Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara Kingsolver is the author of ten bestselling works of fiction, including the novels Unsheltered, The Bean Trees, and The Poisonwood Bible, as well as books of poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, and Coyote’s Wild Home, a children’s book co-authored with Lily Kingsolver. She also collaborated with family members on the influential Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than thirty languages and has earned a devoted readership at home and abroad. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has received numerous awards including the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, Demon Copperhead, and the National Humanities Medal. She lives with her husband on a farm in southern Appalachia.
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Sam Stoloff is the President & Principal of the Frances Goldin Literary Agency, founded by Frances Goldin in 1977. Sam joined the Agency in 1997, after completing an MFA in Poetry and a doctoral dissertation in American cultural history, both at Cornell University. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of American Literary Agents.
Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community
W. Paul Coates
W. Paul Coates is the founder of Black Classic Press and BCP Digital Printing. Black Classic Press, established in 1978, specializes in republishing obscure and significant works by and about people of African descent. BCP Digital Printing was founded in 1995 as a parallel entity of the Press, producing books and documents on demand, and placing Black Classic Press on the forefront of 21st-century print and publishing technology.
As a former African American Studies Manuscript and Reference Librarian at Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Mr. Coates was responsible for the collection and acquisition of African American books and related materials, including the selection and purchase of rare and non-rare items. A former member of the Black Panther Party, he led the effort to establish the Black Panther Archives at Howard.
Mr. Coates is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University’s School of Library and Information Studies and Sojourner-Douglass College (SDC), from which he received an honorary PhD in 2015. He is an active Black bibliophile and collector of cultural artifacts and maintains an extensive collection of Global African Cookbooks. Mr. Coates is co-editor of Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History. He was a founding member and chair of the National Association of Black Book Publishers. In addition, he served as an adjunct instructor of African American Studies at SDC. He formerly owned and operated The Black Book from 1972–1978, a Baltimore-based bookstore. His experience with the purchase, sale, and collection of books by and about Blacks is a love affair that has continued over six decades.
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Walter Mosley is the award-winning author of over 60 acclaimed books of fiction including the upcoming Been Wrong So Long It Feels Like Right, as well as works of nonfiction and plays. His work has been translated into 25 languages.
