American Library Association Announces Winners of Its Annual Literary Awards

Among the awards announced this week are the Caldecott and Newbery medals for children’s and YA books, widely considered to be the most prestigious awards for young people’s literature in the U.S.

By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief

TThe American Library Association this week announced the winners of its annual book awards, including the Caldecott and Newbery medals for children’s and YA books, widely considered to be the most prestigious awards for young people’s literature in the U.S.

At a January 26 ceremony in the ALA’s hometown of Chicago, Renée Watson was announced as the winner of 2026 John Newbery Medal, given for “outstanding contribution to children’s literature,” for her novel All the Blues in the Sky (Bloomsbury); Cátia Chien was announced as the winner of 2026 Randolph Caldecott Medal, which recognizes “the most distinguished picture book for children,” for Fireworks (Clarion), written by Matthew Burgess. And Legendary Frybread Drive-In: Intertribal Stories, compiled by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Heartdrum), was honored with the Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in literature written for young adults.

Winners of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards, which celebrates African American authors and illustrators who have created outstanding works for children and young adults, were also announced.

The King Author Award went to Will’s Race for Home, by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little, Brown), while the King Illustrator Award Book went to The Library in the Woods, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie and written by Calvin Alexander Ramsey (Carolrhoda Books, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group). The Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award was awarded to Arriel Vinson for Under the Neon Lights (Putnam), and the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement was given to Kadir Nelson, whose work as an author and illustrator appears in over 30 children’s books.

A list of all the 2026 ALA Youth Media Award winners is here.

Carnegie Medal Winners Also Revealed

On January 27, the ALA also announced the winners of its adult book awards, the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence, which honors the top fiction and nonfiction titles published in the previous calendar year.

The 2026 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction went to A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar (Knopf), and the nonfiction medal was awarded to Things in Nature Merely Grow, by Yiyun Li, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Both books were also shortlisted for the National Book Award last fall.

The Carnegie Medals, established in 2012, have become one of the most coveted awards in the U.S., the only book award in the U.S. chosen by a committee of library professionals and booksellers who work closely with adult readers.

The Carnegie Medal winners will be honored during a celebratory event at the American Writers Museum during ALA’s 2026 Annual Conference in Chicago in June.