Carnegie Medal for Writing


The Carnegie Medal for Writing, established in 1936 as the Carnegie Medal, is an annual British literary award for English-language books for children or young adults. It is conferred upon the author by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, who in 2016 called it "the UK's oldest and most prestigious book award for children's writing".
Nominated books must be written in English and first published in the UK during the preceding school year. Until 1969, the award was limited to books by British authors first published in England. The first non-British medalist was Australian author Ivan Southall for Josh. The original rules also prohibited winning authors from future consideration. The first author to win a second Carnegie Medal was Peter Dickinson in 1981, who won consecutively for Tulku and City of Gold. As of 2024, eight authors had received the Medal more than once.
The winner is awarded a gold medal and £500 worth of books donated to the winner's chosen library. In addition, since 2016 the winner has received a £5,000 cash prize from the Colin Mears bequest.

History

The Medal is named after the Scottish-born American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who founded more than 2,800 libraries in the English-speaking world, including at least one in more than half of British library authorities. It was established in 1936 by the British Library Association, to celebrate the centenary of Carnegie's birth, and inaugurated in 1937 with the award to Arthur Ransome for Pigeon Post and the identification of two "commended" books. This first Medal was dated 1936, but since 2007 the award has been dated by its year of presentation, not year of publication.
In 1955, the Kate Greenaway Medal, for "distinguished illustration in a book for children", was established as a companion to the Carnegie Medal.
Both awards were established and administered by the Library Association, which was succeeded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in 2002. In 2022, the two awards were renamed to the Carnegie Medal for Writing and the Carnegie Medal for Illustration.
From 2022 to 2024, the award was sponsored by the audio technology company Yoto and was called the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing. As of 2025 the awards are sponsored by Scholastic and the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society.

Process

CILIP members may nominate books each September and October, with the full list of valid nominations published in November. The longlist, chosen by the judges from the nominated books, is published in February. The judging panel comprises 12 children's librarians, all of whom are members of CILIP's Youth Libraries Group. The shortlist is announced in March and the winner in June.
Titles must be English-language works first published in the UK during the preceding year. According to CILIP, "all categories of books, including poetry, non-fiction and graphic novels, in print or ebook format, for children and young people are eligible". Multiple-author anthologies are excluded; however, co-authored single works are eligible.
Young people from across the UK take part in shadowing groups organised by secondary schools and public libraries, to read and discuss the shortlisted books.
CILIP instructs the judging panel to consider plot, characterisation, and style. Furthermore, it states that "the book that wins the Carnegie Medal should be a book of outstanding literary quality. The whole work should provide pleasure, not merely from the surface enjoyment of a good read, but also the deeper subconscious satisfaction of having gone through a vicarious, but at the time of reading, a real experience that is retained afterwards."
A diversity review in 2018 led to changes in the nomination and judging process to promote better representation of ethnic minority authors and books.

2024 award

won the 2024 Carnegie Medal for The Boy Lost in the Maze, a verse novel that uses the legend of the Minotaur in a tale of a teenager searching for his biological father.
There were eight books on the 2024 shortlist:
  • Kwame Alexander, The Door of No Return
  • Zillah Bethell, The Song Walker
  • Sophie Cameron, Away with Words
  • Joseph Coelho, illus. by Kate Milner, The Boy Lost in the Maze
  • Nicola Davies, illus. by Petr Horáček, Choose Love
  • Tia Fisher, Crossing the Line Winner of the Shadowers choice
  • Hiba Noor Khan, Safiyyah's War
  • Nathanael Lessore, ''Steady for This''

    Winners

From 1936 to 2025, 86 medals were awarded. No eligible book published in 1943, 1945, or 1966 was considered suitable by the judging panel.
From 2007 onward, the medals are dated by the year of presentation. Before this, they were dated by the calendar year of their British publication.
Forty-one winning books were illustrated in their first editions, including every one during the first three decades. Six from 1936 to 1953 were illustrated or co-illustrated by their authors; none since then.

Carnegie of Carnegies

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Carnegie Medal in 2007, CILIP created a 'Living Archive' on the Carnegie Medal website with information about each of the winning books and conducted a poll to identify the nation's favourite Carnegie Medal winner, to be named the "Carnegie of Carnegies". The winner, announced on 21 June 2007 at the British Library, was Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. It was the expected winner, garnering 40% of the votes in the UK, and 36% worldwide.
70th Anniversary Top Ten
Northern Lights, with 40% of the public vote, was followed by 16% for Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce and 8% for Skellig by David Almond. As those three books had won the 70-year-old Medal in its year 60, year 23, and year 63, some commentary observed that Tom's Midnight Garden had passed a test of time that the others had not yet faced.

Honorees

Before 2007, the selection process for the award was structured such that the year in which the award was given aligned with the year of publication for the books being considered. The books would be nominated and chosen during the year following their release, with the winners being announced and the medals presented in the early months of the subsequent year.

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Beginning in 2003, commendations were not presented, only short and longlists; only the shortlists are presented below.
YearAuthorTitlePublisherAgeResultRef.
2000Puffin BooksWinner
2000TroyHighly commended
2000Highly commended
2000Commended
2001The Amazing Maurice and His Educated RodentsDoubledayWinner
2001Stop The TrainHighly commended
2001Love That DogCommended
2002Ruby HollerHarperCollinsWinner
2002Up On Cloud NineHighly commended
2003Bloomsbury12+Winner
2003'Hooder10+Shortlist
2003'David Fickling12+Shortlist
2003'Macmillan10+Shortlist
2003Private PeacefulCollins Publishers10+Shortlist
2003SisterlandDavid Fickling13+Shortlist
2004MillionsMacmillan9+Winner
2004Looking for JJScholastic13+Shortlist
2004Al Capone Does My ShirtsBloomsbury11+Shortlist
2004HeartbeatBloomsbury10+Shortlist
2004'Macmillan10+Shortlist
2004'Doubleday8+Shortlist
2005TamarWalker Books14+Winner
2005ClayHooder11+Shortlist
2005FramedMacmillan9+Shortlist
2005TurbulenceHooder12+Shortlist
2005'Oxford University Press12+Shortlist
2007Just in CasePenguin14+Winner
200714+Shortlist
2007David Fickling13+Shortlist
2007Doubleday12+Shortlist
2007BeastMarion Lloyd12+Shortlist
2007My Swordhand is SingingOrion10+Shortlist
2008Here Lies ArthurScholastic12+Winner
2008Gatty's TaleOrion10+Shortlist
2008Ruby RedPenguin12+Shortlist
2008CrusadeMacmillan10+Shortlist
2008Apache: Girl WarriorWalker12+Shortlist
2008What I WasPenguin12+Shortlist
2008Finding Violet ParkHarperCollins12+Shortlist
2009Bog ChildDavid Fickling12+Winner
2009Black Rabbit SummerPuffin14+Shortlist
2009AirmanPuffin9+Shortlist
2009CosmicMacmillan8+Shortlist
2009Ostrich BoysDefinitions12+Shortlist
2009Walker14+Shortlist
2009Creature of the NightBodley Head14+Shortlist