Gayl Jones, Tommie Smith among National Book Award finalists

By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Finalists for the National Book Awards were announced Tuesday. They include Gayl Jones’ “The Birdcatcher,” a short, lyrical novel about a writer’s trip to the island of Ibiza and the gifted, unstable couple she stays with. The activist and former Olympics gold medalist Tommie Smith is a young people’s literature nominee for “Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice.” Pulitzer Prize winner Sharon Olds is a poetry finalist for “Balladz.” Robert Samuels’ and Toluse Olorunnipa’s “His Name Is George Floyd” is a nonfiction nominee. Winners will be announced Nov. 16 at a dinner that will also honor cartoonist Art Spiegelman and American Library Association Executive Director Tracie D. Hall.