The American Library Association revealed the shortlists for its Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence, which “recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year.”
In the fiction category, David Santos Donaldson was named a finalist for his debut novel Greenland, about a queer Black man who is researching and writing about the romance between author E.M. Forster and Egyptian tram conductor Mohammed el Adl. Morgan Talty’s Night of the Living Rez, a story collection set in Maine’s Panawahpskek Nation, made the shortlist, along with Julie Otsuka’s The Swimmers, a novel that follows a group of people who are at loose ends when their beloved community swimming pool is forced to close.
Margo Jefferson made the nonfiction shortlist for Constructing a Central Nervous System, a memoir about the Black authors and musicians whose work made her who she is today. Ed Yong’s natural history An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden World around Us, which was a Kirkus Prize finalist, also made the shortlist, as did Rachel E. Gross’ Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage, a history of sexual and reproductive organs.
The Andrew Carnegie Medals were established in 2012. Past winners have included Donna Tartt for The Goldfinch, Viet Thanh Nguyen for The Sympathizer, and Kiese Laymon for Heavy: An American Memoir.
The winners of this year’s awards will be announced on Jan. 29, 2023.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
