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American Book Awards 2020

The 2020 American Book Awards went to America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee, Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarroll, Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman by Bob Kaufman, Crossfire: A Litany for Survival by Staceyann Chin, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers by Jake Skeets, Felon: Poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts, Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff by Sara Borjas, In West Mills by De'Shawn Charles Winslow, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Solitary: My Story of Transformation and Hope by Albert Woodfox with Leslie George, The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities by Tara Fickle and They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and Harmony Becker.

Winners

  1. America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Leesource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy by Anthony Harkins and Meredith McCarrollsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman by Bob Kaufmansource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Crossfire: A Litany for Survival by Staceyann Chinsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers by Jake Skeetssource (opens in a new tab)
  6. Felon: Poems by Reginald Dwayne Bettssource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff by Sara Borjassource (opens in a new tab)
  8. In West Mills by De'Shawn Charles Winslowsource (opens in a new tab)
  9. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuongsource (opens in a new tab)
  10. Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstinesource (opens in a new tab)
  11. Solitary: My Story of Transformation and Hope by Albert Woodfox with Leslie Georgesource (opens in a new tab)
  12. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawasource (opens in a new tab)
  13. The Race Card: From Gaming Technologies to Model Minorities by Tara Ficklesource (opens in a new tab)
  14. They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and Harmony Beckersource (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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