Since 1980, the Los Angeles Times has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Los Angeles Times Book Prize currently has nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller (category added in 2000), poetry, science and technology (category added in 1989), and young adult fiction (category added in 1998). In addition, the Robert Kirsch Award is presented annually to a living author with a substantial connection to the American West. It is named in honor of Robert Kirsch, the Los Angeles Times book critic from 1952 until his death in 1980 whose idea it was to establish the book prizes.
The Book Prize program was founded by Art Seidenbaum, a Los Angeles Times book editor from 1978 to 1985. An award named for Seidenbaum was added a year after his death in 1990. Works are eligible during the year of their first US publication in English, and may be written originally in languages other than English. The author of each winning book and the Kirsch Award recipient receives a citation and $500. The prizes are presented the day before the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
Winners
Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
+The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction winners Year Author Title Publisher 1991Pangs of LoveAlfred A. Knopf1992High CottonFarrar, Straus and Giroux1993LoveHoughton Mifflin1994The Year of the FrogLouisiana State University Press1995American StudiesHoughton Mifflin1996The Smell of ApplesSt. Martin's Press1997Don't Erase Me: StoriesHoughton Mifflin1998KalimantaanHenry Holt1999Amy and IsabelleRandom House2000The RomanticsRandom House2001The Dark RoomPantheon Books2002PragueRandom House2003The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-TimeDoubleday2004HarborAlfred A. Knopf2005Beasts of No NationHarperCollins2006White Ghost GirlsBlack Cat / Grove/Atlantic2007The Beautiful Things That Heaven BearsRiverhead2008Finding NoufHoughton Mifflin Harcourt2009American RustSpiegel & Grau2010The House of TomorrowAmy Einhorn Books/G.P. Putnam's Sons2011ShardsBlack Cat / Grove/Atlantic2012Seating ArrangementsAlfred A. Knopf2013We Need New NamesReagan Arthur Books2014 with Christina MacSweeney (trans.)Faces in the CrowdCoffee House Press2015The FishermanLittle, Brown and Company2016The NixAlfred A. Knopf2017Sour HeartRandom House2018Heads of the Colored PeopleAtria/37 Ink2019The Old DriftHogarth Press2020The Secret Lives of Church LadiesWest Virginia University Press2021BroodDoubleday2022Hodder & Stoughton2023Company: StoriesGraywolf Press2024Cinema LoveDutton2025Justin HaynesIbis: A NovelAbrams Books
Biography
+Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography winners Year Author Title Publisher 1981Mornings on HorsebackSimon & Schuster1982Waldo Emerson: A BiographyViking1983The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White HouseSummit Books1984The Nightmare of ReasonFarrar, Straus and Giroux1985SolzhenitsynW.W. Norton & Company1986Alexander Pope: A LifeW.W. Norton & Company1987HemingwaySimon & Schuster1988Nora: The Real Life of Molly BloomHoughton Mifflin 1989This Boy's Life: A MemoirAtlantic Monthly Press1990A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin RooseveltHarper & Row1991Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes, 1874–1952Henry Holt1992Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One, 1884–1933Viking1993Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American PioneerHenry Holt1994Shot in the HeartDoubleday1995Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949HarperCollins1996Angela's Ashes: A MemoirScribner1997Whittaker Chambers: A BiographyRandom House1998LindberghG.P. Putnam's Sons1999Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of ColetteAlfred A. Knopf2000Jefferson Davis, AmericanAlfred A. Knopf2001Theodore RexRandom House2002Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 3Alfred A. Knopf2003American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to GlobalizationUniversity of California Press2004 and Annalyn Swande Kooning: An American MasterAlfred A. Knopf2005Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Conquest of Colour, 1909–1954Alfred A. Knopf2006Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American ImaginationAlfred A. Knopf2007Young StalinAlfred A. Knopf2008Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against LynchingAmistad/HarperCollins2009Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond LimitsW.W. Norton & Company2010Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and RedemptionRandom House2011Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the DamnedDoubleday2012The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon JohnsonAlfred A. Knopf2013Bolivar: American LiberatorSimon & Schuster2014Napoleon: A LifeViking2015Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu NoguchiFarrar, Straus and Giroux2016 with Jefferson Chase (trans.)Hitler: Ascent, 1889–1939Alfred A. Knopf2017Henry David Thoreau: A LifeUniversity of Chicago Press2018Frederick Douglass: Prophet of FreedomSimon & Schuster2019Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American CenturyAlfred A. Knopf2020Mad at the World: A Life of John SteinbeckW.W. Norton & Company2021Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen CraneHenry Holt & Company2022G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American CenturyViking Press2023Ecco/HarperCollins2024W. W. Norton & Company2025The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made ThemHarperCollins
Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose The Los Angeles Times – Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose has been awarded in partnership with the Christopher Isherwood Foundation since April 2017 (for 2016). +The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose winners Year Author Title Publisher 2016"They Can't Kill Us All": Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice MovementLittle, Brown and Company2017Penguin Books2018Heavy: An American MemoirScribner Book Company2019Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and MineAlfred A. Knopf2020Mayflies2021Real Estate: A Living AutobiographyBloomsbury2022Solito: A Memoir.Hogarth Press2023Monsters: A Fan's DilemmaAlfred A. Knopf2024Health and Safety: A BreakdownPantheon Books2025Adam RossPlayworld: A NovelAlfred A. Knopf
Current interest
+Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest winners Year Author Title Publisher 1980 Without Fear or FavorNew York Times Books1981 Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a NumberAlfred A. Knopf1982 Alfred A. Knopf1983 Lost in the CosmosFarrar, Straus and Giroux1984 Cities and the Wealth of NationsRandom House1985, , William M. Sullivan, and Steven M. Tipton Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American LifeUniversity of California Press1986 Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and WhiteTimes Books1987 W.W. Norton & Company1988 Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the CountrySimon & Schuster1989 Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–1963Simon & Schuster1990 Disappearing through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth CenturyViking1991 Why Americans Hate Politics: The Death of the Democratic ProcessSimon & Schuster1992 The Free Press1993 Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent MinorityThe Free Press1994 DiplomacySimon & Schuster1995 Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was BlackDutton1996 Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of WarAlfred A. Knopf1997 Farrar, Straus and Giroux1998 We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from RwandaFarrar, Straus and Giroux1999 with Ovie Carter (photographer)SidewalkFarrar, Straus and Giroux2000Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold WarSimon & Schuster2001 Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in AmericaMetropolitan Books / Henry Holt and Company2002 Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from SexUniversity of Minnesota Press2003 Basic Books2004 Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American WarG.P. Putnam's Sons2005 Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's WarHenry Holt2006 Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of TolerancePenguin Press2007 Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West PointFarrar, Straus and Giroux2008 Angler: The Cheney Vice PresidencyPenguin Press2009 ZeitounMcSweeney's Books2010 W. W. Norton & Company2011 Thinking, Fast and SlowFarrar, Straus and Giroux2012 Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai UndercityRandom House2013 Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged HospitalCrown2014 Scribner2015 Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global SecurityW.W. Norton and Company2016 with Bela Shayevich (trans.)Secondhand Time: The Last of the SovietsRandom House2017 Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for AmericaViking Press2018 Riverhead Books2019 Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass IncarcerationRandom House2020 Caste: The Origins of Our DiscontentsRandom House2021Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still CouldRandom House2022Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save AmericaPenguin Press2023We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in AmericaFarrar, Straus and Giroux2024The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant L.A.Astra House2025Brian GoldstoneThere Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in AmericaCrown Publishing Group
Fiction
+Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction winners Year Author Title Publisher 1980The Second ComingFarrar, Straus and Giroux1981The White HotelViking1982A Flag for SunriseAlfred A. Knopf1983Schindler's ArkSimon & Schuster1984The Unbearable Lightness of BeingHarper & Row1985Love MedicineHolt, Rinehart and Winston1986The Handmaid's TaleHoughton Mifflin 1987Fools CrowViking1988Love in the Time of CholeraAlfred A. Knopf1989The Heart of the CountryViking1990Lantern SlidesFarrar, Straus and Giroux1991White PeopleAlfred A. Knopf1992Maus II, A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles BeganPantheon Books1993Pigs in HeavenHarperCollins1994Remembering BabylonPantheon Books1995The Blue AfternoonAlfred A. Knopf1996A Fine BalanceAlfred A. Knopf1997In the Rogue BloodAvon Books1998 with Michael Hulse (trans.)The Rings of SaturnNew Directions1999Freedom Song: Three NovelsAlfred A. Knopf2000Assorted Fire EventsContext Books2001Why Did I EverCounterpoint2002AtonementNan A. Talese/Doubleday2003TrainDoubleday2004The MasterScribner2005 with Edith Grossman (trans.)Memories of My Melancholy WhoresAlfred A. Knopf2006 with Hillel Halkin (trans.)A Woman in JerusalemHarcourt2007Be Near MeHarcourt2008HomeFarrar, Straus and Giroux2009A Happy MarriageScribner2010A Visit from the Goon SquadAlfred A. Knopf2011LuminariumSOHO Press2012Billy Lynn's Long Halftime WalkHarperCollins Publishers / Ecco2013A Tale for the Time BeingViking2014Simon & Schuster2015The Story of My TeethCoffee House Press2016Imagine Me GoneLittle, Brown and Company2017Exit WestRiverhead Books2018The Great BelieversViking2019The Topeka SchoolFarrar, Straus and Giroux2020 with Anna Moschovakis (trans.)At Night All Blood Is BlackFarrar, Straus and Giroux2021In the Company of MenOther Press2022 with Sean Cotter (trans.)SolenoidDeep Vellum2023 Same Bed Different DreamsRandom House2024Say Hello to My Little FriendSimon & Schuster2025Bryan WashingtonPalaver: A NovelFarrar, Straus & Giroux
Graphic Novel/Comics