Colson Whitehead novel a Carnegie medal finalist

NEW YORK – Colson Whitehead's novel, "The Underground Railroad," is up for another literary award, this one presented by the American Library Association.

Whitehead's historical saga about an escaped slave, already a contender for the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize, is one of three finalists for the $5,000 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. The other fiction nominees are Michael Chabon's "Moonglow" and Zadie Smith's "Swing Time."

Finalists for the nonfiction prize, also worth $5,000, are Patricia Bell-Scott's "The Firebrand and the First Lady," Patrick Phillips' "Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America" and Matthew Desmond's "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City."

Winners will be announced Jan. 22 at the association's midwinter meeting in Atlanta.