The American Library Association unveiled the shortlists for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, with Lauren Groff, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Kristen Radtke among the finalists.
Groff’s Matrix, a novel about the 12th-century poet Marie de France, was one of three books to make the fiction shortlist; the novel is also a finalist for the National Book Award.
Also named finalists for the fiction Carnegie Medal were Kirstin Valdez Quade’s The Five Wounds, which is also shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and Tom Lin’s The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu.
In the nonfiction category, Abdurraqib was named a finalist for A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, also a National Book Award finalist. Radtke’s Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness, a Kirkus Prize finalist,made the nonfiction shortlist, along with Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain’s Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019.
The Carnegie Medals, which are sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, were established in 2012. Past winners have included Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, Sally Mann’s Hold Still, and Kiese Laymon’s Heavy.
The winners of the 2022 medals will be announced on Jan. 23.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
