Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction on Hiatus

CHICAGO - The American Library Association (ALA) today announced that the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction will be presented at ALA’s Annual Conference in June 2026 in Chicago. The 2026 awards will mark the conclusion of the Carnegie Corporation’s support for the medals.

As ALA celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, the Annual Conference will provide a meaningful opportunity to both commemorate this milestone year and honor the final cohort of Carnegie Medal winners.  ALA leadership has expressed its hope of identifying a new sponsor in the coming year to continue this important recognition of outstanding writing.

The Andrew Carnegie Medals were established in 2012 with a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York in recognition of Andrew Carnegie’s deep belief in the power of books and learning to change the world. The Medals have been co-sponsored by ALA’s Booklist and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). The two medals have served as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They were the first single-book awards for adult books given by the American Library Association and have reflected the expert judgment and insight of library professionals and booksellers. The winning authors have each received a $5,000 cash award.

A longlist comprised of up to 50 titles was released each fall. Six finalists, three fiction and three nonfiction, were announced in November. The two winners were announced in January.  Titles were nominated by a seven-member selection committee. The annually appointed committee included one member of the American Booksellers Association, three Booklist editors or contributors, and three RUSA members.

The 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction will be presented to Megha Majumdar for “A Guardian and a Thief,” published by Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House. The Carnegie for Excellence in Nonfiction will be presented to Yiyun Li for “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a division of Macmillan. The ticketed event will be held on Saturday, June 27, 2026, beginning at 8:00 pm, at the American Writers Museum, 180 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60601.

Past fiction winners include Percival Everett for “James,” Julie Otsuka for “The Swimmers,”  Tom Lin for “The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu,” James McBride for “Deacon King Kong,” and Valeria Luiselli for “Lost Children Archive.” Past nonfiction winners include Kevin Fedarko for “A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon,”  Ed Yong for “An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us,” Hanif Abdurraqib for “A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance,” Rebecca Giggs for “Fathoms: The World in the Whale,” and  Adam Higginbotham for “Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster.”

“The Carnegie Medals not only recognize and celebrate literacy excellence, they also serve to promote reading and literacy,” said Donna Seaman, Editor in Chief for Booklist. “Library workers, booksellers, and the reading public look to the Medals as a trusted guide for the very best in adult fiction and nonfiction for adults. We are honored to have had the Carnegie Corporation’s support since the inception of this important award.”

Please contact Amy Katzenberger (akatzenberger@ala.org) Director of Development, American Library Association with inquiries regarding sponsorship.

About the American Library Association

The American Library Association is the largest non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to America’s libraries. The ALA mission is to empower and advocate for all libraries and library workers to ensure equitable access to information for all. For 150 years, ALA has provided resources for information professionals to transform their communities through essential programs and services. For more information, visit www.ala.org.