Award-Winning Books

Edgar Award

Los Angeles Times Book Prizes

Man Booker Prize

National Book Award

Pulitzer Prize

Los Angeles Times Book Prizes

The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, established in 1980, recognize outstanding literary achievements in nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult fiction. The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction commemorates the work of the late Times book editor and Book Prize program founder. For more winners, visit the website.

2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002

Find more book awards winners here.

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2012

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro

Award category: Biography

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

Award category: Current Interest

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Award category: Fiction

Everything Together: Collected Stories by Sammy Harkham

Award category: Graphic Novel

America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union by Fergus M. Bordewich

Award category: History

Broken Harbor by Tana French

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

Poems 1962-2012 by Louise Glück

Award category: Poetry

Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams

Award category: Science & Technology

Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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2011

Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned by John A. Farrell

Award category: Biography

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Award category: Current Interest

Luminarium: A Novel by Alex Shakar

Award category: Fiction

Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeil

Award category: Graphic Novel

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America by Richard White

Award category: History

11/22/1963 by Stephen King

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

Double Shadow: Poems by Carl Phillips

Award category: Poetry

Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius by Sylvia Nasar

Award category: Science & Technology

The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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2010

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience & Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Award category: Biography

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

Award category: Current Interest

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Award category: Fiction

The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni

Award category: First Fiction

Duncan the Wonder Dog: Show One by Adam Hines

Award category: Graphic Novel

The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers

Award category: History

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

Where I Live: New & Selected Poems 1990-2010 by Maxine Kumin

Award category: Poetry

The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness by Oren Harman

Award category: Science & Technology

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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2009

Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon

Award category: Biography

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

Award category: Current Interest

A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias

Award category: Fiction

American Rust by Philipp Meyer

Award category: First Fiction

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

Award category: Graphic Novel

Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance 1950 – 1963 by Kevin Starr

Award category: History

The Ghosts of Belfast  by Stuart Neville

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom by Graham Farmelo

Award category: Science & Technology

Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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2008

Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by Paula Giddings

Award category: Biography

Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency  by Barton Gellman

Award category: Current Interest

Home  by Marilynne Robinson

Award category: Fiction

Finding Nouf by Zoë Ferraris

Award category: First Fiction

Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe by Mark Mazower

Award category: History

Envy the Night by Michael Koryta

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind

Award category: Science & Technology

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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2007

Young Stalin by Sebag Montefiore

Award category: Biography

Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point by Elizabeth D. Samet

Award category: Current Interest

Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan

Award category: Fiction

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears  by Dinaw Mengestu

Award category: First Fiction

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner

Award category: History

The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

Old Heart: Poems by Stanley Plumly

Award category: Poetry

I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter

Award category: Science & Technology

A Darkling Plain by Philip Reeve

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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2006

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler

Award category: Biography

Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance by Ian Buruma

Award category: Current Interest

A Woman in Jerusalem by Abraham B. Yehoshua

Award category: Fiction

White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway

Award category: First Fiction

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright

Award category: History

Echo Park: A Novel by Michael Connelly

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

Ooga-Booga by Frederick Seidel

Award category: Poetry

In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind by Eric R. Kandel

Award category: Science & Technology

Tyrell by Coe Booth

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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2005

Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Conquest of Colour, 1909-1954 by Hilary Spurling

Award category: Biography

Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War by Anthony Shadid

Award category: Current Interest

Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel García Márquez

Award category: Fiction

Beasts of No Nation: A Novel by Uzodinma Iweala

Award category: First Fiction

Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves by Adam Hochschild

Award category: History

Legends: A Novel of Dissimulation by Robert Littell

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

Refusing Heaven: Poems by Jack Gilbert

Award category: Poetry

Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima by Diana Preston

Award category: Science & Technology

You & You & You by Per Nilsson

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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2004

de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan

Award category: Biography

Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War by Evan Wright

Award category: Current Interest

The Master: A Novel by Colm Tóibín

Award category: Fiction

Harbor by Lorraine Adams

Award category: First Fiction

Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism by Geoffrey R. Stone

Award category: History

Tijuana Straits: A Novel by Kem Nunn

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

Inner Voices: Selected Poems, 1963-2003 by Richard Howard

Award category: Poetry

The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change by Charles Wohlforth

Award category: Science & Technology

Doing It by Melvin Burgess

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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2003

American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization by Neil Smith

Award category: Biography

The New Chinese Empire -- And What It Means for the United States by Ross Terrill

Award category: Current Interest

Train: A Novel by Pete Dexter

Award category: Fiction

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Award category: First Fiction

An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America by Henry Wiencek

Award category: History

Soul Circus: A Novel by George P. Pelecanos

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

Collected Later Poems by Anthony Hecht

Award category: Poetry

Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation by Philip J. Hilts

Award category: Science & Technology

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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2002

Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 3 by Robert A. Caro

Award category: Biography

Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex by Judith Levine

Award category: Current Interest

Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan

Award category: Fiction

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael B. Oren

Award category: History

Hell to Pay: A Novel by George P. Pelecanos

Award category: Mystery/Thriller

Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox

Award category: Science & Technology

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Award category: Young Adult Literature

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