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Celebration: The Before Columbus Foundation 44th Annual American Book Award

Sunday, 10/1/2023
2:00 - 4:30
Koret Auditorium
Main Library

100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
United States

415-557-4400

The Before Columbus Foundation recognizes the winners of the 44th Annual American Book Awards. The American Book Awards were created to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community, honoring excellence in American Literature without restriction to race, sex, ethnic background or genre.

"It remains one of the signal honors of my career to have received the American Book Award for The Signifying Monkey. The Before Columbus Foundation has always understood diversity and literary achievement as intertwined. Diversity is not a goal to achieve; it is who we are as Americans, and the Before Columbus Foundation understands that now, and understood that then, even way back in the 1980s! On a personal note, it was the first award I’d received for my scholarship, and since the book was so controversial with older and established white scholars, receiving the award was a tremendous blessing to me: it made me aware that both my work and my field had merit, had value to other scholars of the tradition, and to some extent, had “arrived.” — Henry Louis Gates, winner of the American Book Award 1989 for The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism

Connect:

Before Columbus Foundation - Website 

Check out the 2023 American Book Award Winners at SFPL.

 

Author Readings & Lectures

Engage with your favorite writers and discover your next read.

Celebrations

Connect with your community through Library gatherings.

Read & Write

Discover new titles, share inspiring works and participate in challenges and contests. 

Spotlight

This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

Attending Programs

All programs are drop-in (no registration necessary) unless otherwise noted. All SFPL locations are wheelchair accessible. For accommodations (such as ASL), call (415) 557-4557 or contact accessibility@sfpl.org. Requesting at least 3 business days in advance will help ensure availability.

This program will be conducted in English unless otherwise noted.

Notice: This event may be filmed or photographed. By participating in this event, you consent to have your likeness used for the Library’s archival purposes and promotional materials. If you do not want to be photographed, please inform a staff person or the photographer. A sticker will be provided to help identify you so that we can avoid capturing your image.

Public Notice and Disclaimer

This program uses a third-party website link. By clicking on the third-party website link, you will leave SFPL's website and enter a website not operated by SFPL. This service may collect personally identifying information about you, such as name, username, email address, and password. This service will treat the information it collects about you pursuant to its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of each third-party website or service that you visit or use, including those third parties with whom you interact through our Library services. For more information about these third-party links, please see the section of SFPL’s Privacy Policy describing Links to Other Sites.

The views and opinions expressed in programs presented by groups unaffiliated with SFPL do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SFPL or the City.