New Carnegie Medal winners Megha Majumdar and Yiyun Li love libraries

Novelist Megha Majumdar and Yiyun Li have been named this year’s recipients of the prestigious Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence, the American Library Association announced Tuesday.

Majumdar received the fiction award for “A Guardian and a Thief,” her compelling narrative about a woman’s challenging journey to leave India and reunite with her husband in the United States. Li was honored in the nonfiction category for her poignant memoir “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” which chronicles her experience confronting the devastating loss of her two sons to suicide.

Each author will receive $5,000 and be formally recognized at the ALA’s annual gathering in Chicago this June.

“Megha Majumdar’s intoxicating novel is filled with emotion and relevance to all people and all places across time,” said Lillian Dabney, chair of the awards selection committee. “Yiyun Li has courageously put almost inexplicable events into words that will benefit all who encounter her book.”

For Majumdar, libraries represent more than just repositories of books. The 38-year-old author finds them to be versatile spaces that enhance both her personal and professional life.

“I go often enough that I have favorite places to sit,” she said, describing how she utilizes libraries not only for writing but also for leisure activities like assembling jigsaw puzzles in midtown Manhattan. She even borrowed a telescope from the Brooklyn Public Library to stargaze.

Majumdar’s relationship with libraries began in her native Kolkata, India, where she recalls borrowing “stacks” of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys novels from a sidewalk display that functioned as a community library. After immigrating to the United States to attend Harvard University, her appreciation for public libraries deepened.

Her debut novel “A Burning” established her as a significant literary voice when it was published in 2020. “A Guardian and a Thief” has further cemented her reputation, earning finalist spots for both the Kirkus Prize and National Book Award while also being selected for Oprah Winfrey’s book club.

Li, 53, brings an equally profound connection to libraries. Born in Beijing, she had no experience with libraries until middle school, when being selected as a librarian’s assistant provided what she calls “a monumental experience.”

After emigrating to attend the University of Iowa in 2000, Li discovered the transformative power of American public libraries. “I would walk shelf to shelf,” she recounted. “That’s how I discovered British author A.S. Byatt. There was a big collection of A.S. Byatt in the A’s, so I started to read her. I read through the collections, from A to Z.”

Now teaching at Princeton University as the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities—a position first held by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison—Li continues to find inspiration in libraries. “In an alternative life, I could have been a librarian,” she reflected.

Li’s literary achievements include numerous prestigious honors such as the PEN/Faulkner Award for her novel “The Book of Goose” and The Guardian First Book Award for the story collection “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.”

For both authors, libraries represent more than just buildings filled with books—they embody accessibility, community, and intellectual freedom.

“It’s a very good feeling to be in a place which affirms that we are welcome there, we are part of the life of the city,” Majumdar said about her local Brooklyn library. “We can enjoy solitude and the company of our fellow city dwellers at once. We can pluck any book off the shelf and read for a bit, we can think and wander in our minds. And we do not have to buy anything to be there. That is rare, and energizing, and beautiful to me.”

The Carnegie Medals, established in 2012, have previously recognized literary luminaries including Percival Everett, Jennifer Egan, and Donna Tartt. The awards celebrate exceptional fiction and nonfiction written for adult readers and published in the United States during the previous year, continuing Andrew Carnegie’s legacy of supporting libraries and literary excellence in America.