Joy Reid, John Edgar Wideman And Percival Everett Amongst Winners Of 46th Annual American Book Awards

Former MSNBC correspondent Joy Reid, Percival Everett, and John Edgar Wideman are among the winners of the 46th annual American Book Awards, presented by the Before Columbus Foundation, honoring diversity in American art and culture.

“The purpose of the awards is to recognize literary excellence without limitations or restrictions,” the foundation’s announcement states. “The award winners range from well-known and established writers to under-recognized authors and first works. There are no quotas for diversity; the winners list simply reflects it as a natural process.”

The organization will honor Everett for his 2024 novel James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which earned the author a Pulitzer Prize. The writer has authored more than 30 books of fiction and poetry, often addressing issues of race. His other novels include I Am Not Sidney Poitier (2009) and Telephone (2020).

Wideman will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. The novelist, essayist, short story writer, and educator began his career in the 1960s. He was the first to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice: first in 1984 for Sent for You Yesterday, and again in 1990 for Philadelphia Fire. His collection of short stories includes Fever, The Stories of John Edgar Wideman (1992), and You Made Me Love You. In 2016, Wideman wrote Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File, a biography about Emmett Till’s father. 

Reid is this year’s winner of the Anti-Censorship Prize. The award-winning journalist hosted The ReidOut on MSNBC before the network canceled the popular show, citing restructuring as the reason.

Shortly after leaving MSNBC, the commentator launched her own show, The Joy Reid Show, where she talked about her firing, noting that she suspected her outspoken criticism of the Trump administration might have been one of the reasons for the network’s decision. 

“I think that there is a difference for Trump in hearing the kinds of criticisms specifically out of a Black woman; it bothers him in a way it doesn’t bother him like anything else. He’s got this sort of tick about race, you know, and about, sort of criticism coming specifically from a Black woman because we’ve seen him lay out and dish out real abuse against Black women journalists,” Reid told guest Katie Couric. 

The American Book Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, Oct. 26, at 2 p.m. at the University of California, Berkeley’s Wheeler Hall Auditorium.