American Book Award
Fiction
1980 All I Asking for Is My Body by Milton Murayama
This novel, written in dialect, reveals the everyday elements and dimensions of life in Hawaii.
1981 The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara
A community organizer named Velma Henry attempts suicide, and, in the struggle of a group of wise women to restore her to life, Velma reflects on her past. Interwoven with her story are the stories of others: her husband, her godmother, a doctor, a former pimp and street hustler. Bambara's belief is that true healing for blacks can be accomplished only if they turn to their own culture.
1982 Collected Poems by Mayo1983 Legend of Food Mountain by Harriet Rohmer
1984 A Puerto Rican in New York, and Other Sketches by Jesus Colon
1985 Genthe's Photographs of San Francisco's Old Chinatown by Arnold Genthe, John Tchen
One hundred thirty rare photos offer fascinating visual record of chinatown before the great 1906 earthquake. Informative text traces history of Chinese in California.
1986 Seeing Through the Sun by Linda Hogan1987 Selected Poems by Jeffrey Wainwright
1988 The Collected Poems of Charles Olson by Charles Olson, George F. Butterick
Background information accompanies Olson's poems about myths mortality, language, love, nature, marriage, music, and time.
1989 From the Pyramids to the Projects by Askia M. Toure1990 Italian Days by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Italian-American Barbara Grizzuti Harrison travels to Italy to find her roots, in an Abruzzi village where her mother was born. En route, she provides us with a loving, insightful look at the country.
1991 Heroism in the New Black Poetry by D. H. Melhem
It is a book that tells about different heroes among black leaders. The poetry included in this book reflects the critical alternatives of Black life.
1992 Maus a Survivors Tale by Art Spiegelman
MAUS, the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel and illustrated biography by Art Spiegelman, is widely considered to have vaulted the graphic novel to new heights in terms of literary quality, artistic merit, and personal and historical complexity. Using anthropomorphic animal characters (Jews are depicted as mice, Germans as cats, Americans as dogs, etc.) and a combination of flashbacks, memories, and stories, Spiegelman recounts the experiences of his father ,Vladek Spiegelman, before, during, and after World War II, including his harrowing years spent in the concentration camps. The use of cartoons to describe such appalling events seems problematic, but MAUS brilliantly captures not only the awful weight of history, but also humorous and humane moments from a dark time in human civilization.
1993 Claiming Breath by Diane Glancy
Poems, essays, and prose pieces by the celebrated Native American poet.
1994 The Black Atlantic by Paul Gilroy
Gilroy argues that there is a culture that is not specifically African, American, Caribbean, or British, but all these at once, a Black Atlantic culture whose themes and techniques transcend ethnicity and nationality to produce something until now unnamed.
1995 Black Noise by Tricia Rose
This winner of the 1995 American Book Award explores the history and development of hip-hop music and culture. Author Tricia Rose, a history and African-American studies scholar, discusses the social contexts within which rap music is created. She also examines the process of rap's commercial marketing, traditions and technology in rap music production, and music video production. One chapter is devoted to women rappers and the difficulties they often face in a male-dominated industry.
1996 Palestine a Nation Occupied Book 1 by J Sacco1997 Dreams of the Centaur by Montserrat Fontes
With his bare hands and stubborn drive, Jose Durcal has built the ranch in Sonora where he and his family live. He dreams of a time when his sons will become powerful ranchers, but he is struck down through jealousy before he can make his dreams come true. When his oldest son, Alejo, avenges his father's murder, the boy sets his life in a direction that brings him face to face with evil. This fast-paced novel follows the rites of passage of Alejo through love, murder, prison, war, death, and regeneration. Told through the voices of Alejo and Felipa, his strong, independent mother, Dreams of the Centaur explores the unusual psychic tie between mother and son. Sustaining her family through all their troubles, Felipa binds her remaining sons to her, while, from a distance, she watches Alejo's soul harden. She fears for her son, who has always been her kindred spirit. She will summon all her strength and all the ferocity of a mother's love to save his life.
1998 The Birth of Bebop by Scott Deveaux
This book examines the unique and complex musical style of bebop, which the author argues played a central role in the evolution and cultural influence of jazz in the United States. Bebop, or bop, musicians played in smaller groups than their big band and swing predecessors, and created music in a spontaneous, improvised manner. DeVeaux, a jazz historian, profiles Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Billy Eckstine, among others. The "Los Angeles Times Book Review" considered this title among the best nonfiction of 1998.
1999 Just My Soul Responding by Brian Ward
A British historian who teaches American history examines African-American music from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s within the broader cultural and social circumstances of a racially segregated nation. A "New York Times" Notable Book for 1998.
2000 Why She Left Us by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto, Rahna R. Rizzuto
Moving through time, from the 1920's to the 1990's, and told from four different points of view, this novel tells the story of three generations of a Japanese-American family.
2001 Kissing the Bread by Sandra M. Gilbert
Here, Gilbert, feminist critic and coauthor of the famed THE MADWOMAN IN THE ATTIC, offers her own autobiographical poems, focusing on mourning, her various travels, and her family.