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American Book Awards 2021

The 2021 American Book Awards went to Borderland Apocrypha by Anthony Cody, Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time by Ben Ehrenreich, Dunfords Travels Everywheres by William Melvin Kelley, Everything Man: The Form and Function of Paul Robeson by Shana L. Redmond, Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment by John Giorno, Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar, In the Lateness of the World: Poems by Carolyn Forché, Manhattan My Ass, You're in Oakland by Judy Juanita, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong, Separated: Inside an American Tragedy by Jacob Soboroff, The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century by Gerald Horne, The Young Lords: A Radical History by Johanna Fernández, These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card, White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity by Robert P. Jones and {#289-128}: Poems by Randall Horton.

Winners

  1. Borderland Apocrypha by Anthony Codysource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Desert Notebooks: A Road Map for the End of Time by Ben Ehrenreichsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Dunfords Travels Everywheres by William Melvin Kelleysource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Everything Man: The Form and Function of Paul Robeson by Shana L. Redmondsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment by John Giornosource (opens in a new tab)
  6. Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtarsource (opens in a new tab)
  7. In the Lateness of the World: Poems by Carolyn Forchésource (opens in a new tab)
  8. Manhattan My Ass, You're in Oakland by Judy Juanitasource (opens in a new tab)
  9. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hongsource (opens in a new tab)
  10. Separated: Inside an American Tragedy by Jacob Soboroffsource (opens in a new tab)
  11. The Dawning of the Apocalypse: The Roots of Slavery, White Supremacy, Settler Colonialism, and Capitalism in the Long Sixteenth Century by Gerald Hornesource (opens in a new tab)
  12. The Young Lords: A Radical History by Johanna Fernándezsource (opens in a new tab)
  13. These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Cardsource (opens in a new tab)
  14. White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity by Robert P. Jonessource (opens in a new tab)
  15. {#289-128}: Poems by Randall Hortonsource (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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