Percival Everett’s Novel ‘James’ Wins Carnegie Medal in Fiction

NEW YORK – Percival Everett’s latest honor comes from the country’s public libraries.

The American Library Association recently declared that the recipient of this year’s Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction is “James” by Everett. This award also comes with a $5,000 prize. On the other hand, Kevin Fedarko’s book “A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon” was selected for the nonfiction category.

Everett’s reinterpretation of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” has garnered significant acclaim. Titled “James,” the book presents the story from the viewpoint of Jim, Huck Finn’s enslaved friend. This novel has already been honored with the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize and is currently a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award. Notably, “James” has also achieved the top spot on The New York Times fiction hardcover list, a remarkable achievement for a literary piece that did not rely on being a popular book club selection or tie-in to a movie.

Allison Escoto, the chair of the award’s selection committee, commended Percival Everett’s work, calling it a modern masterpiece that provides a fresh perspective through the eyes of a classic character. Regarding Kevin Fedarko’s book, she emphasized the unforgettable nature of the journey portrayed in “A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon,” highlighting how it explores both the successes and challenges inherent in exploration while shedding light on the valuable lessons we can draw from our natural environment.

Fedarko is a former Time magazine correspondent whose work also has appeared in The New York Times and Esquire. A Pittsburgh native fascinated by distant places, Fedarko has a long history with libraries — Carnegie libraries. He remembers visiting two while growing up, notably one in the suburb of Oakmont near the hairdressing salon his parents ran. He would read biographies of historical figures from George Washington to Daniel Boone, and otherwise think of libraries as “important threads running through his life,” windows to a “wider world.”

Now a resident Flagstaff, Arizona, Fedarko says that he relied in part on the library at the nearby Northern Arizona University campus for both “A Walk in the Park” and its predecessor, also about the Grand Canyon, “The Emerald Mile.”

“The library has an important and unique collection about the Grand Canyon, and it’s the backbone of the kind of history that helps form the framework of both books,” he says. “Neither of them could have been done without the library.”

Previous winners of the medals, established in 2012 with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, includes Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch,” Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad” and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “The Bully Pulpit.”

This year’s finalists besides “James” in the fiction category were Jiaming Tang’s “Cinema Love” and Kavin Akbar’s ”Martyr!”

Adam Higginbotham’s “Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space” and Emily Nussbaum’s “Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV” were the nonfiction runners-up.

All three fiction nominees were published by Penguin Random House and all three nonfiction finalists by Simon & Schuster.