The annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards ceremony returns to the Maltz Performing Arts Center for a fifth consecutive year to honor the 2026 winners as they join the esteemed canon of America’s only juried book prize focusing on works that address racism and diversity. Join us to celebrate the winners of the year’s Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards: Poetry: Death Does Not End at the Sea by Gbenga Adesina Nonfiction: Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of an American City by Bench Ansfield Memoir: The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders by Sarah Aziza Fiction: Make Your Way Home by Carrie R. Moore Pioneering historian Nell Irvin Painter has also received the Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring her transformative role in reshaping how we understand history, race, and identity in America. Known for her groundbreaking work on race and the American experience, particularly The History of White People, which reframes “whiteness” as a constructed and evolving category rather than a fixed identity.