The American Library Association (ALA) announced on November 18 the six books shortlisted for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction. Established in 2012, the awards honor the best fiction and nonfiction books written for adult readers and published in the US during the previous year. The two medal winners will be announced January 27, 2026.
The shortlisted titles for the 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction are:
Fiction
A Guardian and a Thief (Knopf)
By Megha Majumdar
Desperation permeates Majumdar’s wrenching novel, set in a near-future Kolkata besieged by worsening climate crises. Privileged Ma, widowed Dadu, and 2-year-old Mishti are spending one last week in their native city before they escape to Michigan when Ma’s purse, filled with priceless documents, is stolen. Majumdar brilliantly blurs right and wrong, ethics and legality. In such frenzied times, who is the guardian and who is the thief can never be clear.
The Unworthy (Scribner)
By Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses
Bazterrica’s absorbing feminist literary horror novel stars an unnamed narrator seeking refuge in a twisted hierarchical commune in an unnamed city as she documents in an illicit diary her deplorable situation. Bazterrica is in her element dramatizing the violent and atrocious acts that the residents of the community are subjected to and, in turn, inflict on one another. The novel, originally published in Spanish, offers satirical, incisive, and convincing horror that skewers religious fervor and blind obedience.
We Do Not Part (Hogarth)
By Han Kang, translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris
In Han’s novel, writer Kyungha is plagued by nightmares after publishing a book “about the massacre in G—.” The nightmares’ intensifying vividness inspires her to contact a close friend, a photographer and documentary filmmaker, about the possibility of collaborating on a film adaptation of these indelible images. Han brilliantly examines the breadth of human relationships, from unconditional mother-child bonds to timeless friendship to heinous inhumanity.
Nonfiction
Baldwin, Styron, and Me (Biblioasis)
By Mélikah Abdelmoumen, translated by Catherine Khordoc
Abdelmoumen explores the literary friendship between James Baldwin and William Styron, “the grandson of a slave and the grandson of a slaveowner,” whose relationship led to Styron’s Pulitzer Prize–winning historical novel, The Confessions of Nat Turner. The book is a fascinating meditation on the pitfalls of cross-cultural art and how disparate writers can stimulate each other’s creativity.
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Crown)
By Brian Goldstone
The common assumption that unhoused Americans are unemployed (and unemployable) is challenged in journalist Goldstone’s heartbreaking book. Doing a deep dive into the history and circumstances of several family units in the Atlanta area who have been plagued by homelessness, despite having jobs, Goldstone reveals the harsh and complex obstacles of daily life for people living on the edges of society.
Things in Nature Merely Grow (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux)
By Yiyun Li
“There is no good way to state these facts,” Li writes. “ My husband and I had two children and lost them both: Vincent in 2017, at 16, James in 2024, at 19. Both chose suicide.” In this “book for James,” Li faces the shocking reality of her second son’s death by suicide with “radical acceptance” and heartrending honesty.
Carnegie Medal winners will each receive $5,000. A celebration honoring all six finalists will take place at ALA’s 2026 Annual Conference and Exhibition in June in Chicago.
The Carnegie Medals 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. They are selected by and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals and booksellers who work closely with adult readers.
The awards were established through a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York and are cosponsored and administered by ALA’s Booklist and Reference and User Services Association.
