Los Angeles Times Names Book Prize Winners
April 23 2005 - 11:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Los Angeles Times Names Book Prize Winners 25th Annual Literary
Awards Presented April 22 at UCLA's Royce Hall LOS ANGELES, April
23 /PRNewswire/ -- The Los Angeles Times presented its annual
Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement and honored nine Book
Prize winners during its 25th annual Book Prizes ceremony, April 22
at UCLA's Royce Hall. Best-selling mystery writer Tony Hillerman,
whose writings over the past 35 years are infused with the
landscape and culture of the American Southwest, was presented with
the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. The citation
noted Hillerman's appeal to an "international readership that has
remained attentive and appreciative over the last 35 years. Tony
Hillerman is a master storyteller who has reinvented the mystery
novel as a venue for the exploration and celebration of Native
American history, culture and identity." The Robert Kirsch Award,
presented by Jonathan Kirsch, recognizes the body of work by an
author who resides in and/or whose work focuses on the Western
United States and whose contributions to American letters merit
body-of-work recognition. The late Robert Kirsch served as The
Times' book critic for more than 25 years before his death in 1980.
He was a novelist, editor and teacher as well as one the nation's
foremost book critics. This year's Los Angeles Times Book Prizes
honored outstanding literary achievement in nine categories:
biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction, history,
mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult
fiction. Each winner, including Hillerman, receives a $1,000 cash
award. Author/journalist Sir Harold Evans served as the master of
ceremonies for the presentation of the Book Prizes. Book Prizes
winners * Biography -- Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, de Kooning:
An American Master (Alfred A. Knopf). Presented by Neal Gabler. *
Current Interest -- Evan Wright, Generation Kill: Devil Dogs,
Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War (G.P.
Putnam's Sons). Presented by Michael Kinsley. * Fiction -- Colm
Toibin, The Master: A Novel (Scribner). Presented by Alice Sebold.
* First Fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award) -- Lorraine Adams,
Harbor (Alfred A. Knopf). Presented by Patricia Seidenbaum. *
History -- Geoffrey R. Stone, Perilous Times: Free Speech in
Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism (W.W.
Norton & Company). Presented by Douglas Brinkley. *
Mystery/Thriller -- Kem Nunn, Tijuana Straits: A Novel (Scribner).
Presented by T. Jefferson Parker. * Poetry -- Richard Howard, Inner
Voices: Selected Poems, 1963-2003 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Presented by Carol Muske Dukes. * Science and Technology -- Charles
Wohlforth, The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front
of Climate Change (North Point Press / Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Presented by Sally Ride. * Young Adult Fiction -- Melvin Burgess,
Doing It (Henry Holt Books for Young Readers). Presented by
Jennifer Donnelly. 2004 Book Prize finalists (including winners)
Biography Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (Penguin Press) Stephen
Greenblatt, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
(W.W. Norton & Company) Richard Rhodes, John James Audubon: The
Making of an American (Alfred A. Knopf) Mark Stevens and Annalyn
Swan, de Kooning: An American Master (Alfred A. Knopf) Michael J.
Ybarra, Washington Gone Crazy: Senator Pat McCarran and the Great
American Communist Hunt (Steerforth Press) Current Interest Karen
Armstrong, The Spiral Staircase: My Climb out of Darkness (Alfred
A. Knopf) Edward Conlon, Blue Blood (Riverhead Books) Michael
Dirda, Bound to Please: An Extraordinary One-Volume Literary
Education -- Essays on Great Writers and Their Books (W.W. Norton
& Company) Ann Patchett, Truth & Beauty: A Friendship
(HarperCollins) Evan Wright, Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman,
Captain America and the New Face of American War (G.P. Putnam's
Sons) Fiction Chris Abani, GraceLand (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Russell Banks, The Darling (HarperCollins) Marilynne Robinson,
Gilead (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Colm Toibin, The Master: A Novel
(Scribner) Joy Williams, Honored Guest: Stories (Alfred A. Knopf)
Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction Lorraine Adams, Harbor
(Alfred A. Knopf) David Bezmozgis, Natasha and Other Stories
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Pete Duval, Rear View: Stories (Mariner
Books / Houghton Mifflin) Susan Fletcher, Eve Green (W.W. Norton
& Company) Lisa Glatt, A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That (Simon
& Schuster) History Richard J. Evans, The Coming of the Third
Reich (Penguin Press) Max Frankel, High Noon in the Cold War:
Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Cuban Missile Crisis (Presidio Press /
Ballantine Books) Geoffrey R. Stone, Perilous Times: Free Speech in
Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism (W.W.
Norton & Company) Richard Steven Street, Beasts of the Field: A
Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769-1913 (Stanford
University Press) Alfred F. Young, Masquerade: The Life and Times
of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier (Alfred A. Knopf)
Mystery/Thriller Alan Furst, Dark Voyage: A Novel (Random House)
Henning Mankell, The Return of the Dancing Master [translated from
the Swedish by Laurie Thompson] (The New Press) Charles McCarry,
Old Boys (Overlook Press) Kem Nunn, Tijuana Straits: A Novel
(Scribner) Ian Rankin, A Question of Blood: An Inspector Rebus
Novel (Little, Brown) Poetry Richard Howard, Inner Voices: Selected
Poems, 1963-2003 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Brigit Pegeen Kelly,
The Orchard: Poems (BOA Editions, Ltd.) Joshua Mehigan, The
Optimist: Poems (Ohio University Press) Spencer Reece, The Clerk's
Tale: Poems (Mariner Books / Houghton Mifflin) Catherine
Tufariello, Keeping My Name (Texas Tech University Press) Science
and Technology Ann B. Parson, The Proteus Effect: Stem Cells and
Their Promise for Medicine (Joseph Henry Press / National Academies
Press) Lauren Slater, Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological
Experiments of the Twentieth Century (W.W. Norton & Company)
Alan Tennant, On the Wing: To the Edge of the Earth with the
Peregrine Falcon (Alfred A. Knopf) Jonathan Weiner, His Brother's
Keeper: A Story from the Edge of Medicine (Ecco / HarperCollins)
Charles Wohlforth, The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern
Front of Climate Change (North Point Press / Farrar, Straus and
Giroux) Young Adult Fiction Benjamin Alire Saenz, Sammy and Juliana
in Hollywood (Cinco Puntos Press) Melvin Burgess, Doing It (Henry
Holt Books for Young Readers) Michael Morpurgo, Private Peaceful
(Scholastic Press) Adam Rapp, Under the Wolf, Under the Dog
(Candlewick Press) Meg Rosoff, How I Live Now (Wendy Lamb Books /
Random House Children's Books) About the Book Prizes The Los
Angeles Times Book Prizes were established in 1980. Los Angeles
Times Book Prizes finalists and winners are selected by eight
three-member committees. Fiction category judges also choose the
first fiction category finalists and winner. Most of the judges are
published authors and serve a two-year term. None of the judges,
except for the Kirsch award, are current Los Angeles Times
employees. There is no nationality requirement for author nominees
in any category. With the exception of significant new translations
of a deceased author's work, all authors should be living at the
time of U.S. publication. The Book Prizes have honored numerous
internationally distinguished literary figures including Ray
Bradbury, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Christopher
Isherwood, Milan Kundera, Ursula Le Guin, Frank McCourt, David
McCullough, Larry McMurtry, Tillie Olsen, Ishmael Reed, Carl Sagan
and W.G. Sebald. The Robert Kirsch Award recognizes the body of
work by an author who resides in and/or whose work focuses on the
Western United States and whose contributions to American letters
merit body-of-work recognition. The late Robert Kirsch served as
The Times' book critic for more than 25 years before his death in
1980. He was a novelist, editor and teacher as well as one the
nation's foremost book critics. Information about the Book Prize
awards ceremony and awards program is available at
http://www.latimes.com/bookprizes. The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune
Publishing company, is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in
the country and the winner of 37 Pulitzer Prizes, including two
this year. The Times publishes five daily regional editions,
including the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Orange and Ventura
counties, the San Fernando Valley, and an Inland Empire edition
covering Riverside and San Bernardino counties as well as a
National edition. Additional information about The Times is
available at http://www.latimes.com/mediacenter. DATASOURCE: Los
Angeles Times CONTACT: Mike Lange of the Los Angeles Times,
+1-213-237-3848, Web site: http://www.latimes.com/bookprizes
http://www.latimes.com/mediacenter
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