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.[1] 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.
See main article: Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction.
See main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography.
Author | Title | Publisher | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1981 | Mornings on Horseback | Simon & Schuster | |||
1982 | Waldo Emerson: A Biography | Viking | |||
1983 | The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House | Summit Books | |||
1984 | The Nightmare of Reason | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
1985 | Solzhenitsyn | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
1986 | Alexander Pope: A Life | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
1987 | Hemingway | Simon & Schuster | |||
1988 | Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom | ||||
1989 | This Boy's Life: A Memoir | Atlantic Monthly Press | |||
1990 | A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt | Harper & Row | |||
1991 | Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes, 1874–1952 | Henry Holt | |||
1992 | Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One, 1884–1933 | Viking | |||
1993 | Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer | Henry Holt | |||
1994 | Shot in the Heart | Doubleday | |||
1995 | HarperCollins | ||||
1996 | Angela's Ashes: A Memoir | Scribner | |||
1997 | Whittaker Chambers: A Biography | Random House | |||
1998 | Lindbergh | G.P. Putnam's Sons | |||
1999 | Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2000 | Jefferson Davis, American | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2001 | Theodore Rex | Random House | [22] | ||
2002 | Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 3 | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2003 | American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization | University of California Press | |||
2004 | and Annalyn Swan | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2005 | Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Conquest of Colour, 1909–1954 | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2006 | Alfred A. Knopf | ||||
2007 | Young Stalin | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2008 | Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching | Amistad/HarperCollins | |||
2009 | Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2010 | Random House | ||||
2011 | Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned | Doubleday | |||
2012 | Alfred A. Knopf | ||||
2013 | Bolivar: American Liberator | Simon & Schuster | |||
2014 | Napoleon: A Life | Viking | |||
2015 | Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2016 | with Jefferson Chase (trans.) | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2017 | Henry David Thoreau: A Life | University of Chicago Press | |||
2018 | Simon & Schuster | [23] | |||
2019 | Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century | Alfred A. Knopf | [24] [25] | ||
2020 | W.W. Norton & Company | [26] | |||
2021 | Henry Holt & Company | ||||
2022 | Viking Press | [27] | |||
2023 | Ecco/HarperCollins | [28] [29] |
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).[30]
Author | Title | Publisher | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | "They Can't Kill Us All": Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement | Little, Brown and Company | |||
2017 | Penguin Books | ||||
2018 | Scribner Book Company | ||||
2019 | Black is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2020 | Mayflies | ||||
2021 | Real Estate: A Living Autobiography | Bloomsbury | |||
2022 | Solito: A Memoir. | Hogarth Press | |||
2023 | Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma | Alfred A. Knopf |
See main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest.
Author | Title | Publisher | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | Without Fear or Favor | New York Times Books | |||
1981 | Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
1982 | Alfred A. Knopf | ||||
1983 | Lost in the Cosmos | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
1984 | Cities and the Wealth of Nations | Random House | |||
1985 | ,, William M. Sullivan, and Steven M. Tipton | Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life | University of California Press | ||
1986 | Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White | Times Books | |||
1987 | W.W. Norton & Company | ||||
1988 | Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country | Simon & Schuster | |||
1989 | Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963 | Simon & Schuster | |||
1990 | Disappearing through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century | Viking | |||
1991 | Why Americans Hate Politics: The Death of the Democratic Process | Simon & Schuster | |||
1992 | The Free Press | ||||
1993 | Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority | The Free Press | |||
1994 | Diplomacy | Simon & Schuster | |||
1995 | Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black | Dutton | |||
1996 | Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
1997 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ||||
1998 | We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
1999 | with Ovie Carter (photographer) | Sidewalk | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ||
2000 | Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War | Simon & Schuster | |||
2001 | Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America | Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt and Company | |||
2002 | Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex | University of Minnesota Press | |||
2003 | Basic Books | [31] | |||
2004 | Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War | G.P. Putnam's Sons | |||
2005 | Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War | Henry Holt | |||
2006 | Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance | Penguin Press | |||
2007 | Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2008 | Penguin Press | ||||
2009 | Zeitoun | McSweeney's Books | |||
2010 | W. W. Norton & Company | ||||
2011 | Thinking, Fast and Slow | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2012 | Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity | Random House | |||
2013 | Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital | Crown | |||
2014 | Scribner | ||||
2015 | Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security | W.W. Norton and Company | |||
2016 | with Bela Shayevich (trans.) | Random House | |||
2017 | Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America | Viking Press | |||
2018 | Riverhead Books | ||||
2019 | Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration | Random House | |||
2020 | Random House | ||||
2021 | Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could | Random House | |||
2022 | Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America | Penguin Press | |||
2023 | We Were Once A Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
See main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction.
See main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics.
Author | Title | Publisher | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | Asterios Polyp | Pantheon | |||
2010 | Duncan the Wonder Dog: Show One | AdHouse Books | |||
2011 | Finder: Voice | Dark Horse | |||
2012 | Everything Together: Collected Stories | PictureBox | |||
2013 | Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life | Fantagraphics | |||
2014 | Fantagraphics | ||||
2015 | Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978–1984 | Metropolitan Books | |||
2016 | Beverly | Drawn & Quarterly | |||
2017 | Present | Drawn & Quarterly | |||
2018 | On A Sunbeam | First Second Books | |||
2019 | Drawn & Quarterly | ||||
2020 | Apsara Engine | ||||
2021 | No One Else | Fantagraphics | |||
2022 | and Robyn Smith | Wash Day Diaries | |||
2023 | First Second Books |
See main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History.
Author | Title | Publisher | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | Walter Lippmann and the American Century | Atlantic/Little, Brown and Co. | |||
1981 | Land of Savagery/Land of Promise | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
1982 | The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895–1980 | Viking | |||
1983 | The Wheels of Commerce | Harper & Row | |||
1984 | The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History | Basic Books | |||
1985 | Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn | North Point Press | |||
1986 | The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within | Harvard University Press | |||
1987 | [32] | ||||
1988 | Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 | Harper & Row | |||
1989 | An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood | Crown | |||
1990 | The Quest for El Cid | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
1991 | The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
1992 | Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families under Fascism | Summit | |||
1993 | New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery | Harvard University Press | |||
1994 | Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940 | Basic Books | |||
1995 | Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America | Basic Books | |||
1996 | Black Sea | Hill & Wang | |||
1997 | Viking | ||||
1998 | The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
1999 | W.W. Norton & Company | ||||
2000 | The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach | University of Chicago Press | |||
2001 | Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus | Hill and Wang Division/Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2002 | Oxford University Press | ||||
2003 | An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2004 | Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2005 | |||||
2006 | The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2007 | Doubleday | ||||
2008 | Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe | Penguin Press | |||
2009 | Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance 1950–1963 | Oxford University Press | |||
2010 | The Killing of Crazy Horse | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2011 | Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2012 | America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union | Simon & Schuster | |||
2013 | The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 | HarperCollins | |||
2014 | The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916–1931 | Viking | |||
2015 | Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2016 | An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873 | Yale University Press | |||
2017 | The Death and Life of the Great Lakes | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2018 | Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism: 1919–1945 | Pegasus Books | |||
2019 | They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South | Yale University Press | |||
2020 | Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All | Basic Books | |||
2021 | Scribner | ||||
2022 | By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2023 | Shadows at Noon: The South Asian Twentieth Century |
See main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller.
Author | Title | Publisher | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | A Place of Execution | St. Martin's Press/Minotaur | |||
2001 | Silent Joe | Hyperion | |||
2002 | Hell to Pay | Little, Brown and Company | |||
2003 | Soul Circus | Little, Brown and Company | |||
2004 | Tijuana Straits | Scribner | |||
2005 | Legends: A Novel of Dissimulation | Overlook Press | |||
2006 | Echo Park | ||||
2007 | with Charlotte Barslund (trans.) | The Indian Bride | Harcourt | ||
2008 | Envy the Night | Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's /Minotaur | |||
2009 | The Ghosts of Belfast | SOHO Press | |||
2010 | Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter | William Morrow and Co. | |||
2011 | 11/22/63 | Scribner | |||
2012 | Broken Harbor | Viking | |||
2013 | (J. K. Rowling) | The Cuckoo's Calling | Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Company | ||
2014 | Dry Bones in the Valley | W.W. Norton and Company | |||
2015 | The Cartel | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2016 | Dodgers | Crown | |||
2017 | A Book of American Martyrs | Ecco | |||
2018 | My Sister, the Serial Killer | Viking | |||
2019 | Your House Will Pay | Ecco | |||
2020 | Blacktop Wasteland | Flatiron Books | |||
2021 | The Turnout | G.P. Putnam’s Sons | |||
2022 | Secret Identity: A Novel | Flatiron Books | |||
2023 | Sing Her Down | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
See main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry.
Author | Title | Publisher | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | Kill the Messenger | Black Sparrow | |||
1981 | Three Pieces | St. Martin's Press | |||
1982 | Plutonian Ode and Other Poems, 1977–1980 | City Lights | |||
1983 | The Changing Light at Sandover | Atheneum | |||
1984 | The Maximus Poems | University of California Press | |||
1985 | Cross Ties | University of Georgia Press | |||
1986 | Collected Poems, 1948–1984 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
1987 | Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
1988 | New and Collected Poems | Harcourt Brace Jovanovich | |||
1989 | The One Day: A Poem in Three Parts | Ticknor & Fields/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | |||
1990 | The Color of Mesabi Bones | Milkweed | |||
1991 | What Work Is | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
1992 | An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems 1988-1991 | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
1993 | My Alexandria | University of Illinois Press | |||
1994 | The Angel of History | HarperCollins | |||
1995 | The Inferno of Dante | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
1996 | Mixed Company | The University of Chicago Press | |||
1997 | Black Zodiac | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
1998 | Mysteries of Small Houses | Penguin Press | |||
1999 | Repair: Poems | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2000 | The Throne of Labdacus | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2001 | Alfred A. Knopf | ||||
2002 | The Watercourse: Poems | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2003 | Collected Later Poems | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2004 | Inner Voices: Selected Poems, 1963–2003 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2005 | Refusing Heaven: Poems | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2006 | Ooga-Booga | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2007 | Old Heart: Poems | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2008 | Watching the Spring Festival: Poems | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2009 | Practical Water | Wesleyan University Press | |||
2010 | Where I Live: New & Selected Poems 1990–2010 | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2011 | Double Shadow: Poems | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2012 | Poems 1962–2012 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2013 | Collected Poems | Coffee House Press | |||
2014 | Graywolf Press | ||||
2015 | From the New World: Poems 1976–2014 | Ecco/HarperCollins | |||
2016 | Gap Gardening: Selected Poems | New Directions | |||
2017 | TriQuarterly/Northwestern University Press | [33] | |||
2018 | Wild is the Wind: Poems | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2019 | Deaf Republic: Poems | Graywolf Press | |||
2020 | Obit | ||||
2021 | Graywolf Press | ||||
2022 | Nomenclature: New and Collected Poems | Duke University Press | |||
2023 | Bread and Circus: Poems | Scribner |
See main article: Ray Bradbury Prize.
Author | Title | Publisher | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | Black Leopard, Red Wolf | [34] | |||
2020 | |||||
2021 | Spirits Abroad: Stories | Small Beer | |||
2022 | Spear | ||||
2023 | Saga Press |
See main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology.
Author | Title | Publisher | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1989 | Peacemaking among Primates | Harvard University Press | |||
1990 | Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine | William Morrow and Co. | |||
1991 | The Truth About Chernobyl | Basic Books | |||
1992 | HarperCollins | ||||
1993 | and Paul Freiberger | Fuzzy Logic: The Discovery of a Revolutionary Computer Technology -- and How It Is Changing Our World | Simon & Schuster | ||
1994 | The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
1995 | Naturalist | Island Press | |||
1996 | Random House | ||||
1997 | How the Mind Works | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
1998 | Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
1999 | Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love | Walker and Company | |||
2000 | , M.D. | The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine | Carroll & Graf | ||
2001 | The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2002 | HarperCollins | ||||
2003 | Protecting America’s Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation | Alfred A. Knopf | |||
2004 | The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change | North Point Press / Farrar, Straus and Giroux | |||
2005 | Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima | Walker & Company | |||
2006 | In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2007 | I Am a Strange Loop | Basic Books | |||
2008 | Little, Brown and Company | ||||
2009 | Basic Books/Perseus Book Group | ||||
2010 | The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2011 | Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius | Simon & Schuster | |||
2012 | Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History | W.W. Norton & Company | |||
2013 | Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? | Little, Brown and Company | |||
2014 | Henry Holt & Co | ||||
2015 | Alfred A. Knopf | ||||
2016 | Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets | Random House | |||
2017 | Penguin Books | ||||
2018 | Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America | Little, Brown and Company | |||
2019 | Figuring | Pantheon | |||
2020 | The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir | Crown | |||
2021 | The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred | Bold Type Books | |||
2022 | How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures | Little, Brown and Company | |||
2023 | Is Math Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us To Mathematics’ Deepest Truths. |
See main article: Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Young Adult Novel.
Author | Title | Publisher | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | Rules of the Road | G.P. Putnam's Sons | |||
1999 | Frenchtown Summer | Delacorte Press | |||
2000 | Miracle's Boys | G.P. Putnam's Son | |||
2001 | The Land | Phyllis Fogelman Books / G.P. Putnam's Sons | |||
2002 | Feed | Candlewick Press | |||
2003 | A Northern Light | Harcourt Children's Books | |||
2004 | Doing It | Henry Holt Books for Young Readers | |||
2005 | with Tara Chace (trans.) | You & You & You | Front Street/Boyds Mills Press | ||
2006 | Tyrell | Push / Scholastic | |||
2007 | A Darkling Plain | Scholastic | |||
2008 | Nation | HarperCollins | |||
2009 | Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don’t You Grow Weary | Viking Children's Books/Penguin Group | |||
2010 | A Conspiracy of Kings | Greenwillow/HarperCollins | |||
2011 | Scholastic | ||||
2012 | Ask the Passengers | Little, Brown and Company | |||
2013 | Boxers and Saints | First Second/Macmillan | |||
2014 | The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia | Schwartz & Wade/Random House Children's | |||
2015 | My Seneca Village | Namelos | |||
2016 | The Lie Tree | Harry N. Abrams | |||
2017 | Long Way Down | ||||
2018 | The Poet X | HarperTeen | |||
2019 | When the Ground is Hard | G.P. Putnam | [35] | ||
2020 | and Ibi Zoboi | Punching the Air | Balzer + Bray | ||
2021 | Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins Children’s Books | ||||
2022 | Torch | ||||
2023 | Gone Wolf | Feiwel & Friends |
Author | |||
2009 | |||
2010 | Powell's Books, bookstore | ||
2011 | Figment, self-publishing platform | ||
2012 | |||
2013 | |||
2014 | |||
2015 | |||
2016 | |||
2017 | |||
2018 | Library of America | ||
2019 | WriteGirl | ||
2020 | Book Industry Charitable Foundation | ||
2021 | |||
2022 | Freedom to Read Foundation |