American Book Award Winners of African Descent
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First presented in 1980, by the Before Columbus Foundation, “the American Book Awards Program respects and honors excellence in American literature without restriction or bias with regard to race, sex, creed, cultural origin, size of press or ad budget, or even genre. There would be no requirements, restrictions, limitations, or second places. There would be no categories. The winners would not selected by any set quota for diversity, because diversity happens naturally. Finally, there would be no losers, only winners. The only criteria would be outstanding contribution to American literature in the opinion of the judges.”
Here we present the American Book Award recipients of African descent.
2 Books Honored in 2003
Douglass’ Women: A Novel
From the critically acclaimed author of Voodoo Dreams, a powerful and provocative fictional account of the private life of an American icon, Frederick Douglass, and the passionate relationships he held with the two women he loved.
Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist, was one of the most famous men of his century, and he was a man who cherished freedom in life and in love. In this ambitious work of historical fiction, Douglass passions come vividly to life in the form of two women: Anna Murray Douglass and Ottilie Assing.
Anna Douglass, a free woman of color, was Douglass wife of forty-four years, who bore him five children and provided him with a secure, loving home while he traveled the world with his message. Along the way, Douglass satisfied his intellectual needs in the company of Ottilie Assing, a white woman of German-Jewish descent, who would become his mistress for decades to come. Hurt by Douglass infidelity, Anna rejected his notion that only literacy freed the mind. For her, familial love rivaled intellectual pursuits. Ottilie was raised by parents who embraced the ideal of free love, but found herself entrapped in an unfulfilling love triangle with Americas most famous self-taught slave for nearly three decades.
In her finest novel to date, Jewell Parker Rhodes vividly resurrects these two extraordinary women from history, portraying the life they led together under the same roof of the Douglass home. Here, fiery emotions of passion, jealousy, and resentment churn as the women discover an uneasy solidarity in shared love for an exceptional and powerful man. Douglass Women fills the gaps and silences that history has left in an unforgettable epic full of heartache and triumph.
Sacred Fire: The QBR 100 Essential Black Books
by Max Rodriguez, Angeli R. Rasbury, Carol Taylor, and Charles Johnson
David Walker's Appeal. The Souls of Black Folk. Things Fall Apart. Their Eyes Were Watching God. The Fire. Next Time. Beloved
Books are a cornerstone of black culture. Charting over 200 years of transition and turmoil, perseverance and triumph, intelligence, horror, and exquisite beauty, black literature rings with a remarkable people's vitality and passion, improvisational spirit and spiritual questing.
Read about all of the titles captured in the fascinating volume
Now, capturing the full sweep of writing from the Diasporafrom Africa to the Caribbean to AmericaSacred Fire: The QBR 100 Essential Black Books celebrates the most influential works in this rich tradition, one of world literature's strongest forces.
QBR: The Black Book Review is the preeminent showcase for the critical review of contemporary African American books and authors. The editors of QBR have tapped a blue-ribbon panel of leading scholars, historians, authors, and booksellers to reach a consensus on works having the most significant impact across the decades the books that matter most. The resulting list of 100 books is an impressive collection of poetry, short fiction, novels, drama, autobiography, and history.
Divided into six thematic sections introduced by outstanding young writers like Eisa Nefertari Ulen,Arthur Flowers, andRobert Fleming the books are excerpted and highlighted with insightful commentary. The first section, "Ancestors, Origins, and Memory," explores books that have shaped our views of slavery, oppression, and the African continent as paradise lost. Included in this section are The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, the first independently written slave narrative; Beloved, Toni Morrison's haunting tale of slavery and its aftermath; and Ivan Van Sertima's groundbreaking challenge to European history, They Came Before Columbus.
The section called "Community and Identity" celebrates books that explore individual freedom and the collective power of the alienated and marginalized, featuring the works of W. E. B. Du Bois,Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, Chinua Achebe, andLorraine Hansberry, among others. Their range is matched by their depth. In the sections "Politics, Nationalism, and Revolution" and "Soul and Spirit," one finds Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice,Chancellor Williams's The Destruction of Black Civilization, Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letters from a Birmingham Jail, and Marian Wright Edelman's Guide My Feet. In "Sisters' Stories," works by Maya Angelou,Ntozake Shange, Audre Lorde, and other outstanding writers capture the varied experiences of black women. "Brothers' Lives" salutes the seminal works on black manhood by writers likeRichard Wright, August Wilson, and Ernest Gaines.
Honoring and exploring the greatest achievements in black writing across the centuries, Sacred Fire is soul-shaking, essential reading for all lovers of literature and lively opinion.
"QBR's evolving canon is a splendid way to begin honoring black artists."Charles Johnson, from the Foreword.
