The Jazz Palace – that amazing novel by my wife Mary Morris – is in the
news again. This time for winning the 2016 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in fiction,
the unanimous choice of these five distinguished jurors: Henry Louis Gates Jr.,
Rita Dove, Joyce Carol Oates, Simon Schama and Stephen Pinker.
Here is what the poet Rita Dove had to say about The Jazz Palace: “Here I
was, drenched in the soot and stink and noise of early 20th-century
Chicago, walking along the docks, threading through the alleys, listening to a
trumpet wail from a corner saloon.”
What a joy for readers like these illustrious five to have felt what I
felt in reading this glorious novel. The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award may not have
the name recognition of the National Book Award or the Pulitzer. But what’s in
a name? The Cleveland Foundation honors work that best confronts racism and
most profoundly examines diversity. In the turbulent times we live in now, no
prize resonates with greater importance than the Anisfield-Wolf.
Congratulations, again, to Mary. I couldn’t be prouder of her
accomplishment!
Next: Running for Your Life: If the
Greats Were With Us Thursday
