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American Book Awards 2023

The 2023 American Book Awards went to Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernández, Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West by Anne F. Hyde, Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan by Darryl Pinckney, High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez, Mummy Eaters by Sherry Shenoda, Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley, Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins by Aidan Levy, Sinking Bell: Stories by Bojan Louis, Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai, The Ways: Poems of Affirmation, Reflection and Wonder by Everett Hoagland, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha and When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo.

Winners

  1. Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands by Kelly Lytle Hernándezsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West by Anne F. Hydesource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan by Darryl Pinckneysource (opens in a new tab)
  4. High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomezsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Mummy Eaters by Sherry Shenodasource (opens in a new tab)
  6. Nightcrawling by Leila Mottleysource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Saxophone Colossus: The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins by Aidan Levysource (opens in a new tab)
  8. Sinking Bell: Stories by Bojan Louissource (opens in a new tab)
  9. Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamorasource (opens in a new tab)
  10. The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochaisource (opens in a new tab)
  11. The Ways: Poems of Affirmation, Reflection and Wonder by Everett Hoaglandsource (opens in a new tab)
  12. Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Tohasource (opens in a new tab)
  13. When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwosource (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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