The 30th Annual American Book Awards were presented by the Before Columbus Foundation. The awards honor books void of restrictions, hence there are no categories or nominees and the awards are given to writers by other writers. The winners were, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Right Era (Columbia University Press); Danit Brown, Ask for a Convertible (Pantheon); Jericho Brown, Please (New Issues Poetry & Prose); José Antonio Burciaga, The Last Supper of Chicano Heroes: Selected Works of José Antonio Burciaga, edited by Mimi R. Gladstein and Daniel Chacón (University of Arizona Press); Claire Hope Cummings, Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds (Beacon Press); Stella Pope Duarte, If I Die in Juarez (The University of Arizona Press); Linda Gregg, All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press); Suheir Hammad, Breaking Poems (Cypher Books); Richard Holmes, The Age of Wonder (Pantheon Books); George E. Lewis, A Power Stronger than Itself: The A.A.C.M. and American Experimental Music (University of Chicago Press); Patricia Santana, Ghosts of El Grullo (University of New Mexico Press); Jack Spicer, My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer, edited by Peter Gizzi and Kevin Killian (Wesleyan University Press); and a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Miguel Algarin. The event took place at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City.