The American Library Association announced the winners of its 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence at an awards ceremony on January 26 as part of the ALA’s final LibLearnX conference, held Jan. 24-27 in Phoenix, Ariz. James by Percival Everett (Doubelday) has won the fiction award, and A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko (Scribner) has won the nonfiction award.

Calling James “an astounding riposte” to Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the ALA said that Everett “takes the story in a completely different direction than the original, exemplifying the relentless courage and moral clarity of an honorable man with nothing to lose.” Fedarko’s A Walk in the Park, which “follows the author on a canyon-spanning group hike...particularly inspires in detailing the ancestral history of the land and some of the Indigenous individuals who continue to fight against overdevelopment and ever-booming tourism,” the ALA said.

James in particular has had an extraordinary year. It’s a fiction finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Awards, which will be held in March, and won last year’s National Book Award for fiction. And it was one of PW’s Best Books of 2024: “Everett,” our citation read, “has ascended to blockbuster status without leaving behind what makes him special.”

“On behalf of this year's Carnegie committee, I'm thrilled to honor these exceptional books and to highlight their contributions to American fiction and nonfiction,” said Allison Escoto, chair of the selection committee for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence. "Percival Everett has written a modern masterpiece, a beautiful and important work that offers a fresh perspective from the eyes of a classic character. Kevin Fedarko's unforgettable journey through the otherworldly depths of the Grand Canyon shows us the triumphs and pitfalls of exploration and illuminates the many vital lessons we can all learn from our precious natural world. I am so grateful to have been a part of this process with this incredible committee!”

The 2025 fiction finalists were Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang (Dutton) and Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Knopf). The 2025 nonfiction finalists were Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham (Avid Reader) and Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV by Emily Nussbaum (Random House.) Winners each receive $5,000, and all finalists will be honored and the winners presented their medals during a celebratory event at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts during ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference in Philadelphia in June.