Three writers with Maine ties were named as finalists for the Kirkus Prize in fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature on Tuesday.

Ashley Bryan of Little Cranberry Island was nominated for the picture book “Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life.” Annie Proulx, who graduated from Deering High School in Portland, was nominated for the novel “Barkskins,” and Susan Faludi, who teaches gender studies at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, was nominated for her memoir, “In the Darkroom.”

Presented by Kirkus Reviews, the Kirkus Prize was started in 2014 and is one of the richest in literature. The winner in each category receives $50,000. Yarmouth writer Lily King won the Kirkus Prize for fiction in 2014, for her novel “Euphoria.”

This year’s finalists were chosen from 515 young readers’ literature titles, 314 fiction titles and 325 nonfiction titles. The winners will be announced Nov. 3 in Austin, Texas.

“It’s so touching when something you do gets recognition, especially when one considers the thousands of books there are for young people alone,” Bryan said Tuesday. “It’s humbling.”

Bryan, 93, wrote and illustrated the book after purchasing documents of slave transactions during an auction several years ago in Northeast Harbor. The documents tell the name of the slaves and their approximate ages. Bryan, a decorated writer, illustrator and author, created their stories and brought them to life in prose and paint.

Faludi is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. “In the Darkroom” is about reconnecting with her long-estranged “scofflaw” father, who has undergone sex-reassignment surgery and is living in Hungary.

Proulx, a Pulitzer winner for fiction, wrote “Barkskins” about two young Frenchmen who arrive in New France, or what is now the region of Quebec, in the late 1700s and who work to clear forests in exchange for land. Her story follows the descendants of the woodcutters over 300 years.

The judges for the Kirkus awards are author Claire Messud, Connecticut bookstore owner Annie Philbrick, and journalist and Kirkus critic Gene Seymour.