Percival Everett’s novel James has been awarded the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction by the American Library Association, adding to its growing constellation of literary accolades, per abcnews.go.com. The announcement, made on Sunday, comes with a $5,000 prize and cements the novel’s status as a defining work of contemporary American literature.
James, which boldly reimagines Mark Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved character Jim, has struck a powerful chord with readers and critics alike. The novel has achieved the rare distinction of topping The New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list without the typical boost of book club endorsements or film adaptations.
Selection committee chair Allison Escoto praised the work as “a modern masterpiece,” highlighting its fresh perspective on a canonical American text. The honor joins an impressive list of accolades for the novel, including the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize, with a National Book Critics Circle award nomination still pending.
In the nonfiction category, Kevin Fedarko claimed the medal for A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon. Fedarko, whose connection to libraries dates back to his Pittsburgh youth, credited the Northern Arizona University library’s unique Grand Canyon collection as instrumental to his research.
The Carnegie Medal, established in 2012 through a Carnegie Corporation of New York grant, has previously recognized literary luminaries such as Donna Tartt and Colson Whitehead. This year’s fiction finalists included Jiaming Tang’s Cinema Love and Kavin Akbar’s Martyr! while Adam Higginbotham’s Challenger and Emily Nussbaum’s Cue the Sun! were shortlisted for nonfiction.es’
