Poet Yusef Komunyakaa to receive honorary Anisfeld-Wolf Award

By Canadian Press on April 10, 2025.

NEW YORK (AP) — Poet Yusef Komunyakaa is to receive an Anisfeld-Wolf Award for lifetime achievement. Komunyakaa, 77, is known for such collections as “Neon Vernacular” and for exploring race, music and his Vietnam War experiences.

Announced Thursday, the Anisfeld-Wolf prizes are presented by the Cleveland Foundation and honor literature that “confronts racism and celebrates diversity.”

“Komunyakaa has shaped contemporary poetry with a voice that is both unflinching and deeply evocative,” reads a statement from the foundation.

Danzy Senna’s “Colored Television,” a satire about an author attempting to turn a failed novel into a TV series, won for fiction. The nonfiction prize went to John Swanson Jacobs’ “The United States Governed By Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery; A Rediscovered Narrative, with a Full Biography,” and the poetry award was given to Janie Harrington’s “Yard Show.” Tessa Hulls’ “Feeding Ghosts” won for best memoir.

The winners will be formally honored at a ceremony in September.

The awards were established in 1935 by poet and philanthropist Edith Anisfeld Wolf. Previous recipients include Toni Morrison, Percival Everett and Jesmyn Ward.

The Associated Press