On April 23rd 2010, The Los Angeles Times announced the winners of its 30th Annual Book Prizes at a ceremony that kicked off the publication’s 2010 Festival of Books --- the country’s largest public literary festival. Established in 1980, the Prizes honor extraordinary authors and their works in 12 categories, including the first-ever Graphic Novel genre.

For more information about the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, go to http://www.LATimes.com.

2009 Winners

Biography
DOROTHEA LANGE: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon (W. W. Norton & Co.)

Current Interest
ZEITOUN by Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s Books)

Fiction
A HAPPY MARRIAGE by Rafael Yglesias (Scribner)

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
AMERICAN RUST by Philipp Meyer (Spiegel & Grau)

Graphic Novel
ASTERIOS POLYP by David Mazzucchelli (Pantheon)

History
GOLDEN DREAMS: California in an Age of Abundance 1950-1963 by Kevin Starr (Oxford University Press)

Mystery/Thriller
THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST by Stuart Neville (SOHO Press)

Poetry
PRACTICAL WATER by Brenda Hillman (Wesleyan University Press)

Science & Technology
THE STRANGEST MAN: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom by Graham Farmelo (Basic Books/ Penguin)

Young Adult Literature
MARCHING FOR FREEDOM: Walk Together Children and Don’t You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge (Viking Children’s Books / Penguin)

2009 Innovator’s Award Winner
Dave Eggers

2009 Robert Kirsch Award Winner
Evan S. Connell

2009 Finalists

2009 Innovator’s Award
Dave Eggers

2009 Robert Kirsch Award
Evan S. Connell

Biography
THE WOMAN BEHIND THE NEW DEAL: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)
DOROTHEA LANGE: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon (W.W. Norton & Co.)
KOESTLER: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth Century Skeptic by Michael Scammell, (Random House)
Louis D. Brandeis: A Life by Melvin Urofsky (Pantheon)
THE UNCROWNED KING: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst by Kenneth Whyte Counterpoint Press)

Current Interest
COLUMBINE by Dave Cullen (TWELVE/Hachette Book Group)
ZEITOUN by Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s Press)
THE STRENGTH IN WHAT REMAINS by Tracy Kidder (Random House)
HALF THE SKY: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn (Knopf)
THE HEALING OF AMERICA: The Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Healthcare by T.R. Reid, (The Penguin Press)

Fiction
HEROIC MEASURES by Jill Ciment (Pantheon)
THE MAN IN THE WOODEN HAT by Jane Gardam (Europa Editions)
BLAME by Michelle Huneven (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
A SHORT HISTORY OF WOMEN by Kate Walbert, (Scribner)
A HAPPY MARRIAGE by Rafael Yglesias (Scribner)

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
AN ELEGY FOR EASTERLY by Petina Gappah (Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
TINKERS by Paul Harding (Bellevue Literary Press)
AMERICAN RUST by Philipp Meyer (Spiegel & Grau)
IN OTHER ROOMS, OTHER WONDERS Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W.W. Norton & Co.)
EVERYTHING RAVAGED, EVERYTHING BURNED by Wells Tower (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Graphic Novel
LUBA (A Love and Rockets Book) by Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books)
GOGO MONSTER by Taiyo Matsumoto (VIZ Media)
ASTERIOS POLYP by David Mazzucchelli (Pantheon)
SCOTT PILGRIM, Vol 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe by Bryan Lee O’Malley (Oni Press)
FOOTNOTES IN GAZA by Joe Sacco (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Co., LLC)

History
AGE OF WONDER: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes (Pantheon)
PASSING STRANGE: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line by Martha A. Sandweiss (The Penguin Press)
GOLDEN DREAMS: California in an Age of Abundance 1950 – 1963 by  Kevin Starr (Oxford University Press)
LYNCHING AND SPECTACLE: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940 by Amy Louise Wood (University of North Carolina Press)
EMPIRE OF LIBERTY: A History of the Early Republic 1789 – 1815 by Gordon S. Wood (Oxford University Press)

Mystery / Thriller
BURY ME DEEP by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
THE HIDDEN MAN by David Ellis (Putnam)
BLACK WATER RISING by Attica Locke (HarperCollins)
A DRKER DOMAIN by Val McDermid (HarperCollins)
THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST by Stuart Neville (SOHO Press)

Poetry
APOCALYPTIC SWING by Gabrielle Calvocoressi (Persea Books)
DEAREST CREATURE by Amy Gerstler (Penguin Poets)
WHAT THE RIGHT HAND KNOWS by Tom Healy (Four Way Books)
PRACTICAL WATER by Brenda Hillman (Wesleyan University Press)
OPEN INTERVAL by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon (University of Pittsburgh Press)

Science & Technology
THE DAY WE FOUND THE UNIVERSE by Marcia Bartusiak (Pantheon)
THE STRANGEST MAN: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom by  Graham Farmelo (Basic Books/Perseus Book Group)
COLD: Adventures in the Worlds’ Frozen Places by Bill Streever (Little, Brown & Company)
CATCHING FIRE: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham, (Basic Books/Perseus Book Group)
NAMING NATURE: The Clash Between Instinct and Science by Carol Kaesuk Yoon   (W.W. Norton & Co)

Young Adult Literature
THE RISE AND FALL OF SENATOR JOE MCCARTHY by James Cross Giblin (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
THE LOST CONSPIRACY by Frances Hardinge (HarperCollins)
CHARLES AND EMMA: The Darwin’s Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers)
MARCHING FOR FREEDOM: Walk Together Children and Don’t You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge (Viking Children’s Books/Penguin Group)
TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)