“Every one of the biographies that jostled for a place on our long and short lists of Plutarch finalists went beyond having an interesting subject and evidence of thorough research. Each tells its subject’s story with a distinct and trustworthy narrative voice,” said 2024 Plutarch Award Committee Chair Carol Sklenicka. “Such a voice emerges from a biographer’s self-confidence as an interpreter and from a carefully honed writing ability. In ANANSI’S GOLD: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World, Yepoka Yeebo’s voice holds our attention from first page to last. The image she projects of John Ackah Blay-Miezah and the worlds in which he operated is illuminating, cautionary, and unforgettable.”Yepoka Yeebo responded to news of her win, saying “I’m deeply honored to be the recipient of the 2024 Plutarch Award. I would like to thank the committee, and the Biographers International Organization, for their recognition of ANANSI’S GOLD. Writing about someone who isn’t a household name, in a place that isn’t familiar to many readers, and digging through a past full of misdirection and suppression can feel futile. I hope this award helps convince other writers, chasing lesser-known characters in unexpected places, that it’s worth the slog: that the beauty of what they do – of the most obscure aspects of their research – will be recognized.”

Yepoka Yeebo is a British-Ghanaian journalist whose work has appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek, The Guardian, Quartz, and many other publications, and she has been interviewed on PRI’s The World and NPR’s All Things Considered. A graduate of Columbia University’s School of Journalism and the University of London, she divides her time between London, UK, and Accra, Ghana. ANANSI’S GOLD, her first book, was shortlisted for the 2024 Mark Lynton History Prize, featured as one of The New York Times Book Review’s “100 Notable Books of 2023”, and named a 2023 best book of the year by The New Yorker, Time, Slate, NPR, Newsweek, The Economist and more.

The 2024 Plutarch Committee consisted of five esteemed biographers: Carol Sklenicka (Chair), Patricia Albers, Vanda Krefft, William Souder, and Ethelene Whitmire. Together they considered over 150 titles from the US and UK. The top ten biographies were announced in January 2024 and from those were chosen the five finalists, announced in April.

The four other finalists were Jonathan Eig, KING: A Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux); Howard Fishman, TO ANYONE WHO EVER ASKS: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse (Dutton); Lisa M. Hamilton, THE HUNGRY SEASON: A Journey of War, Love, and Survival (Little, Brown); and Prudence Peiffer, THE SLIP: The New York City Street That Changed American Art Forever (Harper).

The five other books on the Plutarch longlist: Sally H. Jacobs, ALTHEA: The Life of Tennis Champion Althea Gibson (St. Martin’s Press); Larry Rohter, INTO THE AMAZON: The Life of Cândido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist (W.W. Norton & Company); Barbara D. Savage, MERZE TATE: The Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar (Yale University Press); Willard Spiegelman, NOTHING STAYS PUT: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt (Alfred A. Knopf); and Jonny Steinberg, WINNIE AND NELSON: Portrait of a Marriage (Alfred A. Knopf).