Born in Stamford, Conn., Karan Mahajan grew up in New Delhi, where as a young teenager he covered cricket for an international sports network. His second novel, “The Association of Small Bombs,” won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 2017 and was

Ishmael Reed (2022 Lifetime Achievement)

Aug 17th, 2023 44m

Born 85 years ago in Chattanooga, Tenn., Ishmael Reed won the 2022 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award lifetime achievement prize for his six decades of as a poet, novelist, playwright, lyricist, cartoonist, musician and founder of small presses and publ

Tony Marra (2014 Fiction)

Jul 20th, 2023 37m 17s

Born in Washington, D.C., Tony Marra won the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award prize in fiction for “A Constellation of Vital Phenomena” – his first novel that astonished critics with its verve and skill. The story, set in Chechnya, unfolds throug

Shane McCrae (2018 Poetry)

Jul 6th, 2023 33m 54s

Shane McCrae won a 2018 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in poetry for “In the Language of My Captor.” A book about freedom told through stories of captivity, the collection features both prose memoir and poems in historical persona. These include a c

Percival Everett (2022 Fiction)

Jun 22nd, 2023 31m 23s

Percival Everett won a 2022 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in fiction for “The Trees.” The idea for the novel sprung from the traditional song “I Rise Up” and a Lyle Lovett cover of “Ain’t No More Cane” that Everett was listening to before playing a

George Makari (2022 Nonfiction)

Jun 8th, 2023 39m 33s

George Makari won a 2022 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award prize in nonfiction for his third book, “Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia.” Amid Brexit and election of Donald Trump in 2016, Makari decided to investigate how “we mis-know one an

Donika Kelly (2022 Poetry)

May 25th, 2023 44m 45s

Donika Kelly won the 2022 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award prize in poetry for her second book, “The Renunciations” – a response to a marriage ending and to remaking meaning from childhood trauma. Born in Los Angeles, Kelly’s first collection, “Bestia

Peter Ho Davies, Redux Edition (2017 Fiction)

May 11th, 2023 40m 20s

Peter Ho Davies, the 2017 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for fiction, becomes the first guest to sit down for a second time with The Asterisk*. This time we caught up with him on the heels of the release of his latest novel, “A Lie Someone T

Tiya Miles (2022 Nonfiction)

Apr 27th, 2023 44m 2s

Tiya Miles won a 2022 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award prize in nonfiction for “All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake,” a deep dive into a worn yet priceless cotton sack and the 10 lines of embroidery on it. Miles

Mary Morris (2016 Fiction)

Aug 4th, 2022 39m 14s

Mary Morris won the 2016 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award prize for “The Jazz Palace,” a novel set in her hometown of Chicago during the Jazz Age. The story, which took nearly 20 years of drafting and revising, sings of Prohibition-era Chicago, teamin

Laird Hunt (2013 Fiction)

Jul 21st, 2022 43m 20s

Laird Hunt is a 2013 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for “Kind One,” a haunting novel that explores a horrible and uncanny intimacy between slave and master, inspired by a passage in Edward P. Jones’ “The Known World.” Hunt’s story, which als

Vincent Brown (2021 Nonfiction)

Jul 7th, 2022 43m 3s

Vincent Brown is a 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for “Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War.” It is a groundbreaking investigation into the roots, combatants, cartography and reverberations of the largest slave revolt in t

Natasha Trethewey (2021 Nonfiction)

Jun 23rd, 2022 41m 2s

Natasha Trethewey, a 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for her searing and lyrical memoir about her mother, Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough, joins The Asterisk* to discuss epigraphs and erasure. Trethewey won a Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 2007 for

A. Van Jordan (2005 Poetry)

Jun 9th, 2022 42m 58s

A. Van Jordan, a 2005 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for his nonfiction about a thwarted spelling bee contestant, joins The Asterisk* to discuss listening closely, the death of Tamir Rice and the writerly fellowship among A-W honorees. Born

Victoria Chang (2021 Poetry)

May 26th, 2022 42m 35s

Victoria Chang, a 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for poetry, joins The Asterisk* to discuss the weather of grief, clarity in writing and her relationship with her ancestors.The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Chang’s first two degree

James McBride (2021 Fiction)

May 12th, 2022 32m 56s

James McBride, the only Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards recipient to win for both fiction and nonfiction titles, joins The Asterisk* to discuss his degree in music composition, his mother’s affinity for Barbara Bush and his gift for writing humor.A

Tracy K. Smith (2019 Poetry)

Apr 28th, 2022 44m 9s

Tracy K. Smith, a 2019 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for poetry, joins The Asterisk* to discuss what it means to belong, letters to Abraham Lincoln and her return to Harvard as a professor.Smith received the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in poetry f

Charles King (2020 Nonfiction)

May 24th, 2021 43m 1s

Charles King, the 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for nonfiction, joins The Asterisk* to discuss the importance of practicing empathy, what it’s like being married to an anthropologist, writing his books in the Library of Congress and wh

Marilyn Chin (2015 Poetry)

May 7th, 2021 37m 21s

Marilyn Chin, a 2015 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for poetry, joins The Asterisk* to discuss loss, mourning and the importance of speaking grief, the influence of her grandmother, and the longevity of her poetry.Born Mei Ling Chin in Hon

Lillian Faderman (2016 Nonfiction)

Apr 23rd, 2021 37m 20s

Lillian Faderman, the 2016 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for nonfiction, joins The Asterisk* to discuss why she started writing, her biography of Harvey Milk and the Supreme Court. She also recommends ways to read to grasp LGBTQ history.A

Peter Ho Davies (2017 Fiction)

Apr 9th, 2021 40m 26s

Peter Ho Davies, the 2017 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for fiction, joins The Asterisk* to discuss how racism and stereotypes play into the notion of a model minority, what it’s like being a professor – in the midst of a pandemic – and his

Namwali Serpell (2020 Fiction)

Mar 26th, 2021 45m 17s

Namwali Serpell, the 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for fiction, joins The Asterisk* to discuss what makes strong sentences and good titles, her Zambian upbringing – including the lasting impacts of colonialism -- and crafting a multi-g

Ilya Kaminsky (2020 Poetry)

Mar 12th, 2021 33m 49s

Ilya Kaminsky, the 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for poetry, joins The Asterisk* to talk about the political asylum that brought his family from the former Soviet Union to Rochester, N.Y., his unlikely transition from lawyer to poet an

Sonia Sanchez (2019 Lifetime Achievement)

Feb 26th, 2021 47m 43s

Sonia Sanchez, the 2019 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for Lifetime Achievement, joins The Asterisk* to talk about the importance of sound, cadence and naming her subjects, plus how she infiltrated the male-dominated sphere of American poetr

Eric Foner (2020 Lifetime Achievement)

Feb 5th, 2021 37m 39s

Eric Foner, the 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards winner for Lifetime Achievement, joins The Asterisk* to discuss the Jan. 6, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol, his marriage to a fellow historian and his place among the most influential American

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