2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Winners Announced

Tonight the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes honored the year’s best works in 10 categories at a gathering of literary luminaries hosted by Times Book Critic David L. Ulin. The 35th edition of the prestigious prizes, which recognize outstanding achievement in traditional and emerging genres, was held at the University of Southern California’s iconic Bovard Auditorium. T. Coraghessan Boyle received the 2014 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. The Innovator’s Award, which spotlights cutting-edge business models, technology or applications of narrative art, was presented to LeVar Burton.

The Book Prizes is a highlight of The Times’ annual Festival of Books, the largest literary and cultural festival in America, which is celebrating its 20th year. As part of The Times’ mission to connect communities of interest to its journalism and inspire conversation, the Festival of Books brings over 500 authors, musicians, artists and chefs together with more than 150,000 Southern Californians for a weekend dedicated to creativity and the written word.

2014 Book Prizes Winners

• Biography: Andrew Roberts, Napoleon: A Life (Viking)
• Current Interest: Jeff Hobbs, The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League (Scribner)
• Fiction: Siri Hustvedt, The Blazing World (Simon & Schuster)
• The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: Valeria Luiselli, Christina Macsweeney (trans.), Faces in the Crowd (Coffee House Press)
• Graphic Novel: Jaime Hernandez, The Love Bunglers (Fantagraphics)
• History: Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 (Viking)
• Mystery/Thriller: Tom Bouman, Dry Bones in the Valley (W.W. Norton & Company)
• Poetry: Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric (Graywolf Press)
• Science & Technology: Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History (Henry Holt and Co.)
• Young Adult Literature: Candace Fleming, The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia (Schwartz & Wade / Random House Children’s)
• Innovator’s Award: LeVar Burton
• Robert Kirsch Award: T. Coraghessan Boyle

The complete list of 2014 Book Prizes finalists and previous winners, as well as eligibility and judging information, can be found at latimes.com/bookprizes. Festival of Books news and updates are available on the event website, Facebook page and Twitter feed (#bookfest).

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