Saunders, Ellsberg among Carnegie Medal finalists

NEW YORK (AP) — Man Booker Prize winner George Saunders, National Book Award finalist Jesmyn Ward and Daniel Ellsberg of “The Pentagon Papers” fame are in the running for prizes handed out by the American Library Association.

The association announced fiction and nonfiction nominees on Wednesday for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. The winners, each of whom will receive $5,000, will be revealed in February during the ALA’s annual midwinter meeting.

In fiction, Jennifer Egan has been cited for “Manhattan Beach,” Ward for “Sing, Unburied, Sing” and Saunders for “Lincoln in the Bardo,” winner of the Booker last week.

The nonfiction finalists are Ellsberg’s “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner,” David Grann’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Sherman Alexie’s memoir “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.”