2024 Winners

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Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. The winners were announced by 2024 selection committee chair Aryssa Damron at the Reference and User Services Association’s Book and Media Awards event during LibLearnX in Baltimore on Saturday, January 20th. A celebratory event, including presentations by the winners and a featured speaker, will take place at the 2024 ALA Annual Conference in June 2024 in San Diego. Carnegie Medal winners each receive $5,000.

Press release: “The Berry Pickers,” “We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America” receive 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction

Share your favorite Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence titles on social media using the #ALA_Carnegie hashtag!

FICTION WINNER

Amanda Peters
The Berry Pickers
(Catapult)

 

Book cover: The Berry Pickers 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 her last. Told in alternating, first-person chapters from Joe and a narrator called Norma, this braided novel fascinates. While little is easy for Peters’ characters, in the end, for all of them, there is hope.

Read the Booklist review

Facebook share: 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction,The Berry Pickers

 

 

 

NONFICTION WINNER

Roxanna Asgarian
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America

(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Book cover: We Were Once a Family Investigative reporter Asgarian’s years of work getting to know the birth families of six children killed by their adoptive parents in 2018 uncovered a devastating web of intergenerational poverty, violence, and wrenching separations. She exposes the tragedy of what happened and the ongoing, insupportable failings of the foster system.
 

Read the Booklist review

Facebook share: 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Nonfiction, We Were Once a Family

 

 

 

SHORTLIST

FICTION FINALISTS

Twitter share: Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Shortlist Selection (The Berry Pickers) Winners announced January 20!
The Berry Pickers
Amanda Peters
(Catapult)

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 her last. Told in alternating, first-person chapters from Joe and a narrator called Norma, this braided novel fascinates. While little is easy for Peters’ characters, in the end, for all of them, there is hope.

 

Twitter share: Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Shortlist Selection (Book cover: Denison Avenue) Winners announced January 20!


Denison Avenue
Christina Wong and Daniel Innes
(ECW Press)

In a mixed-media narrative saturated with a sense of poignancy and grief, Wong Cho Sum navigates the sudden death of her husband by a hit-and-run driver. As an “invisible” elderly observer, she compares the old Chinatown she remembers with this new, slowly gentrifying one. Innes’ detailed and beautiful hand-drawn illustrations are eye-catching complements to Wong’s writing.

 

Twitter share: Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction Shortlist Selection (Book cover: Let Us Descend) Winners announced January 20!
Let Us Descend
Jesmyn Ward
(Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.)

Sold away from her mother, teenage Annis, daughter of a Black mother and the white man who enslaved them, must endure a grueling march to the slave markets of New Orleans with only her wits and her mother’s ivory awl to help her survive. Ward’s vivid imagery and emotionally resonant prose convey the horrors of chattel slavery in stark, unforgettable detail.

 

NONFICTION FINALISTS

 

Twitter share: Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Shortlist Selection (Book cover: The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration) Winners announced January 20!
The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration
Jake Bittle
(Simon & Schuster)

This multifaceted examination considers numerous communities that have been wiped out by changing weather patterns and foretells a future filled with additional displacements. Environmental journalist Bittle uses a combination of science reporting and individuals’ stories to explain the fates of towns deemed uninhabitable, and ends with a plea for comprehensive environmental policy change and urgent action.

 

Twitter share: Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Shortlist Selection (Book cover: The Talk ) Winners announced January 20!
The Talk
Darrin Bell
(Henry Holt and Company)

In 2019, Bell became the first Black editorial cartoonist to win a Pulitzer Prize. In this brilliant graphic memoir, Bell’s growth from a trusting child afraid of dogs to an esteemed, nationally syndicated cartoonist is a marvel to witness through his spectacular panels and pages. A must-read manifesto against racist brutality.

 

 Twitter share: Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Shortlist Selection (Book cover: We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America) Winners announced January 23!
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America
Roxanna Asgarian
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Investigative reporter Asgarian’s years of work getting to know the birth families of six children killed by their adoptive parents in 2018 uncovered a devastating web of intergenerational poverty, violence, and wrenching separations. She exposes the tragedy of what happened and the ongoing, insupportable failings of the foster system.

 

 

LONGLIST

FICTION

Click images to enlarge

Chain-Gang All-Stars. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Adjei-Brenyah, Nana Kwame.
Chain-Gang All-Stars.
(Pantheon)

 

Fat Time and Other Stories. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Allen, Jeffery Renard.
Fat Time and Other Stories.
(Graywolf)

 

Social media share: Prophet. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Blaché, Sin and Helen Macdonald.
Prophet.
(Grove)

 

 

Social media share: Witness. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Brinkley, Jamel.
Witness.
(Farrar)

 

 

Social media share: Straw Dogs of the Universe. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Chun, Ye.
Straw Dogs of the Universe.
(Catapult)

 

Social media share: All the Sinners Bleed. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Cosby, S. A.
All the Sinners Bleed.
(Flatiron)

 

Social media share:Two Sherpas. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Daniell, Sebastián Martínez. Translated by Jennifer Croft.
Two Sherpas.
(Charco)

 

Social media share: THe Lost Journals of Sacajewea. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Earling, Debra Magpie.
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea.
(Milkweed)

 

 

Social media share: The Great Reclamation. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Heng, Rachel.
The Great Reclamation.
(Riverhead)

 

Social media share: Tali Girls. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Herawi, Siamak. Translated by Sara Khalili.
Tali Girls.
(Archipelago)

 

Twitter share: The Water Outlaws. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Huang, S. L.
The Water Outlaws.
(Tordotcom)

 

Social media share: Denisen Avenue, 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence Longlist selection; Shortlist announced November 14!Innes, Daniel and Christina Wong.
Denison Avenue.
(ECW)

 

Social media share: The MANIAC. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Labatut, Benjamin.
The MANIAC.
(Penguin)

 

Twitter share: Pomegranate. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Lee, Helen Elaine.
Pomegranate.
(Atria)

 

Social media share: House Gone Quiet. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Norris, Kelsey.
House Gone Quiet.
(Scribner)

 

Social media Share: The Berry Pickers. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Peters, Amanda.
The Berry Pickers.
(Catapult)

 

Social media share: Wandering Souls. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Pin, Cecile.
Wandering Souls.
(Holt)

 

Social media share: Let's Go Let's Go Let's Go. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Qian, Cleo.
Let’s Go Let’s Go Let’s Go.
(Tin House)

 

Social media share: The Bandit Queens. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Shroff, Parini.
The Bandit Queens.
(Ballantine)

 

Social media share: Dear Chrysanthemums: A Novel in Stories.Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Sze-Lorrain, Fiona.
Dear Chrysanthemums: A Novel in Stories.
(Scribner)

 

Social media share: Let Us Descend. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Fiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Ward, Jesmyn.
Let Us Descend.
(Scribner)

 

NONFICTION

Click images to enlarge

Social media share: We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Asgarian, Roxanna.
We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America.
(Farrar)

 

Social media share: The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14! Bagby, Meredith.
The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel.
(Morrow)

 

Social media share: He/She/They: How We Talk about Gender and Why It Matters. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Bailar, Schuyler.
He/She/They: How We Talk about Gender and Why It Matters.
(Hachette Go)

 

Social media share: The Talk. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Bell, Darrin.
The Talk.
(Holt)

 

Social media share: The Burning of the World: The Great Chicago Fire and the War for a City’s Soul. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14! Berg, Scott W.
The Burning of the World: The Great Chicago Fire and the War for a City’s Soul.
(Pantheon)

 

Social media share: The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14! Bittle, Jake.
The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration.
(Simon & Schuster)

 

Social media share: Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14! Cooper, Christian.
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World.
(Random)

 

Social media share: Poverty, By America. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Desmond, Matthew.
Poverty, By America.
(Crown)

 

Social media share: A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14! Egan, Timothy.
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them.
(Viking)

 

Social media share: Airplane Mode: An Irrelevant History of Travel. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Habib, Shahnaz.
Airplane Mode: An Irrelevant History of Travel.
(Catapult)

 

Social media share: Okinawa. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Higa, Susumu. Translated by Jocelyne Allen.
Okinawa.
(Fantagraphics)

 

Social media share: An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Holley, Santi Elijah.
An Amerikan Family: The Shakurs and the Nation They Created.
(Mariner)

 

Social media share: The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!  Leland, Andrew.
The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight.
(Penguin)

 

Social media share:  American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Lowery, Wesley.
American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress.
(Mariner)

 

Social media share: A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Nguyen, Viet Thanh.
A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial.
(Grove)

 

Social media share:  The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Nuila, Ricardo.
The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine.
(Scribner)

 

Social media share:A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Sharkey, Erin.
A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars.
(Milkweed)

 

Social media share: Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Sevigny, Melissa L.
Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon.
(Norton)

 

Social media share: The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14! Swarns, Rachel L.
The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church.
(Random)

 

Social media share:  Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino.” Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Tobar, Héctor.
Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino.”
(Farrar/MCD)

 

Social media share:  Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14! Vanderbes, Jennifer.
Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims.
(Random)

 

Social media share: Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14!Wilbur, Matika.
Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America.
(Ten Speed)

 

Social media share: The Riders Come Out at Night: Brutality, Corruption, and Cover Up in Oakland. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14! Winston, Ali and Darwin BondGraham.
The Riders Come Out at Night: Brutality, Corruption, and Cover Up in Oakland.
(Atria)

 

Social media share: Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom. Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Nonfiction Longlist Selection. Shortlist announced November 14! Woo, Ilyon.
Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom.
(Simon & Schuster)

 

AWARD SPONSOR

Carnegie Corporation of New York

AWARD COSPONSORS

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