The National Book Foundation will proceed with awarding W. Paul Coates, the founder and publisher of Black Classic Press and BCP Digital Printing, its 2024 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. The confirmation follows the publication of a September article in the online magazine Jewish Insider, followed by another in the online journal Arc last week, questioning the choice in light of what the latter characterized as a history at Black Classic of “marketing racist, antisemitic, and homophobic books.”
A person at the NBF familiar with the matter, who spoke with PW on condition of anonymity, said the board convened in full shortly after the publication of the first piece and “in anticipation” of a second, and was “unanimous in its conviction that Paul deserved the award.” The source continued: “Like many of our colleagues in the industry, we knew that there were books Paul had published that raised concerns, but believed that they did not outweigh the many contributions that deserved to be recognized.” At that point, the source added, the board decided it “should have a statement ready to go if there were further concerns raised.”
In an identical statement to the one the NBF provided to Publishers Lunch last week, the foundation wrote: “W. Paul Coates is being honored with the 2024 Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the Literary Community for a lifetime of contributions to American literature. Coates has preserved the work of hundreds of Black and African diasporic authors, most notably as the publisher and founder of Black Classic Press and BCP Digital Printing. Coates’s work as a bookseller, librarian, instructor, editor, and publisher to preserve these works and make them accessible is a singular scholarly accomplishment, particularly considering that Black people in the United States had been historically targeted by anti-literacy laws, echoed in the current climate of book banning that disproportionately targets narratives by, for, and about Black people and people of color.”
The statement continued: “The National Book Foundation condemns antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia, racism, and hatred in all its forms. The National Book Foundation also supports freedom of expression and the right of any publisher to make its own determination on what it chooses to publish. Anyone examining the work of any publisher, over the course of almost five decades, will find individual works or opinions with which they disagree or find offensive. The National Book Foundation is honoring W. Paul Coates, not for the publication of any particular titles or authors, but for his tireless efforts of scholarship, to ensure that Black voices and stories, that might otherwise have been lost, are instead preserved as an irreplaceable part of American literary history.”
Among the books published by Black Classic cited as cause for concern was The Jewish Onslaught by Tony Martin, an “antisemitic screed that seeks to uphold a widely discredited conspiracy theory alleging Jewish domination of the Atlantic slave trade,” per Jewish Insider. The book has since been removed from the Black Classic website.
The article in Arc also questioned NBF's decision to honor a former board member with the award, initially stating incorrectly that Coates served on the board from 2017-2022. Arc has since updated the article with the correct dates of Coates’s service, 1997-2005. The source at NBF further explained that of the current 23 members of its board, only two—and no members of the executive committee—were on the board during Coates’s term. (Coates is not the only former board member to receive the award; in 2020, NBF honored S&S CEO Carolyn Reidy with a posthumous award following her death earlier that year.)
The Literarian Award marks Coates’s second major lifetime achievement honor this year; in June, he received the 2024 Publisher Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community from the Authors Guild.
