NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Novels by Jesmyn Ward and James McBride and story collections by Jamal Brinkley and Kelly Link are among the finalists Wednesday for the 10th annual Kirkus Prizes, for which winners in fiction, nonfiction and young reader's literature each receive $50,000.
Kirkus judges selected six books for each of the three categories, with winners to be announced Oct. 11. The awards are presented by the trade publication Kirkus Reviews.
Ward's slave narrative 鈥淟et Us Descend鈥� and McBride's 20th century tale 鈥淭he Heaven & Earth Grocery Store鈥� were nominated in fiction, along with Brinkley's "Witness," Link's 鈥淲hite Cat, Black Dog,鈥� the acclaimed Irish novelist Paul Murray's 鈥淭he Bee Sting鈥� and New Zealander Eleanor Catton's 鈥淏irnam Wood.鈥�
In nonfiction, finalists include Jennifer Homan's George Balanchine biography 鈥淢r. B,鈥� Safiya Sinclair's memoir 鈥淗ow To Say Babylon鈥� and Tania Branigan's 鈥淩ed Memory: The Afterlives of China鈥檚 Cultural Revolution.鈥� The other nonfiction nominees are Clancy Martin's 鈥淗ow Not To Kill Yourself: A Portrait of the Suicidal Mind,鈥� H茅ctor Tobar's 鈥淥ur Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of 鈥楲atino'鈥� and Ilyon Woo's 鈥淢aster Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey From Slavery to Freedom.鈥�
Young people's literature nominees include Valerie Bolling's 鈥淭ogether We Swim,鈥� illustrated by Kaylani Juanita; and the Brazilian author Roger Mello's 鈥淛o茫o,鈥� translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn. Others cited were Kiran Millwood Hargrave's 鈥淛ulia and the Shark,鈥� illustrated by Tom de Freston; Jon Klassen's 鈥淭he Skull;鈥� Ariel Aberg-Riger's 鈥淎merica Redux;" and Louise Finch's 鈥淭he Eternal Return of Clara Hart.鈥�
The Associated Press
