writing of more and better books upon the general subject of race relations.\u201d <\/p>\n In times when thoughtful conversations on race and gender are critical, poetry and prose that foster a kinder, more understanding America deserve the public\u2019s attention. Such works need to be read, need to be discussed, need to be toasted. <\/p>\n They\u2019ll be toasted tonight, of course. The reading of such works, however, must come later \u2014 or so I hope. <\/p>\n I\u2019d like to think my column will send readers to local bookstores to find these works. Then again, I\u2019d be overestimating the power of my prose \u2014 or massaging my ego \u2014 if I thought my writing might do what Anisfield-Wolf honorees have done.<\/p>\n While I\u2019d love to be as elegant a writer as Senna and Hulls, I\u2019ll settle for enjoying works like theirs. So, I\u2019m sharing information about Anisfield-Wolf because I believe reading serious prose and poetry can teach us all so much about ourselves. <\/p>\n Justice B. Hill<\/a> grew up and still lives in the Glenville neighborhood. He wrote and edited for several newspapers in his more than 25 years in daily journalism before settling into teaching at Ohio University. He quit May 15, 2019, to write and globetrot. He\u2019s doing both.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 Until early in 2023, I didn\u2019t realize the literary landscape here nurtured poets and writers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-32614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}