I live an ascetic life at the very heart of wealth, in a studio smaller than a bedroom in “normal” America. No cool red sports cars, the finest wines, the latest in mountain bikes, reservations.
Novels by Geraldine Brooks and Lan Samantha Chang and poetry by Saeed Jones are among this year’s winners of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, presented for literature “that confronts racism and explores diversity.” The journalist and activist Charlayne Hunter-Gault was honored for lifetime achievement. Besides Brooks’ “Horse,” Chang’s “The Family Chao” and Jones’ “Alive at the End of the World,” judges also cited Matthew F. Delmont’s nonfiction “Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad." Previous winners include the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Toni Morrison, Nadine Gordimer and Zadie Smith.