Tommy Orange’s ‘There There’ named a Carnegie Medal finalist

NEW YORK – Tommy Orange, whose debut novel “There There” is among the year’s most acclaimed books, is a finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal.

The American Library Association, which presents the award, announced nominees Wednesday for fiction and nonfiction.

Other fiction works cited “Washington Black” by Canadian novellist Esi Edugyan and “The Great Believers” by Rebecca Makkai.

Nonfiction finalists were Kiese Laymon’s “Heavy: An American Memoir,” Francisco Cantu’s “The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border” and Beth Macy’s “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America.”

Winners in each category receive $5,000 and will be announced Jan. 27.

The prize, established in 2012, is sponsored in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Previous winners include Donna Tartt, Richard Ford and Colson Whitehead.