Since 1980, the Los Angeles Times has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Los Angeles Times Book Prize currently has nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller (category added in 2000), poetry, science and technology (category added in 1989), and young adult fiction (category added in 1998). In addition, the Robert Kirsch Award is presented annually to a living author with a substantial connection to the American West. It is named in honor of Robert Kirsch, the Los Angeles Times book critic from 1952 until his death in 1980 whose idea it was to establish the book prizes.
The Book Prize program was founded by Art Seidenbaum, a Los Angeles Times book editor from 1978 to 1985. An award named for Seidenbaum was added a year after his death in 1990. Works are eligible during the year of their first US publication in English, and may be written originally in languages other than English. The author of each winning book and the Kirsch Award recipient receives a citation and $500. The prizes are presented the day before the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
Winners
Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
Main article: Art Seidenbaum Award for First FictionBiography
Main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for BiographyChristopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose
The Los Angeles Times – Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose has been awarded in partnership with the Christopher Isherwood Foundation since April 2017 (for 2016).
| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Wesley Lowery | "They Can't Kill Us All": Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement | Little, Brown and Company | |
| 2017 | Benjamin Taylor | The Hue and Cry at Our House: A Year Remembered | Penguin Books | |
| 2018 | Kiese Laymon | Heavy: An American Memoir | Scribner Book Company | |
| 2019 | Emily Bernard | Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine | Alfred A. Knopf | |
| 2020 | Andrew O'Hagan | Mayflies | ||
| 2021 | Deborah Levy | Real Estate: A Living Autobiography | Bloomsbury | |
| 2022 | Javier Zamora | Solito: A Memoir. | Hogarth Press | |
| 2023 | Claire Dederer | Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma | Alfred A. Knopf |
Current interest
Main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current InterestFiction
Main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for FictionGraphic Novel/Comics
Main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | David Mazzucchelli | Asterios Polyp | Pantheon | |
| 2010 | Adam Hines | Duncan the Wonder Dog: Show One | AdHouse Books | |
| 2011 | Carla Speed McNeil | Finder: Voice | Dark Horse | |
| 2012 | Sammy Harkham | Everything Together: Collected Stories | PictureBox | |
| 2013 | Ulli Lust | Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life | Fantagraphics | |
| 2014 | Jaime Hernandez | The Love Bunglers | Fantagraphics | |
| 2015 | Riad Sattouf | Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978–1984 | Metropolitan Books | |
| 2016 | Nick Drnaso | Beverly | Drawn & Quarterly | |
| 2017 | Leslie Stein | Present | Drawn & Quarterly | |
| 2018 | Tillie Walden | On a Sunbeam | First Second Books | |
| 2019 | Eleanor Davis | The Hard Tomorrow | Drawn & Quarterly | |
| 2020 | Bishakh Kumar Som | Apsara Engine | ||
| 2021 | R. Kikuo Johnson | No One Else | Fantagraphics | |
| 2022 | Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith | Wash Day Diaries | ||
| 2023 | Emily Carroll | A Guest in the House | First Second Books |
History
Main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Ronald Steel | Walter Lippmann and the American Century | Atlantic/Little, Brown and Co. | |
| 1981 | Ray Allen Billington | Land of Savagery/Land of Promise | W.W. Norton & Company | |
| 1982 | Jonathan D. Spence | The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895–1980 | Viking | |
| 1983 | Fernand Braudel | The Wheels of Commerce | Harper & Row | |
| 1984 | Robert Darnton | The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History | Basic Books | |
| 1985 | Evan S. Connell | Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn | North Point Press | |
| 1986 | Geoffrey Hosking | The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within | Harvard University Press | |
| 1987 | Robert Jay Lifton | The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide | Basic Books | |
| 1988 | Eric Foner | Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 | Harper & Row | |
| 1989 | Neal Gabler | An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood | Crown | |
| 1990 | Richard Fletcher | The Quest for El Cid | Alfred A. Knopf | |
| 1991 | Nicholas Lemann | The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America | Alfred A. Knopf | |
| 1992 | Alexander Stille | Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families under Fascism | Summit | |
| 1993 | Anthony Grafton | New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery | Harvard University Press | |
| 1994 | George Chauncey | Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940 | Basic Books | |
| 1995 | Jackson Lears | Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America | Basic Books | |
| 1996 | Neal Ascherson | Black Sea | Hill & Wang | |
| 1997 | Orlando Figes | A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution | Viking | |
| 1998 | Roy Porter | The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity | W.W. Norton & Company | |
| 1999 | John W. Dower | Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II | W.W. Norton & Company | |
| 2000 | Alice Kaplan | The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach | University of Chicago Press | |
| 2001 | Rick Perlstein | Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus | Hill and Wang Division/Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |
| 2002 | Michael B. Oren | Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East | Oxford University Press | |
| 2003 | Henry Wiencek | An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |
| 2004 | Geoffrey R. Stone | Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism | W.W. Norton & Company | |
| 2005 | Adam Hochschild | Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves | Houghton Mifflin | |
| 2006 | Lawrence Wright | The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 | Alfred A. Knopf | |
| 2007 | Tim Weiner | Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA | Doubleday | |
| 2008 | Mark Mazower | Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe | Penguin Press | |
| 2009 | Kevin Starr | Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance 1950–1963 | Oxford University Press | |
| 2010 | Thomas Powers | The Killing of Crazy Horse | Alfred A. Knopf | |
| 2011 | Richard White | Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America | W.W. Norton & Company | |
| 2012 | Fergus M. Bordewich | America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union | Simon & Schuster | |
| 2013 | Christopher Clark | The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 | HarperCollins | |
| 2014 | Adam Tooze | The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916–1931 | Viking | |
| 2015 | Dan Ephron | Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel | W.W. Norton & Company | |
| 2016 | Benjamin Madley | An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873 | Yale University Press | |
| 2017 | Dan Egan | The Death and Life of the Great Lakes | W.W. Norton & Company | |
| 2018 | Julia Boyd | Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919–1945 | Pegasus Books | |
| 2019 | Stephanie Jones-Rogers | They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South | Yale University Press | |
| 2020 | Martha S. Jones | Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All | Basic Books | |
| 2021 | Ada Ferrer | Cuba: An American History | Scribner | |
| 2022 | Margaret A. Burnham | By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners | W.W. Norton & Company | |
| 2023 | Joya Chatterji | Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century | Yale University Press |
Mystery/thriller
Main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/ThrillerPoetry
Main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for PoetryRay Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction
Main article: Ray Bradbury Prize| Year | Author | Title | Publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Marlon James | Black Leopard, Red Wolf | ||
| 2020 | Stephen Graham Jones | The Only Good Indians | ||
| 2021 | Zen Cho | Spirits Abroad: Stories | Small Beer | |
| 2022 | Nicola Griffith | Spear | ||
| 2023 | Tananarive Due | The Reformatory | Saga Press |
Science and technology
Main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and TechnologyYoung adult literature
Main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult NovelInnovator's Award
| Year | Author | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Dave Eggers | |
| 2010 | Powell's Books, bookstore | |
| 2011 | Figment, self-publishing platform | |
| 2012 | Margaret Atwood | |
| 2013 | John Green | |
| 2014 | LeVar Burton | |
| 2015 | James Patterson | |
| 2016 | Rueben Martinez | |
| 2017 | Glory Edim | |
| 2018 | Library of America | |
| 2019 | WriteGirl | |
| 2020 | Book Industry Charitable Foundation | |
| 2021 | Reginald Dwayne Betts | |
| 2022 | Freedom to Read Foundation | |
| 2023 | — |
Robert Kirsch Award
| Year | Author | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Wallace Stegner | |
| 1981 | Wright Morris | |
| 1982 | Ross Macdonald | |
| 1983 | M. F. K. Fisher | |
| 1984 | Christopher Isherwood | |
| 1985 | Janet Lewis | |
| 1986 | Kay Boyle | |
| 1987 | Paul Horgan | |
| 1988 | Thom Gunn | |
| 1989 | Karl Shapiro | |
| 1990 | Czeslaw Milosz | |
| 1991 | Ken Kesey | |
| 1992 | Diane Johnson | |
| 1993 | Carolyn See | |
| 1994 | Brian Moore | |
| 1995 | Stephen J. Pyne | |
| 1996 | Gary Snyder | |
| 1997 | Ray Bradbury | |
| 1998 | John Sanford | |
| 1999 | Ursula K. Le Guin | |
| 2000 | Lawrence Ferlinghetti | |
| 2001 | Tillie Olsen | |
| 2002 | Larry McMurtry | |
| 2003 | Ishmael Reed | |
| 2004 | Tony Hillerman | |
| 2005 | Joan Didion | |
| 2006 | William Kittredge | |
| 2007 | Maxine Hong Kingston | |
| 2008 | Robert Alter | |
| 2009 | Evan S. Connell | |
| 2010 | Beverly Cleary | |
| 2011 | Rudolfo Anaya | |
| 2012 | Kevin Starr | |
| 2013 | Susan Straight | |
| 2014 | TC Boyle | |
| 2015 | Juan Felipe Herrera | |
| 2016 | Thomas McGuane | |
| 2017 | John Rechy | |
| 2018 | Terry Tempest Williams | |
| 2019 | Walter Mosley | |
| 2020 | Leslie Marmon Silko | |
| 2021 | Luis J. Rodriguez | |
| 2022 | James Ellroy | |
| 2023 | Jane Smiley |
References
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External links
- Honorees by Year and Award Los Angeles Times Book Prizes.
| Los Angeles Times Book Prize | |
|---|---|
| Book Prizes | |
| Author Prizes | |