St. Paul memoirist Kao Kalia Yang a finalist for prestigious Chautauqua Award

St. Paul memoirist Kao Kalia Yang is one of six finalists for the prestigious Chautauqua Prize. Yang's book was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It is a memoir about the life of her father, Bee Yang, a traditional Hmong song poet.

The six finalists are:

"The General vs. The President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War," by H.W. Brands (Doubleday)

"The Fortunes," by Peter Ho Davies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

"Blood River Rising: The Thompson-Crimson Feud of the 1920s," by Victoria Pope Hubbell (Iris Press)

"Underground Airlines," by Ben H. Winters (Mulholland Books)

"American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good," by Colin Woodard (Viking)

The prize, now in its sixth year, carries an award of $7,500 and a summer residency at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. The prize honors a book that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and a writer who ofers a significant contribution to the literary arts.

The winner will be announced in May.