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The Los Angeles Times announced this year's book prize winners last night at USC's Bovard Auditorium, on the eve of the Festival of Books held this weekend on campus at USC. Kevin Starr, the California historian and former state librarian, received the Robert Kirsch Award. He had won the LAT prize in history in 2009. Here are the rest of the winners, via the LAT:
Biography: Robert Caro, "The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson" (Knopf)Current Interest: Katherine Boo, "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity" (Random House)
Fiction: Ben Fountain, "Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk" (HarperCollins Publishers / Ecco)
The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: Maggie Shipstead, "Seating Arrangements" (Knopf)
Graphic Novel/Comics: Sammy Harkham, "Everything Together: Collected Stories" (PictureBox)
History: Fergus M. Bordewich, "America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union" (Simon & Schuster)
Mystery/Thriller: Tana French, "Broken Harbor" (Viking)
Poetry: Louise Glück, "Poems 1962-2012" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Science & Technology: Florence Williams, "Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History" (W.W. Norton & Company)
Young Adult Literature: A.S. King, "Ask the Passengers" (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Innovator's Award: Margaret Atwood
The book festival began this morning and runs all day — and again tomorrow. I will be signing Sunday between 2 and 4 p.m. at the Angel City Press booth near the Tommy Trojan statue.
