McBride, Rankine among nominees for Carnegie literary medals

This combination photo shows cover art for "Deacon King Kong," a novel by James McBride, from left, "Homeland Elegies," a novel by Ayad Akhtar, "A Burning" by Megha Majumdar, "Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir" by Natasha Trethewey, "Just Us: An American Conversation" by Claudia Rankine and "Fathoms: The World in the Whale" by Rebecca Giggs, which have among the finalists for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for fiction and nonfiction. Winners in each category will be receive $5,000, and will be announced February 4. (Riverhead Books/Little, Brown and Co./Knopf/Ecco/Graywolf Press/Simon & Schuster via AP) (Uncredited)

NEW YORK – James McBride's latest novel and nonfiction by poets Claudia Rankine and Natasha Trethewey are among the finalists for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for fiction and nonfiction.

The American Library Association announced Tuesday that McBride's “Deacon King Kong" was a fiction nominee, along with Ayad Akhtar's novel “Homeland Elegies” and an acclaimed debut novel, Megha Majumdar's “A Burning.” The nonfiction finalists are Trethewey's “Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir," Rankine's “Just Us,” which combines poetry, prose and photography, and Rebecca Giggs' “Fathoms: The World in the Whale."

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Winners in each category will be receive $5,000, and will be announced Feb. 4, 2021. The awards are supported, in part, by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.