The Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction was awarded to Donna Tartt for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch. The award for nonfiction went to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin for The Bully Pulpit. The medals were presented at the American Library Association’s annual meeting in Las Vegas on Saturday. Each winner receives a $5,000 cash prize. Commenting on the importance of libraries during her childhood, Ms. Tartt said: “you can really change someone’s life by giving them the right book at the right time. All writers are readers before we write a word, so there’s a kinship and it’s very deep.” Ms. Goodwin also has fond memories of borrowing books from her childhood library, recalling how “libraries have been second homes for her throughout her career.” Other finalists for the medal were Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah and Edwige Danticat’s Claire of the Sea Light for fiction, and Nicholas A. Basbanes’ On Paper and Sherri Fink’s Five Days at Memorial for nonfiction. Read more in this Seattle Times article.
Laura
