NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Books on slavery, the justice system, poverty and gender identity are among this year's finalists for named for the late investigative journalist.
Presented by the and the for Journalism at Harvard University, the prizes honor 鈥渆xcellence in nonfiction that exemplifies the literary grace and commitment to serious research and social concern鈥� that helped define Lukas, a Pulitzer Prize winner who died in 1997. Winners in previous years include , and future U.S. ambassador to the United Nations .
Five nominees were announced Wednesday in each of three categories: the $10,000 Lukas Book Prize for a narrative on 鈥渁 topic of American political or social concern,鈥� the $10,000 Mark Lynton History Prize and the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, for which two winners each receive $25,000.
鈥淚n this climate we are thrilled to recognize books that remind us of our current social realities and the importance of rigorous research, the accumulation of facts, and the ambition to create something of artistic value, i.e. things that last," Suzy Hansen, chair of the Lukas Book Prize judging panel, said in a statement.
Book prize finalists are Richard Beck's 鈥淗omeland: The War on Terror in American Life,鈥� Barbara Bradley Hagerty's 鈥淏ringing Ben Home: A Murder, a Conviction, and the Fight to Redeem American Justice,鈥� Mara Kardas-Nelson's 鈥淲e Are Not Able to Live in the Sky: The Seductive Promise of Microfinance,鈥� Rebecca Nagle's 鈥淏y the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land鈥� and Pamela J. Prickett's and Stefan Timmermans' "The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels."
For the history award, the nominees are Kathleen DuVal's 鈥淣ative Nations: A Millennium in North America,鈥� Justene Hill Edwards' 鈥淪avings and Trust: The Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman鈥檚 Bank,鈥� Edda L. Fields-Black's "COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War," Seth Rockman's 鈥淧lantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery鈥� and Michael Waters' 鈥淭he Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports.鈥�
The work-in-progress finalists are Susie Cagle's 鈥淭he End of the West,鈥� Dan Xin Huang's 鈥淩utter: The Story of an American Underclass,鈥� Akemi Johnson's 鈥淏etter Americans: In Search of My Family鈥檚 Past in America鈥檚 Concentration Camps,鈥� J. Weston Phippen's 鈥淲e Want Them Alive: The True Story of a Massacre on the Border, and the Mothers Who Exposed a U.S. Deal that Trained the Killers,鈥� and Joe Sexton's 鈥淟ife or Death: Justice and Mercy in the Age of the School Shooter."
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
