Congratulations to James McBride and Rebecca Giggs, the 2021 winners of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. McBride won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction for his novel, DEACON KING KONG, published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Giggs won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction for her book, FATHOMS: The World in the Whale, 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.
 

2021 Winners

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

• DEACON KING KONG by James McBride (Riverhead Books)
   

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

• FATHOMS: The World in the Whale, by Rebecca Giggs (Simon & Schuster)

2021 Shortlist

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction

• A BURNING by Megha Majumdar (Knopf)
• DEACON KING KONG by James McBride (Riverhead Books)
• HOMELAND ELEGIES by Ayad Akhtar (Little, Brown and Company)

Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction

• FATHOMS: The World in the Whale, by Rebecca Giggs (Simon & Schuster)
• JUST US: An American Conversation, by Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press)
• MEMORIAL DRIVE: A Daughter’s Memoir, by Natasha Trethewey (Ecco)