Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Symposium Program

WELCOME TO When Artists Go to Work: The 2024 AnisfieldWolf Book Awards Author Symposium Inspired by the profound words of Toni Morrison and the book awards’ foundational principle of tikkun olam, which means “repair of the world” in Hebrew, this symposium is a celebration of the written word and its power to transform.

All symposium sessions are 30-minute moderated discussions with a 15-minute audience Q&A.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 10:30 AM DOORS OPEN 11 AM OPENING REMARKS Natasha Trethewey Jury Chair, Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Walt Hunter English Department Chair, Case Western Reserve University Symposium Emcee

11:05 – 11:50 AM Words and Wisdom – Celebrating Rita Dove and Steven Pinker Through the exploration of the human experience and the power of language, Rita Dove and Steven Pinker have a profound legacy in letters. Join us in honoring their work and long-standing service on the Anisfield-Wolf jury.

Moderated by Jamie Hickner

12 – 12:45 PM A Warrior Reflects: Maxine Hong Kingston’s Literary Journey This session will explore 2024 Lifetime Achievement Winner Maxine Hong Kingston’s profound impact on literature, highlighting her seminal works that reflect on the Chinese American experience and writings that embody her commitment to peace.

Moderated by Peter Ho Davies

1 – 2 PM BREAK

2 – 2:45 PM Poetic Justice: In Conversation with Monica Youn A session dedicated to the transformative power of poetry, featuring 2024 Poetry Winner Monica Youn’s award-winning work that examines notions of belonging and otherness in American society.

Moderated by Phil Metres

3 – 3:45 PM Aftershocks: In Conversation with Teju Cole A conversation with 2024 Fiction Winner Teju Cole probing the impacts of artistic creation, consumption and representation on our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Moderated by Kevin Quinn

3:45 PM CLOSING REMARKS Constance Hill-Johnson Board Chairperson, Cleveland Foundation

ABOUT THE 2024 ANISFIELD-WOLF BOOK AWARDS WINNERS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Maxine Hong Kingston Born to Chinese immigrant parents in Stockton, California, Maxine Hong Kingston altered the course of American culture, beginning with her books “The Woman Warrior” and “China Men.” A lifelong teacher, peace activist and writer, Kingston earned a degree at the University of California, Berkeley. She influenced generations to be skeptical of the identities the world foists upon them, and to discern how the past marinates the present. She lives and gardens in Oakland, California, with her husband Earll Kingston. Among her many honors, Kingston has received the National Medal of Arts, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for “The Woman Warrior.”

FICTION “Tremor” by Teju Cole (Random House) Teju Cole is a writer and photographer who has traveled in 48 countries over his 48 years. Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Nigerian parents, he grew up in Lagos.

He earned an undergraduate degree at Kalamazoo College, then art history degrees from the University of London

and Columbia. “Tremor,” his third novel, follows Tunde, a West African teaching photography in New England. The story is pierced by the ethics of collecting art, making music, and casual racism amid shifting history. Anisfield-Wolf Juror Peter Ho Davies calls it “a sinuous meditation on art and life, at once elegant and steely.” Cole is the Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing at Harvard University. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife Karen.

NONFICTION “The Rediscovery of America”

by Ned Blackhawk (Yale University Press) Ned Blackhawk is an enrolled member of the Te-Moak tribe of the Western Shoshone and a historian at Yale University.

He grew up in Detroit, excelling at his Jesuit high school classes in history even though he remembers no discussion of the millions of Indigenous people who have lived in North America over the past five centuries. His education at McGill, UCLA and the University of Washington bent toward interrupting this erasure. “‘The Rediscovery of America’ offers a sweeping yet fine-grained history of Indigenous peoples,” notes Anisfield-Wolf juror and historian Tiya Miles, calling it “rare and ambitious.” The text, which also won a National Book Award, invites readers to reorient the story of America from one of discovery to one of encounter. Blackhawk lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife Maggie.

POETRY “From From” by Monica Youn (Graywolf Press) Monica Youn, the daughter of Korean immigrants, grew up in Houston. She earned an undergraduate degree from Princeton, a law degree from Yale, and a master’s in philosophy from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes scholar. Now, she calls herself a lapsed lawyer, and has garnered critical acclaim for her precise and lapidary poems. “From From,” her fourth collection, explores the question, “Where are you from . . . ? No— where are you from from?” Anisfield-Wolf Jury Chair Natasha Trethewey notes this brilliant, formally inventive book “paints a devastating picture of what racial politics has wrought in this country.”

Youn splits her time between New York and California, where she teaches at the University of California, Irvine.

ANISFIELD-WOLF BOOK AWARDS JURORS Natasha Trethewey, Jury Chair Northwestern University Board of Trustees Professor of English; Director of Creative Writing; Director of Graduate Studies, Litowitz Graduate Program in Creative Writing (MFA+MA)

Peter Ho Davies University of Michigan Charles Baxter Collegiate Professor of English Language and Literature Rita Dove University of Virginia Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing Tiya Miles Harvard University Michael Garvey Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Steven Pinker Harvard University Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology

ADDITIONAL SPEAKERS AND MODERATORS Walt Hunter Case Western Reserve University Professor of 20th- and 21st- century literature and English Department Chair Jamie Hickner Case Western Reserve University Lecturer, Department of English and Anisfield-Wolf SAGES Fellow

Philip Metres John Carroll University Professor of English and the Director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights Program Kevin Quinn Teacher, Writer and Critic

All proceeds from symposium ticket sales will be donated to Unite Against Book Bans, an initiative of the American Library Association.