Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
Awarded forBest adult fiction & non-fiction
Sponsored by
LocationALA annual conference
CountryUSA
Presented byAmerican Library Association
Hosted byAmerican Library Association
Rewards$5,000 (winner)
$1,500 (finalists)
First award2012
Websitewww.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]

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
Year Winner Work Finalists Ref.
2012 Anne Enright The Forgotten Waltz Winner [3][4]
Russell Banks Lost Memory of Skin Finalist [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][9]
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Americanah Finalist [8][10]
Edwidge Danticat Claire of the Sea Light
2015 Anthony Doerr All the Light We Cannot See Winner [11][12]
Chang-Rae Lee On Such a Full Sea Finalist [12][13]
Colm Tóibín Nora Webster
2016 Viet Thanh Nguyen The Sympathizer Winner [14][15]
Jim Shepard The Book of Aron Finalist [14][15]
Hanya Yanagihara A Little Life
2017 Colson Whitehead The Underground Railroad Winner [16][17]
Michael Chabon Moonglow Finalist [18]
Zadie Smith Swing Time
2018 Jennifer Egan Manhattan Beach Winner [19][20]
Jesmyn Ward Sing, Unburied, Sing Finalist [21]
George Saunders Lincoln in the Bardo
2019 Rebecca Makkai The Great Believers Winner [22][23]
Tommy Orange There There Finalist [22][24]
Esi Edugyan Washington Black
2020 Valeria Luiselli Lost Children Archive Winner [25][26]
Myla Goldberg Feast Your Eyes Finalist [25][26]
Ta-Nehisi Coates The Water Dancer
2021 James McBride Deacon King Kong Winner [27][28]
Ayad Akhtar Homeland Elegies Finalist [27][28]
Megha Majumdar A Burning
2022 Tom Lin The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu Winner [29][30]
Kirstin Valdez Quade The Five Wounds Finalist [29][30][31]
Lauren Groff Matrix
2023 Julie Otsuka The Swimmers Winner [32]
David Santos Donaldson Greenland Finalist [33]
Morgan Talty Night of the Living Rez
2024 Amanda Peters The Berry Pickers Winner [34]
Christina Wong and Daniel Innes Denison Avenue Finalist [35]
Jesmyn Ward Let Us Descend
2025 Percival Everett James Winner [36]
Jiaming Tang Cinema Love Finalist [37]
Kaveh Akbar Martyr!
2026 Megha Majumdar A Guardian and a Thief Winner [38]
Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses The Unworthy Finalist [39]
Han Kang, translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris We Do Not Part

Nonfiction

Winners and finalists in nonfiction
Year Winner Work Finalists Refs.
2012 Robert K. Massie Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman Winner [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 Curtis Winner [5][6][7]
Jill Lepore The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death Finalist [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][9]
Nicholas A. Basbanes On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History Finalist [8][10]
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 [11][12]
Elizabeth Kolbert The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History Finalist [12][13]
Lawrence Wright Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin and Sadat at Camp David
2016 Sally Mann Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs Winner [14][15]
Helen Macdonald H is for Hawk Finalist [14][15]
Andrea Wulf The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World
2017 Matthew Desmond Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City Winner [16][17]
Patricia Bell-Scott The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship Finalist [18]
Patrick Phillips Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America
2018 No award given A [40]
Daniel Ellsberg The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Finalist [21]
David Grann Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
2019 Kiese Laymon Heavy: An American Memoir Winner [22][23]
Beth Macy Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America Finalist [22][24]
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 [25][26]
Maria Popova Figuring Finalist [25][26]
David Treuer The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
2021 Rebecca Giggs Fathoms: The World in the Whale Winner [27][28]
Claudia Rankine Just Us: An American Conversation Finalist [27][28]
Natasha Trethewey Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir
2022 Hanif Abdurraqib A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance Winner [29][30]
Keisha N. Blain
Ibram X. Kendi 		Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619–2019 Finalist [29][31]
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 [32]
Margo Jefferson Constructing a Nervous System Finalist [33]
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 America Winner [34]
Jake Bittle The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration Finalist [35]
Darrin Bell The Talk
2025 Kevin Fedarko A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon Winner [36]
Adam Higginbotham Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space Finalist [37]
Emily Nussbaum Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV
2026 Yiyun Li Things in Nature Merely Grow Winner [38]
Mélikah Abdelmoumen, translated by Catherine Khordoc Baldwin, Styron, and Me Finalist [39]
Brian Goldstone There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America

Notes

  • A The 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction was originally awarded to Sherman Alexie for his book, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir, but Alexie declined the award amid sexual harassment allegations. In response, ALA said in a statement that "We acknowledge his decision and will not award the Carnegie nonfiction medal in 2018."[41]

References

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  2. ^ "Carnegie Corporation of New York and the American Library Association Announce New Literary Prizes". carnegie.org. March 5, 2012. Archived from the original on April 16, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
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  4. ^ a b c d Kellogg, Carolyn (June 25, 2012). "First-ever Carnegie Awards in Literature go to Enright, Massie". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 29, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d Bill Ott (June 30, 2013). Richard Ford and Timothy Egan Win Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. Archived from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2014 – via Booklist.
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  8. ^ a b c d Italie, Hillel (June 30, 2014). "Tartt, Goodwin awarded Carnegie medals". Seattle Times. Associated Press. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
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  11. ^ a b "Awards: Carnegie Medals; Society of Authors". Shelf Awareness. June 29, 2015. Archived from the original on October 10, 2025. Retrieved February 8, 2026.
  12. ^ a b c d "Anthony Doerr wins Carnegie Medal for fiction". Midcontinent Communications. Associated Press. June 28, 2015. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 28, 2015.
  13. ^ a b "Awards: BTBA; Carnegie; Jackson; PEN/Faulkner; SCBWI Spark". Shelf Awareness . April 8, 2015. Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2026.
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  15. ^ a b c d ""The Sympathizer," "Hold Still," receive 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction" (Press release). Boston: American Library Association. PR Newswire. January 10, 2016. Archived from the original on January 14, 2016. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  16. ^ a b "Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction & Nonfiction | Awards & Grants". www.ala.org. Archived from the original on February 21, 2017. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
  17. ^ a b "'The Underground Railroad,' 'Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,' receive 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction". American Library Association. January 30, 2017. Archived from the original on February 14, 2017. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
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  41. ^ Romo, Vanessa (March 9, 2018). "Beset By Sexual Harassment Claims, Sherman Alexie Declines Literary Prize". NPR. Archived from the original on March 10, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2018.
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