"Searching for Zion" (Grove Press, 2014), the critically acclaimed work by City College of New York Associate Professor of English Emily Raboteau, has won the 2014American Book Award. Professor Raboteau will receive the award October 26 at the SF Jazz Center in San Francisco, Calif.
In their 35th year, the awards were created to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America's diverse literary community. They were established by The Before Columbus Foundation which will honor 15 other winners.
This is the latest accolade for "Zion," a work of investigative journalism that takes readers on a journey from Harlem across the globe on a quest for the Black Promised Land. It was named a best book of 2013 by both The Huffington Post and "The San Francisco Chronicle." It is also a current finalist for the Hurston Wright Legacy Award and has won the New York Book Festival's Grand Prize.
In its endorsement of the book the "Wall Street Journal" describes it as "brilliant."
Professor Raboteau, who teaches creative writing at City College, has been the recipient of other writing honors. These include the Pushcart Prize, the Nelson Algren Award from "The Chicago Tribune" and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her first book, "The Professor's Daughter" (Henry Holt), a novel, was published in 2005.
About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided low-cost, high-quality education for New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. More than 16,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture; the School of Education; the Grove School of Engineering; the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, and the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. U.S. News, Princeton Review and Forbes all rank City College among the best colleges and universities in the United States.