The Los Angeles Times has announced the finalists for the 45th annual Book Prizes. In addition, Pico Iyer will receive the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement; Amanda Gorman will be honored with the Innovator’s Award; and Emily Witt will be presented with the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose. The winners will be announced in a ceremony on Friday, April 25th at USC’s Bovard Auditorium on the eve of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which will take place the weekend of April 26-27.

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2024 Finalists and Honorees

Achievement in Audiobook Production

• GIOVANNI'S ROOM narrated by Matt Bomer (Random House Audio)
• NEW NIGERIA COUNTY narrated by Clare Brown, Ayanna Dookie, Korey Jackson, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Brittany Pressley, Emana Rachelle, Malika Samuel, Heather Alicia Simms, Diana Bustelo, Tyla Collier, Alejandra Reynoso, David Sadzin, André Santana and Shaun Taylor-Corbett (Simon & Schuster Audio Originals)
• GEORGE ORWELL'S 1984: An Audible Original Adaptation; narrated by Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, Tom Hardy, Chukwudi Iwuji, Romesh Ranganathan, Natasia Demetriou, Francesca Mills, Alex Lawther and Katie Leung (Audible Original)
• JAMES narrated by Dominic Hoffman (Random House Audio)
• OUR HIDDEN CONVERSATIONS: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity, narrated by Michele Norris with a full cast (Simon & Schuster Audio)

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

• GHOSTROOTS: Stories, by ‘Pemi Aguda (W. W. Norton & Company)
• OLIVE DAYS by Jessica Elisheva Emerson (Counterpoint)
• CINEMA LOVE by Jiaming Tang (Dutton)
• GOD BLESS YOU, OTIS SPUNKMEYER by Joseph Earl Thomas (Grand Central Publishing)
• WHAT WE TRIED TO BURY GROWS HERE by Julian Zabalbeascoa (Two Dollar Radio)

Biography

• ORWELL'S GHOSTS: Wisdom and Warnings for the Twenty-First Century, by Laura Beers (W. W. Norton & Company)
• CANDY DARLING: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar, by Cynthia Carr (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• WE WERE ILLEGAL: Uncovering a Texas Family’s Mythmaking and Migration, by Jessica Goudeau (Viking)
• SURVIVAL IS A PROMISE: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, by Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE DRAGON FROM CHICAGO: The Untold Story of An American Reporter in Nazi Germany, by Pamela D. Toler (Beacon Press)

The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose

• HEALTH AND SAFETY: A Breakdown, by Emily Witt (Pantheon)

Current Interest

• EVERYONE WHO IS GONE IS HERE: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis, by Jonathan Blitzer (Penguin Press)
• THE MESSAGE by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World)
• THE RENT COLLECTORS: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA, by Jesse Katz (Astra House)
• THE SERVICEBERRY: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Scribner)
• THE BARN: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi, by Wright Thompson (Penguin Press)

Fiction

• HEADSHOT by Rita Bullwinkel (Viking)
• SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND by Jennine Capó Crucet (Simon & Schuster)
• JAMES by Percival Everett (Doubleday)
• SEASON OF THE SWAMP written by Yuri Herrera, translated by Lisa Dillman (Graywolf Press)
• ALL FOURS by Miranda July (Riverhead Books)

Graphic Novel/Comics

• HOBTOWN MYSTERY STORIES Vol. 2: THE CURSED HERMIT by Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes (Oni Press)
• TOKYO THESE DAYS, Vol. 1 by Taiyo Matsumoto (VIZ Media)
• CUTTING SEASON by Bhanu Pratap (Fantagraphics)
• PETAR & LIZA written by Miroslav Sekulic-Struja, translated by Jenna Allen (Fantagraphics)
• RARE FLAVOURS by Ram V and Filipe Andrade (BOOM! Studios)

History

• RUIN THEIR CROPS ON THE GROUND: The Politics of Food in the United States, From the Trail of Tears to School Lunch, by Andrea Freeman (Metropolitan Books)
• THE BLACK TAX: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America, by Andrew W. Kahrl (The University of Chicago Press)
• THE BLACK UTOPIANS: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America, by Aaron Robertson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• COLD WAR COUNTRY: How Nashville’s Music Row and the Pentagon Created the Sound of American Patriotism, by Joseph M. Thompson (The University of North Carolina Press)
• THE OTHER OLYMPIANS: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports, by Michael Waters (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Innovator’s Award

• Amanda Gorman

Mystery/Thriller

• HAVOC by Christopher Bollen (Harper)
• THE WAITING: A Ballard and Bosch Novel, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company)
• GUIDE ME HOME: A Highway 59 Novel, by Attica Locke (Mulholland Books)
• THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore (Riverhead Books)
• THE PUZZLE BOX by Danielle Trussoni (Random House)

Poetry

• ROOM SWEPT HOME by Remica Bingham-Risher (Wesleyan University Press)
• THE SORROW APARTMENTS by Andrea Cohen (Four Way Books)
• WARD TOWARD by Cindy Juyoung Ok (Yale University Press)
• INNER VERSES by Pam Rehm (Wave Books)
• BLACK BELL by Alison C. Rollins (Copper Canyon Press)

Robert Kirsch Award

• Pico Iyer

Science & Technology

• OUR MOON: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are, by Rebecca Boyle (Random House)
• BECOMING EARTH: How Our Planet Came to Life, by Ferris Jabr (Random House)
• TWELVE TREES: The Deep Roots of Our Future, by Daniel Lewis (Avid Reader Press)
• MATH IN DRAG by Kyne Santos (Johns Hopkins University Press)
• THE LIGHT EATERS: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth, by Zoë Schlanger (Harper)

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction

• THE NAMING SONG by Jedediah Berry (Tor Books)
• THE BRIGHT SWORD: A Novel of King Arthur, by Lev Grossman (Viking)
• THE BOOK OF LOVE by Kelly Link (Random House)
• ABSOLUTION: A Southern Reach Novel, by Jeff VanderMeer (MCD)
• THE CITY IN GLASS by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

Young Adult Literature

• KINDLING by Traci Chee (Clarion Books)
• LOOKING FOR SMOKE by K.A. Cobell (Heartdrum)
• BRIGHT RED FRUIT by Safia Elhillo (MAKE ME A WORLD)
• SHUT UP, THIS IS SERIOUS by Carolina Ixta (Quill Tree Books)
• THE COLOR OF A LIE by Kim Johnson (Random House Books for Young Readers)