Allegations Force Alexie to Decline ALA Carnegie Medal

“Librarians may believe that you don’t censor, that you don’t pull from your shelves controversial works—but does that extend to a controversial author? In the end, Sherman Alexie made the decision for them.”

Sherman Alexie, bestselling author of novels, short stories and memoirs that draw on his Native American heritage, has made national headlines following accusations of sexual misconduct by other writers.

On March 2 in Publishers Weekly, Andrew Albanese noted that American Library Association would need to respond to these allegations after it had announced at the 2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver last month plans to honor the author with the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction for his book You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir.

“From my reporting, it is clear to me that the Carnegie selection committee had settled on Alexie prior to the misconduct allegations against the author becoming widely known,” he reports. “As I wrote on March 2, ALA officials were still going to have to decide whether to invite the author to a reception this summer; Carnegie winners typically address librarians and accept their medals at the ALA Annual Conference, which this year is set for June 21–25 in New Orleans.

“Having Alexie speak — or asking him not to — threatened to be a thorny issue for ALA,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “Alexie is very popular among librarians and librarians have been his staunchest supporters as his books routinely show up on the ALA’s most challenged list, year after year.

“Librarians may believe that you don’t censor, that you don’t pull from your shelves controversial works—but does that extend to a controversial author? In the end, Alexie made the decision for them.”

Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.