Congratulations to Valeria Luiselli and Adam Higginbotham, the 2020 winners of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. Luiselli won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction for her novel, LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE, published by Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Higginbotham won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction for his book, MIDNIGHT IN CHERNOBYL, published by Simon & Schuster.

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. the previous year. The winners (one for fiction, one for nonfiction) are announced at an event at the ALA Annual Conference; winning authors receive a $5,000 cash award, and two finalists in each category receive $1,500. Click here for more information.
 

2020 Winners

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

• LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE by Valeria Luiselli (Knopf)
   

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

• MIDNIGHT IN CHERNOBYL: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster, by Adam Higginbotham (Simon & Schuster)

2020 Shortlist

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

• FEAST YOUR EYES by Myla Goldberg (Scribner)
• LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE by Valeria Luiselli (Knopf)
• THE WATER DANCER by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World)

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

• FIGURING by Maria Popova (Pantheon)
• THE HEARTBEAT OF WOUNDED KNEE: Native America from 1890 to the Present, by David Treuer (Riverhead Books)
• MIDNIGHT IN CHERNOBYL: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster, by Adam Higginbotham (Simon & Schuster)

2020 Longlist

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

• THE GUEST BOOK by Sarah Blake (Flatiron Books)
• FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Random House)
• THE WATER DANCER by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World)
• DOMINICANA by Angie Cruz (Flatiron Books)
• EVERYTHING INSIDE: Stories, by Edwidge Danticat (Knopf)
• DUCKS, NEWBURYPORT by Lucy Ellmann (Biblioasis)
• CITY OF GIRLS by Elizabeth Gilbert (Riverhead Books)    
• FEAST YOUR EYES by Myla Goldberg (Scribner)
• THE WORLD THAT WE KNEW by Alice Hoffman (Simon & Schuster) 
• MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE by Siri Hustvedt (Simon & Schuster)
• LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE by Valeria Luiselli (Knopf)
• INLAND by Téa Obreht (Random House)
• PRAIRIE FEVER by Michael Parker (Algonquin Books)
• THE DUTCH HOUSE by Ann Patchett (Harper)      
• DISAPPEARING EARTH by Julia Phillips (Knopf)   
• LANNY by Max Porter (Graywolf Press)        
• NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney (Hogarth)
• QUICHOTTE by Salman Rushdie (Random House)
• THE GRAMMARIANS by Cathleen Schine (Sarah Crichton Books)
• GRAND UNION: Stories, by Zadie Smith (Penguin Press)
• THE FAR FIELD by Madhuri Vijay (Grove Press)
• ON EARTH WE'RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press)
• THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
• RED AT THE BONE by Jacqueline Woodson (Riverhead Books)   
   

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

• PLACES AND NAMES: On War, Revolution, and Returning, by Elliot Ackerman (Penguin Press) 
• SILVER, SWORD & STONE: Three Crucibles of the Latin American Story, by Marie Arana (Simon & Schuster)   
• ELDERHOOD: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life, by Louise Aronson (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• AMERICAN MOONSHOT: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race, by Douglas Brinkley (Harper)
• THE YELLOW HOUSE by Sarah M. Broom (Grove Press)
• FURIOUS HOURS: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, by Casey Cep (Knopf)  
• PARKLAND by Dave Cullen (Harper)   
• MAMA'S LAST HUG: Animal and Human Emotions, by Frans de Waal (W. W. Norton & Company)
• WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD IS TRUE: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance, by Carolyn Forché (Penguin Press)
• JANIS: Her Life and Music, by Holly George-Warren (Simon & Schuster)
• THE ICE AT THE END OF THE WORLD: Greenland’s Secret Past and Earth’s Perilous Future, by Jon Gertner (Random House)
• MIDNIGHT IN CHERNOBYL: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster, by Adam Higginbotham (Simon & Schuster)
• BECOMING DR. SEUSS: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination, by Brian Jay Jones (Dutton)
• SAY NOTHING: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, by Patrick Radden Keefe (Doubleday)
• AN AMERICAN SUMMER: Love and Death in Chicago, by Alex Kotlowitz (Doubleday)
• UNDERLAND: A Deep Time Journey, by Robert Macfarlane (W. W. Norton & Company)    
• IN THE DREAM HOUSE: A Memoir, by Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf Press)
• THE SOURCE OF SELF-REGARD: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations, by Toni Morrison (Knopf)
• INVISIBLE WOMEN: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, by Caroline Criado Perez (Harry N. Abrams)
• FIGURING by Maria Popova (Pantheon)
• LOSING EARTH: A Recent History, by Nathaniel Rich (MCD)
• IN THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN: A Memoir, by Susan Straight (Catapult)   
• THE HEARTBEAT OF WOUNDED KNEE: Native America from 1890 to the Present, by David Treuer (Riverhead Books)
• THE OUTLAW OCEAN: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier, by Ian Urbina (Knopf)
• THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH: Life After Warming, by David Wallace-Wells (Tim Duggan Books)