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American Book Awards 2009

The 2009 American Book Awards went to A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music by George E. Lewis, All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems by Linda Gregg, Ask for a Convertible by Danit Brown, Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era by Houston A. Baker, Jr., Breaking Poems by Suheir Hammad, Ghosts of El Grullo by Patricia Santana, If I Die in Juarez by Stella Pope Duarte, My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer by Jack Spicer, Please by Jericho Brown, The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes, The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: Selected Works of José Antonio Burciaga by José Antonio Burciaga and Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds by Claire Hope Cummings.

Winners

  1. A Power Stronger than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music by George E. Lewissource (opens in a new tab)
  2. All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems by Linda Greggsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Ask for a Convertible by Danit Brownsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era by Houston A. Bakersource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Breaking Poems by Suheir Hammadsource (opens in a new tab)
  6. Ghosts of El Grullo by Patricia Santanasource (opens in a new tab)
  7. If I Die in Juarez by Stella Pope Duartesource (opens in a new tab)
  8. My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer by Jack Spicersource (opens in a new tab)
  9. Please by Jericho Brownsource (opens in a new tab)
  10. The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmessource (opens in a new tab)
  11. The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: Selected Works of José Antonio Burciaga by José Antonio Burciagasource (opens in a new tab)
  12. Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds by Claire Hope Cummingssource (opens in a new tab)

About the American Book Awards

Every book the Before Columbus Foundation honored, 2006-2025. The award has no categories, nominees or shortlist, so every row is category Book, level Winner. Year is the announcement year. Sources are the Foundation's own press releases and programs (PDFs and images on beforecolumbusfoundation.com) for 2006, 2008-2014, 2016-2021 and 2024-2025. Fallback to Wikipedia's American Book Awards list for 2007 (the Foundation's poster names only the winners, matching Wikipedia's list), 2015, 2022 and 2023 (no Foundation release online; web.archive.org was unreachable). Lifetime achievement, editor/publisher, oral literature and anti-censorship honors for people, journals or presses are skipped. Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Awards and the 2021 Anti-Censorship Award are included when the release names a book (2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025). Edited works list the work's author where the release names one (Jack Spicer, Bob Kaufman, Jean Racine, Lorenzo Thomas, Jose Antonio Burciaga); otherwise the editors. The 2019 Vollmann honor covers both volumes of Carbon Ideologies and is one row. Titles lightly normalized from the releases (typos such as Each Moth I Sing, Victor Lavalle and The Big Machine fixed).

Organization: Before Columbus Foundation. Years are award years, which can differ from publication years. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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