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Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction 2019

Awards

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction 2019

Congratulations to Rebecca Makkai and Kiese Laymon, the 2019 winners of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. Makkai won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction for her novel, THE GREAT BELIEVERS, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Laymon won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction for his memoir, HEAVY, published by Scribner, an imprint of 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.
 


 

2019 Winners

 

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

  • THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)
     

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

  • HEAVY: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon (Scribner)

 


 

2019 Shortlist

 

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

  • WASHINGTON BLACK by Esi Edugyan (Knopf)
  • THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)
  • THERE THERE by Tommy Orange (Knopf)

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

  • THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER: Dispatches from the Border, by Francisco Cantú (Riverhead Books)
  • HEAVY: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon (Scribner)
  • DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, by Beth Macy (Little, Brown and Company)

 


 

2019 Longlist

 

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

  • WAITING FOR EDEN by Elliot Ackerman (Knopf)
  • FRIDAY BLACK: Stories, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Mariner Books)
  • CENSUS by Jesse Ball (Ecco)
  • WASHINGTON BLACK by Esi Edugyan (Knopf)
  • FRESHWATER by Akwaeke Emezi (Grove Press)
  • VIRGIL WANDER by Leif Enger (Grove Press)
  • ORDINARY PEOPLE by Diana Evans (Liveright)
  • SMALL COUNTRY by Gaël Faye (Hogarth)
  • SOUTHERNMOST by Silas House (Algonquin Books)
  • AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by Tayari Jones (Algonquin Books)
  • UNSHELTERED by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper)
  • THE MARS ROOM by Rachel Kushner (Scribner)
  • THE INCENDIARIES by R.O. Kwon (Riverhead Books)
  • THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)
  • CIRCE by Madeline Miller (Little, Brown and Company)
  • JOHN WOMAN by Walter Mosley (Grove Press)
  • WARLIGHT by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf)
  • THERE THERE by Tommy Orange (Knopf)
  • THE OVERSTORY by Richard Powers (W. W. Norton & Company)
  • LAKE SUCCESS by Gary Shteyngart (Random House)
  • YOU THINK IT, I'LL SAY IT: Stories, by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House)
  • THE PARKING LOT ATTENDANT by Nafkote Tamirat (Henry Holt)
  • CLOCK DANCE by Anne Tyler (Knopf)
  • TIN MAN by Sarah Winman (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
  • THE MERCY SEAT by Elizabeth Winthrop (Grove Press)
     

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

  • FASCISM: A Warning, by Madeleine Albright (Harper)
  • BOOM TOWN: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-Class Metropolis, by Sam Anderson (Crown)
  • HIGH-RISERS: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing, by Ben Austen (Harper)
  • THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER: Dispatches from the Border, by Francisco Cantú (Riverhead Books)
  • HOW TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL by Alexander Chee (Mariner Books)
  • THE POISONED CITY: Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy, by Anna Clark (Metropolitan Books)
  • RUTH BADER GINSBURG: A Life, by Jane Sherron De Hart (Knopf)
  • THERE WILL BE NO MIRACLES HERE: A Memoir, by Casey Gerald (Riverhead Books)
  • TIGERLAND, 1968-1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing, by Wil Haygood (Knopf)
  • IN EXTREMIS: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin, by Lindsey Hilsum (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
  • THE SUN DOES SHINE: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row, by Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin (St. Martin’s Press)
  • THE FEATHER THIEF: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century, by Kirk Wallace Johnson (Viking)
  • HEAVY: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon (Scribner)
  • THE COST OF LIVING: A Working Autobiography, by Deborah Levy (Bloomsbury Publishing)
  • PALACES FOR THE PEOPLE: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, by Eric Klinenberg (Crown)
  • DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, by Beth Macy (Little, Brown and Company)
  • I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, by Michelle McNamara (Harper)
  • BURNING DOWN THE HAUS: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall, by Tim Mohr (Algonquin Books)
  • THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean (Simon & Schuster)
  • LOOKING FOR LORRAINE: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, by Imani Perry (Beacon Press)
  • THE GIRL WHO SMILED BEADS: A Story of War and What Comes After, by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil (Crown)
  • EDUCATED: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (Random House)