Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction
The Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction were established in 2012 to recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. the previous year.
About
The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, established in 2012, recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year and serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by the American Library Association and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals who work closely with adult readers. The winners (one for fiction, one for nonfiction) are announced at an event at LibLearnX; winning authors receive a $5,000 cash award.
A longlist comprised of no more than 50 titles is released in the fall. Six finalists, three fiction and three nonfiction, are announced in the Fall. The winners are announced at the RUSA Book and Media Awards Ceremony in January or February. All honored titles are nominated by the members of the selection committee. The awards do not accept submissions.
The longlist, shortlist, and eventual winners reflect the expertise of a seven-member selection committee of library professionals from across the country who work closely with adult readers. The annually appointed selection committee includes one member of the American Booksellers Association, three Booklist editors or contributors, and three RUSA members. All honored titles are nominated by the members of the selection committee. The awards do not accept submissions.
Administered by:
Categories:
Details
Frequency: Annual
The winners (one for fiction, one for nonfiction) receive a $5,000 cash award.
Sponsors:
Award Information
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
|
The Berry Pickers (Catapult)
2024 - Winner(s) In 1962, an Indigenous Mi’kmaq family is in Maine to pick summer blueberries when their youngest child, four-year-old Ruthie, disappears. Her six-year-old brother, Joe, saw... |
2024 - Winner(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 Short List Nonfiction
2016 - Finalist(s) 2016 Nonfiction Finalists Helen Macdonald. H is for Hawk. (Grove Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic) Sally Mann. Hold Still (Little, Brown, and Company... |
2016 - Finalist(s) | |
| 2016 Short List Fiction
2016 - Finalist(s) 2016 Fiction Finalists Viet Thanh Nguyen. The Sympathizer. (Grove Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic) Jim Shepard. The Book of Aron. (Alfred A... |
2016 - Finalist(s) | |
| 2016 Long List Fiction & Nonfiction
2016 - Honor(s) FICTION: Acevedo, Chantel. The Distant Marvels. (Europa) |
2016 - Honor(s) | |
| 2016 Fiction and Nonfiction Winners
2016 - Winner(s) 2016 Fiction Winner
Viet Thanh Nguyen. The Sympathizer. (Grove Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic)
2016 Nonfiction Winner
Sally Mann. Hold Still: A...
|
2016 - Winner(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 Shortlist - Fiction
2015 - Finalist(s) All the Light We Cannot See. By Anthony Doerr. Published by Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Nora Webster. By Colm... |
2015 - Finalist(s) | |
| 2015 Shortlist - Nonfiction
2015 - Finalist(s) Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. By Bryan Stevenson. Published by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House. |
2015 - Finalist(s) | |
| 2015 Winner Fiction
2015 - Winner(s) |
2015 - Winner(s) | |
| 2015 Winner Nonfiction
2015 - Winner(s) |
2015 - Winner(s) | |
| Longlist 2015 - Fiction
2015 - Selection(s) Allen, Jeffery Renard. Song of the Shank. (Graywolf) Denfeld, Rene. The Enchanted. (Harper) Doerr, Anthony. All the Light We Cannot See. (Scribner) Ferrante, Elena. Those Who... |
2015 - Selection(s) | |
| Longlist 2015 - Nonfiction
2015 - Selection(s) Ackerman, Diane. The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us. (Norton) Birmingham, Kevin. The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses. (Penguin). Blum... |
2015 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| A Guide for the Perplexed
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Claire of the Sea Light
2014 - Finalist(s) |
2014 - Finalist(s) | |
| Bolivar: American Liberator
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Jack London: An American Life
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| And the Mountains Echoed
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-Thousand Year History
2014 - Finalist(s) |
2014 - Finalist(s) | |
| Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital
2014 - Finalist(s) |
2014 - Finalist(s) | |
| To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Dinner
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Goldfinch
2014 - Finalist(s) |
2014 - Finalist(s) | |
| The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
2014 - Finalist(s) |
2014 - Finalist(s) | |
| Year Zero: A History of 1945
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Archangel
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Faraway Nearby
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Lowland
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| All the Land to Hold Us
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Circle
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Life after Life
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Good Lord Bird
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Johnny Cash: The Life
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Too Bright to Hear, Too Loud to See
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Woman Upstairs
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| A Tale for the Time Being
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Signature of All Things
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Woman Who Lost Her Soul
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Wilson
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Enon
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| Americanah
2014 - Finalist(s) |
2014 - Finalist(s) | |
| Fools
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) | |
| The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking
2014 - Selection(s) |
2014 - Selection(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
| Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Orphan Master’s Son
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| One Last Thing before I Go
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Round House
2013 - Finalist(s) In her fourteenth novel, Erdrich writes in the voice of a man reliving the fateful summer of his thirteenth year. Erdrich’s intimacy with her characters... |
2013 - Finalist(s) | |
| Telegraph Avenue
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Orphan Master’s Son
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Beginner’s Goodbye
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| This Is How You Lose Her
2013 - Finalist(s) Fast paced and street-talking tough, Díaz’s stories unveil lives shadowed by prejudice and poverty and bereft of reliable love and trust. These are precarious, unappreciated... |
2013 - Finalist(s) | |
| The Bartender’s Tale
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and the Sea
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Beautiful Ruins
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Arcadia
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Astray
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Engines of Change: A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Flight Behavior
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Joseph Anton: A Memoir
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Battleborn
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Home
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Half-Blood Blues
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Headmaster’s Wager
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| This Is How You Lose Her
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| A Hologram for the King
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Leonardo and the Last Supper
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Bring Up the Bodies
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Social Conquest of Earth
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Round House
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Fire in the Ashes: Twenty-Five Years among the Poorest Children in America
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Sweet Tooth
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| James Joyce: A New Biography
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Canada
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Dear Life
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
2013 - Finalist(s) Popular historian Egan turns the life and work of master photographer Edward Curtis into a gripping and heroic story of one man’s commitment to the... |
2013 - Finalist(s) | |
| Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Barack Obama: The Story
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Cove
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death
2013 - Finalist(s) From board games, including one called The Mansion of Happiness, to public-library children’s rooms to cryogenics, historian Lepore’s episodic inquiry into our evolving perceptions... |
2013 - Finalist(s) | |
| The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Dog Stars
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Lower River
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
2013 - Finalist(s) Science writer Quammen schools readers in the fascinating if alarming facts about zoonotic diseases—animal infections that sicken humans, such as rabies and Ebola. Drawing on... |
2013 - Finalist(s) | |
| Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| In One Person
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| The Testament of Mary
2013 - Selection(s) |
2013 - Selection(s) | |
| Canada
2013 - Finalist(s) “First, I’ll tell you about the robbery our parents committed.” So begins Ford’s riveting novel, an atmospheric and haunting tale of family, folly, exile, and... |
2013 - Finalist(s) |
| Title | Year | |
|---|---|---|
|
Lost Memory of Skin
2012 - Finalist(s) An intelligent and fearlessly sympathetic portrait of a group of society’s outsiders—sex offenders—that illuminates the moral complexities at the heart of our justice system. |
2012 - Finalist(s) |
|
Swamplandia!
2012 - Finalist(s) This dazzlingly inventive first novel introduces 12-year-old gator-wrestling Ava Bigtree and her eccentric family, whose lives (and the Florida theme park they run) straddle the... |
2012 - Finalist(s) |
|
Malcolm X
2012 - Finalist(s) This definitive work on the life of the Malcolm X corrects previous misconceptions and offers new information about the charismatic leader’s life and death during... |
2012 - Finalist(s) |
|
The Information
2012 - Finalist(s) A comprehensive study describing the melodious interplay between science and literature documents the transmission of human knowledge from talking drums to the Internet. |
2012 - Finalist(s) |
|
The Forgotten Waltz
2012 - Winner(s) The vicissitudes of extramarital love and the obstructions to its smooth flow—including spouses, children, and the necessary secrecy surrounding an affair—are charted in sharp yet... |
2012 - Winner(s) |
|
Catherine the Great
2012 - Winner(s) A compulsively readable biography of the fascinating woman who, through a combination of luck, personality, and a fine mind, rose from her birth as a... |
2012 - Winner(s) |
Books written for adults and that were published in the previous year in the United States.
Titles are drawn from the previous year's Booklist Editor's Choice and RUSA CODES Notable Books lists. There are no direct submissions to these awards.
The winners (one for fiction, one for nonfiction) receive a $5,000 cash award.
A longlist of is announced each September of 50 titles followed by a shortlist announcement of six finalists in September. The winners are announced at the RUSA Book and Media Awards Ceremony at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. The winners are presented their medals at the ALA Annual Conference.
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Award Seals
Price listed is for digital image licensing only.
Price listed is for digital image licensing only.
Price listed is for digital image licensing only.
Price listed is for digital image licensing only.
