The American Library Association announced that a total of 46 books—23 fiction and 23 nonfiction—have made the longlist for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, the association’s adult book award. Next up, the six-title shortlist, featuring three finalists in each category, will be chosen from longlist titles and announced on November 12.
The Andrew Carnegie Medals, the first single-book awards for adult titles given by the ALA, have steadily grown in popularity since the award’s inception in 2012, as they reflect the judgment of the nation’s librarians and the adult readers they serve. The award is supported by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York and cosponsored by ALA’s Booklist and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). The selection committee, which is appointed annually, includes Booklist editors and contributors, members of RUSA’s Notable Books Council, and a representative of the American Booksellers Association.
The two winners will be announced during the ALA’s final LibLearnX conference on Sunday, January 26 at 10:30 a.m., and a celebratory event—which have earned a reputation for hosting some of the best book award speeches anywhere—will take place at the 2025 ALA Annual Conference in June 2025 in Philadelphia.
“Spending the last several months together reading, sharing insights, and relishing the scores of books we read has been an incredible experience for all of us on the Carnegie committee,” said selection committee chair Allison Escoto in announcing the longlist. “We were lucky to serve on this committee during a year of truly exceptional fiction and nonfiction, which I know is reflected in our longlist.”
Last year’s winners were We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death and Child Removal in America by Roxanna Asgarian, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux ) for nonfiction, and The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (Catapult), for fiction. A complete list of past winners is here.
