Ahead of the announcements of the winners of the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, the American Library Association is launching its #ShareTheStory campaign highlighting the six 2017 shortlist titles and how they remind us of the power of stories. Now through June 1, 2017, readers are encouraged to tell us their own stories about their lives, communities and histories and how it relates to these titles.
From violence to joy, from poverty to friendship, these six books hold a mirror to our lives and drive home how we are shaped both by the forces inside us and outside of our control. Pick a character, a passage, or open the book at random and choose a quote; then tell us what it means to you—in a sentence, in a picture, in a video, in a song. Post to Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook using #ala_carnegie and #ShareTheStory to share and discover how these books demonstrate the influence of stories on our culture. More information on how to share your story can be found on the Share The Story homepage at ala.org/share-the-story.
We will be featuring your shared stories at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta, January 20-24 at the RUSA Book and Media Awards ceremony and at ALA’s Annual Conference in Chicago, June 22-27 where we will celebrate the two winning authors and titles.
Throughout the following weeks, Booklist will be featuring interviews with the six finalist authors conducted by the selection committee chair and Booklist Adult Editor, Donna Seaman and Rebecca Vnuk, Editor, Collection Management and Library Outreach. On Wednesday, December 14, you can read the interview with Zadie Smith, author of the fiction finalist Swing Time (Penguin Press). Booklist will also be hosting a free interactive webinar on Jan. 10, moderated by Donna Seaman, that will feature authors and editors of the shortlist titles. Registration and information about this webinar can be found here at http://bit.ly/carnegiewebinar.
The awards, established in 2012, recognize the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. in the previous year and 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 and reflect the expert judgment and insight of library professionals who work closely with adult readers.
The Medals are made possible, in part, by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York in recognition of Andrew Carnegie’s deep belief in the power of books and learning to change the world, and are co-sponsored by ALA’s Booklist and the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association.