For more information about the Los Angeles Times book prizes, click here.BIOGRAPHY
2009 Dorothea Lange : a life beyond limits by Linda Gordon
2008 Ida : a sword among lions : Ida B. Wells and the campaign against lynching by Paula J. Giddings
2007 Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore
2006 Walt Disney : the triumph of the American imagination by Neal Gabler
2005 Matisse the master : a life of Henri Matisse, the conquest of colour, 1909-1954 by Hilary Spurling
2004 de Kooning : an American master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
2003 American empire : Roosevelt's geographer and the prelude to globalization by Neil Smith
2002 The years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 3 : Master of the Senate by Robert A. Caro
2001 Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
2000 Jefferson Davis, American by William J. Cooper, Jr.
1999 Secrets of the flesh : a life of Colette by Judith Thurman
1998 Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg
1997 Whittaker Chambers : a biography by Sam Tanenhaus
1996 Angela's ashes : a memoir by Frank McCourt
1995 Under my skin : volume one of my autobiography, to 1949 by Doris Lessing
1994 Shot in the heart by Mikal Gilmore
1993 Daniel Boone : the life and legend of an American pioneer by John Mack Faragher
1992 Eleanor Roosevelt, volume one : 1884-1933 by Blanche Wiesen Cook
1991 Righteous pilgrim : the life and times of Harold L. Ickes, 1874-1952 by T.H. Watkins
1990 A first-class temperament : the emergence of Franklin Roosevelt by Geoffrey C. Ward
1989 This boy's life : a memoir by Tobias Wolff
1988 Nora : the real life of Molly Bloom by Brenda Maddox
1987 Hemingway by Kenneth S. Lynn
1986 Alexander Pope : a life by Maynard Mack
1985 Solzhenitsyn : a biography by Michael Scammell
1984 The nightmare of reason : a life of Franz Kafka by Ernst Pawel
1983 The price of power : Kissinger in the Nixon White House by Seymour Hersh
1982 Waldo Emerson : a biography by Gay Wilson Allen
1981 Mornings on horseback by David McCullough
1980 [Biography award concurrent with this year's History award]
CURRENT INTEREST
2009 Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
2008 Angler : the Cheney vice presidency by Barton Gellman
2007 Soldier's heart : reading literature through peace and war at West Point by Elizabeth D. Samet
2006 Murder in Amsterdam : the death of Theo van Gogh and the limits of tolerance by Ian Buruma
2005 Night draws near : Iraq's people in the shadow of America's war by Anthony Shadid
2004 Generation kill : Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the new face of American war by Evan Wright
2003 The new Chinese empire : and what it means for the United States by Ross Terrill
2002 Harmful to minors : the perils of protecting children from sex by Judith Levine
2001 Nickel and dimed : on (not) getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
2000 Way out there in the blue : Reagan, Star Wars, and the end of the Cold War by Frances FitzGerald
1999 Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier (with photographs by Ovie Carter)
1998 We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families : stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch
1997 The spirit catches you and you fall down : a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures by Anne Fadiman
1996 Love thy neighbor : a story of war by Peter Maass
1995 Life on the color line : the true story of a white boy who discovered he was black by Gregory Howard Williams
1994 Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger
1993 Mexican Americans : the ambivalent minority by Peter Skerry
1992 The end of history and the last man by Francis Fukuyama
1991 Why Americans hate politics : the death of the democratic process by E.J. Dionne, Jr.
1990 Disappearing through the skylight : culture and technology in the twentieth century by O.B. Hardison, Jr.
1989 Parting the waters : America in the King years, 1954-63 by Taylor Branch
1988 Secrets of the temple : how the Federal Reserve runs the country by William Greider
1987 The blind watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
1986 Move your shadow : South Africa, Black and White by Joseph Lelyveld
1985 Habits of the heart : individualism and commitment in American life by Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Steven M. Tipton
1984 Cities and the wealth of nations : principles of economic life by Jane Jacobs
1983 Lost in the cosmos : the last self-help book by Walker Percy
1982 The fate of the earth by Jonathan Schell
1981 Prisoner without a name, cell without a number by Jacobo Timerman
1980 Without fear or favor : the New York times and its times by Harrison Salisbury [Winner of the General Award--no Current Interest Award this year]
FICTION
2009 A happy marriage : a novel by Rafael Yglesias
2008 Home by Marilynne Robinson
2007 Be near me by Andrew O'Hagan
2006 A woman in Jerusalem by A. B. Yehoshua ; translated from the Hebrew by Hillel Halkin
2005 Memories of my melancholy whores by Gabriel García Márquez ; translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman
2004 The master : a novel by Colm Tóibín
2003 Train : a novel by Pete Dexter
2002 Atonement : a novel by Ian McEwan
2001 Why did I ever by Mary Robison
2000 Assorted fire events : stories by David Means
1999 Freedom song : three novels by Amit Chaudhuri
1998 The rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald ; translated from the German by Michael Hulse
1997 In the Rogue Blood by James Carlos Blake
1996 A fine balance : a novel by Rohinton Mistry
1995 The blue afternoon by William Boyd
1994 Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
1993 Pigs in heaven : a novel by Barbara Kingsolver
1992 Maus II : a survivor's tale : and here my troubles began by Art Spiegelman
1991 White people by Allan Gurganus
1990 Lantern slides : stories by Edna O'Brien
1989 The heart of the country by Fay Weldon
1988 Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel García Márquez ; translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman
1987 Fools Crow by James Welch
1986 The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood
1985 Love medicine : a novel by Louis Erdrich
1984 The unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera ; translated from the Czech by Michael Henry Heim
1983 Schindler's list by Thomas Keneally
1982 A flag for sunrise : a novel by Robert Stone
1981 The white hotel by D. M. Thomas
1980 The second coming by Walker Percy
GRAPHIC NOVEL
2009 Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
HISTORY
2009 Golden dreams : California in an age of abundance, 1950–1963 by Kevin Starr
2008 Hitler's empire : how the Nazis ruled Europe by Mark Mazower
2007 Legacy of ashes : the history of the CIA by Tim Weiner
2006 The looming tower : Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
2005 Bury the chains : prophets and rebels in the fight to free an empire’s slaves by Adam Hochschild
2004 Perilous times : free speech in wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the war on terrorism by Geoffrey R. Stone
2003 An imperfect god : George Washington, his slaves, and the creation of America by Henry Wiencek
2002 Six days of war : June 1967 and the making of the modern Middle East by Michael B. Oren
2001 Before the storm : Barry Goldwater and the unmaking of the American consensus by Rick Perlstein
2000 The collaborator : the trial & execution of Robert Brasillach by Alice Kaplan
1999 Embracing defeat : Japan in the wake of World War II by John W. Dower
1998 The greatest benefit to mankind : a medical history of humanity by Roy Porter
1997 A people's tragedy : a history of the Russian Revolution by Orlando Figes
1996 Black Sea by Neal Ascherson
1995 Fables of abundance : a cultural history of advertising in America by Jackson Lears
1994 Gay New York : gender, urban culture, and the makings of the gay male world, 1890-1940 by George Chauncey
1993 New worlds, ancient texts : the power of tradition and the shock of discovery by Anthony Grafton
1992 Benevolence and betrayal : five Italian Jewish families under Fascism by Alexander Stille
1991 The promised land : the great Black migration and how it changed America by Nicholas Lemann
1990 The quest for El Cid by Richard Fletcher
1989 An empire of their own : how the Jews invented Hollywood by Neal Gabler
1988 Reconstruction : America's unfinished revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner
1987 No award in 1987
1986 The first socialist society : a history of the Soviet Union from within by Geoffrey Hosking (2d ed., 1993)
1985 Son of the Morning Star by Evan S. Connell
1984 The great cat massacre and other episodes in French cultural history by Robert Darnton
1983 Civilization and capitalism, 15th-18th century, v. 2 : the wheels of commerce by Fernand Braudel
1982 The Gate of Heavenly Peace : the Chinese and their revolution, 1895-1980 by Jonathan D. Spence
1981 Land of savagery/land of promise : the European image of the American frontier in the nineteenth century by Ray Allen Billington
1980 Walter Lippmann and the American century by Ronald Steel
MYSTERY/THRILLER
2009 The ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville
2008 Envy the night by Michael Koryta
2007 The Indian bride by Karin Fossum ; Translated by Charlotte Barslund
2006 Echo Park : a novel by Michael Connelly
2005 Legends : a novel of dissimulation by Robert Littell
2004 Tijuana Straits : a novel by Kem Nunn
2003 Soul circus : a novel by George P. Pelecanos
2002 Hell to pay : a novel by George P. Pelecanos
2001 Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker
2000 A place of execution : a novel by Val McDermid
POETRY
2009 Practical water by Brenda Hillman
2008 Watching the spring festival by Frank Bidart
2007 Old heart : poems by Stanley Plumly
2006 Ooga-booga by Frederick Seidel
2005 Refusing heaven : poems by Jack Gilbert
2004 Inner voices : selected poems, 1963-2003 by Richard Howard
2003 Collected later poems by Anthony Hecht
2002 The watercourse : poems by Cynthia Zarin
2001 The beauty of the husband : a fictional essay in 29 tangos by Anne Carson
2000 The throne of Labdacus by Gjertrud Schnackenberg
1999 Repair by C. K. Williams
1998 Mysteries of small houses by Alice Notley
1997 Black zodiac by Charles Wright
1996 Mixed company by Alan Shapiro
1995 The Inferno of Dante : a new verse translation by Robert Pinsky
1994 The angel of history by Carolyn Forché
1993 My Alexandria : poems by Mark Doty
1992 An atlas of the difficult world : poems, 1988-1991 by Adrienne Rich
1991 What work is : poems by Phillip Levine
1990 The color of Mesabi bones : poems and prose poems by John Caddy
1989 The one day : a poem in three parts by Donald Hall
1988 New and collected poems by Richard Wilbur
1987 Partial accounts : new and selected poems by William Meredith
1986 Collected poems, 1948-1984 by Derek Walcott
1985 Cross ties : selected poems by X. J. Kennedy
1984 The Maximus poems by Charles Olson
1983 The changing light at Sandover by James Merrill
1982 Plutonian Ode : poems, 1977-1980 by Allen Ginsberg
1981 Three pieces by Ntozake Shange
1980 Kill the messenger who brings bad news by Robert Kelly
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
2009 The strangest man : the hidden life of Paul Dirac, mystic of the atom by Graham Farmelo
2008 The black hole war : my battle with Stephen Hawking to make the world safe for quantum mechanics by Leonard Susskind
2007 I am a strange loop by Douglas Hofstadter
2006 In search of memory : the emergence of a new science of mind by Eric R. Kandel
2005 Before the fallout : from Marie Curie to Hiroshima by Diana Preston
2004 The whale and the supercomputer : on the northern front of climate change by Charles Wohlforth
2003 Protecting America's health : the FDA, business, and one hundred years of regulation by Philip J. Hilts
2002 Rosalind Franklin : the dark lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
2001 The invention of clouds : how an amateur meteorologist forged the language of the skies by Richard Hamblyn
2000 The rise and fall of modern medicine by James Le Fanu, M.D.
1999 Galileo's daughter : a historical memoir of science, faith, and love by Dava Sobel
1998 Blood : an epic history of medicine and commerce by Douglas Starr
1997 How the mind works by Steven Pinker
1996 The demon-haunted world : science as a candle in the dark by Carl Sagan
1995 Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson
1994 The beak of the finch : evolution in real time by Jonathan Weiner
1993 Fuzzy logic by Daniel McNeill and Paul Freiberger
1992 The third chimpanzee : the evolution and future of the human animal by Jared Diamond
1991 The truth about Chernobyl by Grigori Mevedev ; translated from the Russian by David MacRae
1990 Patenting the sun : polio and the Salk vaccine by Jane S. Smith
1989 Peacemaking among primates by Frans de Waal
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
2009 Marching for freedom : walk together, children, and don't you grow weary by Elizabeth Partridge
2008 Nation by Terry Pratchett
2007 A Darkling Plain (The Hungry City Chronicles) by Philip Reeve
2006 Tyrell by Coe Booth
2005 You & you & you by Per Nilsson ; translated from the Swedish by Tara Chace
2004 Doing it by Melvin Burgess
2003 A northern light by Jennifer Donnelly
2002 Feed by M. T. Anderson
2001 The land by Mildred D. Taylor
2000 Miracle's boys by Jacqueline Woodson
1999 Frenchtown summer by Robert Cormier
1998 Rules of the road by Joan Bauer
THE ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION
2009 American rust by Philipp Meyer
2008 Finding Nouf by Zoë Ferraris
2007 The beautiful things that heaven bears by Dinaw Mengestu
2006 White ghost girls by Alice Greenway
2005 Beasts of no nation : a novel by Uzodinma Iweala
2004 Harbor by Lorraine Adams
2003 The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon
2002 Prague : a novel by Arthur Phillips
2001 The dark room by Rachel Seiffert
2000 The romantics : a novel by Pankaj Mishra
1999 Amy and Isabelle : a novel by Elizabeth Strout
1998 Kalimantaan by C. S. Godshalk
1997 Don't erase me : stories by Carolyn Ferrell
1996 The smell of apples by Mark Behr
1995 American studies by Mark Merlis
1994 The year of the frog by Martin M. Šimecka ; translated by Peter Petro ; foreword by Václav Havel
1993 Love <Enter> by Paul Kafka
1992 High cotton by Darryl Pinckney
1991 Pangs of love : stories by David Wong Louie
THE ROBERT KIRSCH AWARD
2009 Evan S. Connell
2008 Robert Alter
2007 Maxine Hong Kingston
2006 William Kittredge
2005 Joan Didion
2004 Tony Hillerman
2003 Ishmael Reed
2001 Tillie Olsen
2000 Lawrence Ferlinghetti
1999 Ursula K. Le Guin
1998 John Sanford
1997 Ray Bradbury
1996 Gary Snyder
1995 Stephen J. Pyne
1994 Brian Moore
1993 Carolyn See
1992 Diane Johnson
1991 Ken Kesey
1990 Czeslaw Miłosz
1989 Karl Shapiro
1988 Thom Gunn
1987 Paul Horgan
1986 Kay Boyle
1985 Janet Lewis
1984 Christopher Isherwood
1983 M. F. K. Fisher
1982 Ross Macdonald
1981 Wright Morris
1980 Wallace Stegner