Dave Barry, Dan Zevin finalists for Thurber humour prize

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Dave Barry and former “Saturday Night Live” writer Alan Zweibel are in the running for a top humour prize.

“Lunatics,” a novel co-written by Barry and Zweibel, is a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. The other nominees announced Wednesday were Shalom Auslander’s novel “Hope, A Tragedy” and NPR “comic correspondent” Dan Zevin’s essay collection “Dan Gets a Mini-Van.”

The winner receives $5,000. The prize is named for humorist-cartoonist James Thurber and has been given to Calvin Trillin, Christopher Buckley and David Sedaris among others. Zweibel won in 2006 for his novel “The Other Shulman.”