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 (CILIP), 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 (September to August). The first non-British medalist was Australian author Ivan Southall for Josh (1972). The original rules also prohibited winning authors from future consideration.
History
The Medal is named after the Scottish-born American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), who founded more than 2,800 libraries in the English-speaking world, including at least one in more than half of British library authorities.
Both awards were established and administered by the Library Association, which was succeeded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in 2002.
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 (ALCS).
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 (YLG). The shortlist is announced in March and the winner in June. Multiple-author anthologies are excluded; however, co-authored single works are eligible.
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.
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.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:1.00em; line-height:1.5em;"
|+ Carnegie Medal winners|name=Top10
|
|The Family from One End Street
|Frederick Muller
|
|-
|1938
|
|The Circus Is Coming
|J. M. Dent
|
|-
|1939
|
|The Radium Woman
|Heinemann
|
|-
|1940
|
|Visitors from London
|J. M. Dent
|
|-
|1941
|
|We Couldn't Leave Dinah
|Jonathan Cape
|
|-
|1942
|BB
|'
|Eyre & Spottiswoode
|
|-
|1995
|
|Northern Lights
|Scholastic
|
|-
|2005
|
|Tamar
|Walker Books
|
|-
|2006
| colspan="3" |(The award date is the year of publication before 2006, the year of presentation after 2006.)
|
|-
|2007
|
|Just in Case
|Penguin
|
|-
|2010
| <br />two illustrators
|The Graveyard Book
|Bloomsbury
|
|-
|2011
|
|Monsters of Men
|Walker Books
|
|-
|2012
| <br />illustrated by Jim Kay
|A Monster Calls
|Walker Books
|
|-
|2013
|
|Maggot Moon
|Hot Key Books
|
|-
|2014
|
|The Bunker Diary
|Penguin Books
|
|-
|2015
|
|Buffalo Soldier
|Walker Books
|
|-
|2016
|
|One
|Bloomsbury Children's
|
|-
|2017
|
|Salt to the Sea
|Penguin Books
|
|-
|2018
| <br />illustrated by Jane Milloy
|Where the World Ends
|Usborne Publishing
|
|-
|2019
|
|The Poet X
|HarperTeen
|
|-
|2020
|
|Lark
|Barrington Stoke
|
|-
|2021
|
|Look Both Ways
|Knights Of
|
|-
|2022
|
|October, October
|Bloomsbury
|
|-
|2023
|
|The Blue Book of Nebo
|Firefly Press
|-
|2024
|
|The Boy Lost in the Maze
|Otter-Barry Books
|
|-
|2025
|Margaret McDonald
|Glasgow Boys
|Faber
|
|}
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 (1995). It was the expected winner, garnering 40% of the votes in the UK, and 36% worldwide.
70th Anniversary Top Ten
- David Almond, Skellig, (Hodder, 1998)
- Melvin Burgess, Junk, (Penguin, 1996)
- Kevin Crossley-Holland, Storm, (Egmont, 1985)
- Jennifer Donnelly, A Gathering Light, (Bloomsbury, 2003)
- Alan Garner, The Owl Service, (HarperCollins, 1967)
- Eve Garnett, The Family from One End Street, (Penguin, 1937)
- Mary Norton, The Borrowers, (Penguin, 1952)
- Philippa Pearce, Tom's Midnight Garden, (Oxford, 1958)
- Philip Pullman, Northern Lights, (Scholastic, 1995)
- Robert Westall, The Machine Gunners, (Macmillan, 1975)
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
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Medal winners and commended titles, 1936-1939
!Year
!Author
!Title
!Publisher
!Result
!Ref.
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="3" |1936
|
|Pigeon Post
|Jonathan Cape
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Sampson's Circus
|
|Commended
|
|-
|
|Ballet Shoes
|
|Commended
|
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1937
|
|'
|Frederick Muller
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Framed
|Macmillan
|9+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|
|David Fickling
|13+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|Ruby Red
|Penguin
|12+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|Airman
|Puffin
|9+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|'
|Penguin
|14+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|
|Oxford University Press
|10+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|Small Change for Stuart
|Doubleday
|8+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|'
|Marion Lloyd Books
|9+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|All the Truth That's in Me
|Templar
|14+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|'
|David Fickling Books
|11+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|Apple and Rain
|Bloomsbury
|11+
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|There Will Be Lies
|Bloomsbury
|
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth
|Pan Macmillan
|
|Shortlist
|
|-
|
|'