Whitehead’s ‘Harlem Shuffle’ among Kirkus Prize nominees

NEW YORK (AP) — The latest novels from Colson Whitehead and Joy Williams, and Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ debut work “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” are among this year’s finalists for the Kirkus Prize. The $50,000 awards are presented by the trade publication. Whitehead’s crime story “Harlem Shuffle” is his first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Nickel Boys.” It’s a fiction nominee. Others include Williams’ “Harrow” and Jeffers’ novel. “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” is an 800-page historical epic that Oprah Winfrey chose for her book club. Nominees also were announced for nonfiction and young people’s literature.