The American Library Association (ALA) named two winners of this year’s Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction.
Richard Ford won the fiction category for Canada. Timothy Egan took the nonfiction category for his biography, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life & Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis.
Each medalist receives $5,000 in prize money. The finalists were each also given $1,500.
The four finalists include Junot Díaz’s This is How You Lose Her, Louise Erdrich’s The Round House, Jill Lepore’s The Mansion of Happiness, and David Quammen’s Spillover. An awards ceremony was held during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.
Here’s more from the release:
The awards, established in 2012, recognize the best of the best in fiction and nonfiction for adult readers published in the U.S. the previous year and serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by the American Library Association and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals who work closely with adult readers. Nancy Pearl, librarian, literature expert, NPR commentator, and best-selling author of Booklust serves as chair of the awards’ selection committee.