The 39th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were awarded on Friday, April 12, 2019 in a public ceremony at USC's Bovard Auditorium. The best books of 2018 were recognized in 11 categories, along with the winners of the Robert Kirsch and Innovator’s awards.

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2018 Winners

Robert Kirsch Award
Terry Tempest Williams

Innovator's Award
Library of America

The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose
HEAVY: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon (Scribner)

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
HEADS OF THE COLORED: Stories, by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Atria / 37 INK)

Biography
FREDERICK DOUGLASS: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight (Simon and Schuster)

Current Interest
THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER: Dispatches from the Border, by Francisco Cantú (Riverhead Books)

Fiction
THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)

Graphic Novel/Comics
ON A SUNBEAM by Tillie Walden (First Second)

History
TRAVELERS IN THE THIRD REICH: The Rise of Fascism 1919-1945, by Julia Boyd (Pegasus Books)

Mystery/Thriller
MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday)

Poetry
WILD IS THE WIND: Poems, by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Science & Technology
DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, by Beth Macy (Little, Brown and Company)

Young Adult Literature
THE POET X by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperTeen)

2018 Finalists

Robert Kirsch Award

• Terry Tempest Williams

Innovator's Award

• Library of America

The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose

• HEAVY: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon (Scribner)

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

• THE DEEPER THE WATER THE UGLIER THE FISH by Katya Apekina (Two Dollar Radio)
• ASYMMETRY by Lisa Halliday (Simon & Schuster)
• THE INCENDIARIES by R. O. Kwon (Riverhead Books)
• THERE THERE by Tommy Orange (Knopf)
• HEADS OF THE COLORED: Stories, by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Atria / 37 INK)

Biography

• FREDERICK DOUGLASS: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight (Simon and Schuster)
• REPORTER: A Memoir, by Seymour M. Hersh (Knopf)
• AMERICAN EDEN: David Hosack, Botany and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic, by Victoria Johnson (Liveright)
• REAGAN: An American Journey, by Bob Spitz (Penguin Press)
• EDUCATED: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (Random House)

Current Interest

• THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER: Dispatches from the Border, by Francisco Cantú (Riverhead Books)
• BAD BLOOD: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou (Knopf)
• THE FIFTH RISK by Michael Lewis (W. W. Norton & Company)
• BECOMING by Michelle Obama (Crown)
• THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean (Simon & Schuster)

Fiction

• WASHINGTON BLACK by Esi Edugyan (Knopf)
• THE WILDLANDS by Abby Geni (Counterpoint)
• AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE by Tayari Jones (Algonquin Books)
• THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai (Viking)
• WARLIGHT by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf)

Graphic Novel/Comics

• THE PERVERT by Remy Boydell and Michelle Perez (Image Comics)
• WHY ART? by Eleanor Davis (Fantagraphics Books)
• SHIT IS REAL by Aisha Franz (Drawn and Quarterly)
• THE STRANGE by Jérôme Ruillier (Drawn and Quarterly)
• ON A SUNBEAM by Tillie Walden (First Second)

History

• TRAVELERS IN THE THIRD REICH: The Rise of Fascism 1919-1945, by Julia Boyd (Pegasus Books)
• SCOTS & CATALANS: Union and Disunion, by J.H. Elliott (Yale University Press)
• EMPRESS: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, by Ruby Lal (W. W. Norton & Company)
• THE BROWNS OF CALIFORNIA: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation, by Miriam Pawel (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• EMPIRE OF GUNS: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution, by Priya Satia (Penguin Press)

Mystery/Thriller

• GIVE ME YOUR HAND by Megan Abbott (Little, Brown and Company)
• GREEN SUN by Kent Anderson (Mulholland Books)
• NOVEMBER ROAD by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
• MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Doubleday)
• THE PERFECT NANNY by Leila Slimani (Penguin Books)

Poetry

• FEELD by Jos Charles (Milkweed Editions)
• AMERICAN SONNETS FOR MY PAST AND FUTURE ASSASSIN by Terrance Hayes (Penguin Books)
• GHOST OF by Diana Khoi Nguyen (Omnidawn)
• WILD IS THE WIND: Poems, by Carl Phillips (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• STILL LIFE WITH TWO DEAD PEACOCKS AND A GIRL Poems, by Diane Seuss (Graywolf Press)

Science & Technology

• WHAT THE EYES DON'T SEE: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City, by Mona Hanna-Attisha (One World)
• TIMEFULNESS: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World, by Marcia Bjornerud (Princeton University Press)
• NINE PINTS: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood, by Rose George (Metropolitan Books)
• AMITY AND PROSPERITY: One Family and the Fracturing of America, by Eliza Griswold (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, by Beth Macy (Little, Brown and Company)

Young Adult Literature

• THE POET X by Elizabeth Acevedo (HarperTeen)
• PICTURE US IN THE LIGHT by Kelly Loy Gilbert (Disney-Hyperion)
• A FEW RED DROPS: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, by Claire Hartfield (Clarion Books)
• HEY, KIDDO! by Jarrett Krosoczka (Graphix)
• THE ASTONISHING COLOR OF AFTER by Emily X.R. Pan (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)