
The American Library Association (ALA) has selected James (Doubleday) by Percival Everett as the winner of the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon (Scribner) by Kevin Fedarko as the winner of the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.
The selections were announced during the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Book and Media Awards at ALA’s LibLearnX conference in Phoenix on January 26.
In James, Everett rewrites Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a liberation narrative, told from James’s point of view. When he is accused of robbery and murder, James flees with an initially gleeful Huck, who only gradually understands the terrifying reality of being a Black man with a price on his head. Determined to return and rescue his wife and daughter, James 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.
In A Walk in the Park, Fedarko centers his lifelong relationship with the Grand Canyon, from reading about it as a child through working as a clumsy canoe guide, following the author on a canyon-spanning group hike and all the steps, missteps, and arguments along the way. He 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.
“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.”
The other 2025 fiction finalists were Cinema Love (Dutton) by Jiaming Tang and Martyr! (Knopf) by Kaveh Akbar. The other 2025 nonfiction finalists were Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space (Avid Reader Press) by Adam Higginbotham and Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV (Random House) by Emily Nussbaum.
Carnegie Medal winners will each receive $5,000. All finalists and winners will be honored during a celebratory event at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts during ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference in Philadelphia in June.
The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, established in 2012, serve as a guide to help adults select quality reading material. They are the first single-book awards for adult books given by ALA and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals and booksellers who work closely with adult readers. The awards were established with a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York and are cosponsored and administered by Booklist and RUSA.