Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction

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Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
Logo of The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction & Nonfiction.png
Awarded forBest adult fiction & non-fiction
Sponsored by
Location ALA annual conference
CountryUSA
Presented by American Library Association
Hosted byAmerican Library Association
Reward(s)$5,000 (winner)
$1,500 (finalists)
First awarded2012
Website www.ala.org/awardsgrants/carnegieadult

The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction were established in 2012 to recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year. [1] They are named in honor of nineteenth-century American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in recognition of his deep belief in the power of books and learning to change the world. [2]

Contents

The award is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and administered by the American Library Association (ALA). [1] Booklist and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) cosponsor the awards. [1] The shortlist and winners are selected by a seven-member selection committee of library experts who work with adult readers. [1] The annually appointed selection committee includes a chair, three Booklist editors or contributors, and three former members of RUSA CODES Notable Books Council. [1]

The winners, one each for fiction and nonfiction, are announced at an event in June at the American Library Association Annual Conference; winning authors receive a $5,000 cash award, and two finalists in each category receive $1,500. [1]

Winners and finalists

Fiction

Winners and finalists in fiction
YearWinnerWorkFinalistsRef.
2012 Anne Enright The Forgotten Waltz Winner [3] [4]
Russell Banks Lost Memory of SkinFinalist [3] [4]
Karen Russell Swamplandia!
2013 Richard Ford Canada Winner [5] [6] [7]
Junot Díaz This Is How You Lose Her Finalist [5] [6] [7]
Louise Erdrich The Round House
2014 Donna Tartt The Goldfinch Winner [8]
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Americanah Finalist [8]
Edwidge Danticat Claire of the Sea Light
2015 Anthony Doerr All the Light We Cannot See Winner [9] [10]
Chang-Rae Lee On Such a Full Sea Finalist [9] [10]
Colm Tóibín Nora Webster
2016 Viet Thanh Nguyen The Sympathizer Winner [11] [12]
Jim Shepard The Book of Aron Finalist [11] [12]
Hanya Yanagihara A Little Life
2017 Colson Whitehead The Underground Railroad Winner [13] [14]
Michael Chabon Moonglow Finalist [13] [14]
Zadie Smith Swing Time
2018 Jennifer Egan Manhattan Beach Winner [15] [16]
Jesmyn Ward Sing, Unburied, Sing Finalist [15] [16]
George Saunders Lincoln in the Bardo
2019 Rebecca Makkai The Great Believers Winner [17] [18]
Tommy Orange There There Finalist [17] [18]
Esi Edugyan Washington Black
2020 Valeria Luiselli Lost Children Archive Winner [19] [20]
Myla Goldberg Feast Your EyesFinalist [19] [20]
Ta-Nehisi Coates The Water Dancer
2021 James McBride Deacon King KongWinner [21] [22]
Ayad Akhtar Homeland Elegies Finalist [21] [22]
Megha Majumdar A Burning
2022 Tom Lin The Thousand Crimes of Ming TsuWinner [23] [24]
Kirstin Valdez Quade The Five Wounds Finalist [23] [24]
Lauren Groff Matrix
2023 Julie Otsuka The SwimmersWinner [25]
David Santos Donaldson GreenlandFinalist [25]
Morgan Talty Night of the Living Rez
2024 Amanda Peters The Berry PickersWinner [26]
Christina Wong and Daniel Innes Denison AvenueFinalist [27]
Jesmyn Ward Let Us Descend

Nonfiction

Winners and finalists in nonfiction
YearWinnerWorkFinalistsRefs.
2012 Robert K. Massie Catherine the Great: Portrait of a WomanWinner [3] [4]
James Gleick The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood Finalist [3] [4]
Manning Marable Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
2013 Timothy Egan Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward CurtisWinner [5] [6] [7]
Jill Lepore The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and DeathFinalist [5] [6] [7]
David Quammen Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
2014 Doris Kearns Goodwin The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism Winner [8]
Nicholas A. Basbanes On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year HistoryFinalist [8]
Sheri Fink Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
2015 Bryan Stevenson Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption Winner [9] [10]
Elizabeth Kolbert The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History Finalist [9] [10]
Lawrence Wright Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin and Sadat at Camp David
2016 Sally Mann Hold Still: A Memoir with PhotographsWinner [11] [12]
Helen Macdonald H is for Hawk Finalist [11] [12]
Andrea Wulf The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World
2017 Matthew Desmond Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Winner [13] [14]
Patricia Bell-Scott The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a FriendshipFinalist
Patrick Phillips Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America
2018No award given A [15] [28]
Daniel Ellsberg The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Finalist [15] [28]
David Grann Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
2019 Kiese Laymon Heavy: An American Memoir Winner [17] [18]
Beth Macy Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted AmericaFinalist [17] [18]
Francisco Cantú The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border
2020 Adam Higginbotham Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Winner [19] [20]
Maria Popova FiguringFinalist [19] [20]
David Treuer The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
2021 Rebecca Giggs Fathoms: The World in the WhaleWinner [21] [22]
Claudia Rankine Just Us: An American ConversationFinalist [21] [22]
Natasha Trethewey Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir
2022 Hanif Abdurraqib A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black PerformanceWinner [23] [24]
Keisha N. Blain
Ibram X. Kendi
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019 Finalist [23] [24]
Kristen Radtke Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness
2023 Ed Yong An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us Winner [25]
Margo Jefferson Constructing a Nervous System Finalist
Rachel E. Gross Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage
2024 Roxanna Asgarian We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in AmericaWinner [26]
Jake Bittle The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American MigrationFinalist [27]
Darrin Bell The Talk

Notes

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References

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