The nominees were announced yesterday live on MSNBC. Among them, a fellow University of Illinois man, Dave Eggers ("A Hologram for the King").
He's a few years younger than me, but I met Dave briefly at an Illini Media Hall of Fame event a few years ago. He was inducted the same year as cranky old salt Robert Novak. Unlike Novak, Eggers gave a very gracious (and funny) speech.
The whole list of nominees is here.