On Friday evening, Los Angeles Times Book Editor David L. Ulin announced the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes during a ceremony at the Los Angeles Times building.
Marilynne Robinson won the fiction prize for “Home;” Michael Koryta won the Mystery/Thriller prize for “Envy the Night;” Frank Bidart won the Poetry prize for “Watching the Spring Festival: Poems;” and Terry Pratchett won the YA prize for “Nation.”
More details here, the rest of the winners are listed after the jump. Here’s an LA Times interview with Robinson about traveling the United States: “Robinson then complained that many people ignore Iowa, saying folks go to the West Coast and East Coast but skip the middle. To her, the area’s beauty is quite unparalleled.”
Paula J. Giddings won the Biography prize for “Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching.”
Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: Zoe Ferraris for “Finding Nouf”
Current Interest: Barton Gellman for “Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency”
History: Mark Mazower for “Hitler’s Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe”
Science and Technology: Leonard Susskind for “The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics”