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American Book Awards 2010

The 2010 American Book Awards went to A New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890-1945 by Nancy Carnevale, Big Machine by Victor LaValle, Black, Brown & Beige: Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora by Franklin Rosemont and Robin D.G. Kelley, Crazy Love: New Poems by Pamela Uschuk, Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music by Amiri Baraka, Flood Song by Sherwin Bitsui, Live from Fresno y Los by Stephen D. Gutierrez, Pacific Raven: Hawai'i Poems by Kathryn Waddell Takara, Poems for the Millennium, Volume Three: The University of California Book of Romantic & Postromantic Poetry by Jerome Rothenberg and Jeffrey C. Robinson, Short Girls by Bich Minh Nguyen, This Is What They Say by François Mandeville, translated by Ron Scollon, World Ball Notebook by Sesshu Foster and Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.

Winners

  1. A New Language, A New World: Italian Immigrants in the United States, 1890-1945 by Nancy Carnevalesource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Big Machine by Victor LaVallesource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Black, Brown & Beige: Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora by Franklin Rosemont and Robin D.G. Kelleysource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Crazy Love: New Poems by Pamela Uschuksource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music by Amiri Barakasource (opens in a new tab)
  6. Flood Song by Sherwin Bitsuisource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Live from Fresno y Los by Stephen D. Gutierrezsource (opens in a new tab)
  8. Pacific Raven: Hawai'i Poems by Kathryn Waddell Takarasource (opens in a new tab)
  9. Poems for the Millennium, Volume Three: The University of California Book of Romantic & Postromantic Poetry by Jerome Rothenberg and Jeffrey C. Robinsonsource (opens in a new tab)
  10. Short Girls by Bich Minh Nguyensource (opens in a new tab)
  11. This Is What They Say by François Mandeville, translated by Ron Scollonsource (opens in a new tab)
  12. World Ball Notebook by Sesshu Fostersource (opens in a new tab)
  13. Zeitoun by Dave Eggerssource (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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