American Book Award Winners
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.
3 Books Honored in 2023
Nonfiction
Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins
by Aidan Levy
Publication Date: Nov 14, 2023
List Price: $22.99
Format: Paperback, 800 pages
Classification: Nonfiction
ISBN13: 9780306902802
Imprint: Hachette
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Parent Company: Lagardère Group
Read Our Review of Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins
Book Description:
The long-awaited first full biography of legendary jazz saxophonist and composer Sonny Rollins.
Sonny Rollins has long been considered an enigma. Known as the “Saxophone Colossus,” he is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest jazz improvisers of all time, winning Grammys, the Austrian Cross of Honor, Sweden's Polar Music Prize, and a National Medal of Arts. A bridge from bebop to the avant-garde, he is a lasting link to the golden age of jazz, pictured in the iconic “Great Day in Harlem” portrait. His seven-decade career has been well documented, but the backstage life of the man once called “the only jazz recluse” has gone largely untold—until now.
Based on more than 200 interviews with Rollins himself, family members, friends, and collaborators, as well as Rollins' extensive personal archive, Saxophone Colossus is the comprehensive portrait of this legendary saxophonist and composer, civil rights activist, and environmentalist. A child of the Harlem Renaissance, Rollins' precocious talent landed him on the bandstand and in the recording studio with Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie, or playing opposite Billie Holiday. An icon in his own right, he recorded Tenor Madness, featuring John Coltrane; Way Out West; Freedom Suite, the first civil rights-themed album of the hard bop era; A Night at the Village Vanguard; and the 1956 classic Saxophone Colossus.
Yet his meteoric rise to fame was not without its challenges. He served two sentences on Rikers Island and won his battle with heroin addiction. In 1959, Rollins took a two-year sabbatical from recording and performing, practicing up to 16 hours a day on the Williamsburg Bridge. In 1968, he left again to study at an ashram in India. He returned to performing from 1971 until his retirement in 2012.
The story of Sonny Rollins—innovative, unpredictable, larger than life—is the story of jazz itself, and Sonny's own narrative is as timeless and timely as the art form he represents. Part jazz oral history told in the musicians' own words, part chronicle of one man's quest for social justice and spiritual enlightenment, this is the definitive biography of one of the most enduring and influential artists in jazz and American history.
Poetry
The Ways Poems of Affirmation, Remembrance, Reflection and Wonder
by Everett Hoagland
Publication Date: May 17, 2022
List Price: $10.00
Format: Paperback, 94 pages
Classification: Poetry
ISBN13: 9780578372419
Imprint: North Star Nova Press
Publisher: North Star Nova Press
Parent Company: North Star Nova Press
Book Description:
The Ways is Everett Hoagland’s best book so far. I especially appreciate [his] work written during and about the endless pandemic…he nails it.” - Martin Espada, Winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Poetry
“With Everett Hoagland’s latest book, I am once again impressed by his skill and precision with language…it is breathtaking.” - devorah major, Poet Laureate Emerita, San Francisco, California
This is a collection of mainly “quiet” and contemplative poems. Most are new, written during the current pandemic; the other poems are good fits from his sixty years of previous publications…inspired by family, philosophical questions, manifestations of love and compassion, and aspects of the natural world in which Hoagland has found sanctuary, inspiration and some serenity during Covid.
Fiction
Nightcrawling
by Leila Mottley
Publication Date: Jun 07, 2022
List Price: $28.00
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
Classification: Fiction
ISBN13: 9780593318935
Imprint: Knopf Publishing Group
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Parent Company: Bertelsmann
Book Description:
Oprah announced Nightcrawling as the selection, on June 7, 2022, on CBS Mornings
Mottley joined the hosts in the studio to discuss the latest Oprah’s Book Club selection and the surprising way she found out her novel was being chosen (see video below). “It brings me great joy to introduce readers to new authors, and this young poet Leila Mottley wrote a soul-searching portrait of survival and hope,” said Oprah Winfrey. “I was absolutely floored when Ms. Winfrey popped up in what I thought was going to be a regular meeting,” said Leila Mottley. “It was the surprise of a lifetime! I am beyond grateful to be able to share my debut novel with the passionate readers of Oprah’s Book Club.”
Nightcrawling tells the story of Kiara and her brother, Marcus, who are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent—which has more than doubled—and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.
More About Nightcrawling
“Nightcrawling is a scorching, incredibly readable book that takes seriously the task of readerly provocation on every page. Get ready. Or don’t. It doesn’t matter. Leila Mottley is here.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy
“Leila Mottley’s commanding debut, inspired by the life events of one woman’s struggle for body and soul against crushing exploitation, is fierce and devastating, rendered with electrifying urgency by this colossal young talent.” —Ayana Mathis, author of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison.
But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent--which has more than doubled--and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. One night, what begins as a drunken misunderstanding with a stranger turns into the job Kiara never imagined wanting but now desperately needs: nightcrawling. Her world breaks open even further when her name surfaces in an investigation that exposes her as a key witness in a massive scandal within the Oakland Police Department.
Rich with raw beauty, electrifying intensity, and piercing vulnerability, Nightcrawling marks the stunning arrival of a voice unlike any we have heard before.