World Literary Awards

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Los Angeles Times Book Prize ろさんぜるす・たいむず ぶっくしょう

Edition 33 (2012)

BiographyCurrent interestFictionArt Seidenbaum Award for First FictionHistoryMystery/ThrillerPoetryScience and TechnologyYoung Adult NovelGraphic Novel/ComicsRay Bradbury Prize (SF/Fantasy/Speculative Fiction)Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical ProseInnovator's AwardRobert Kirsch AwardAchievement in Audiobook Production (established 2023, presented by Audible)

Winners

12 people

A novel set over a New England wedding weekend that uses social comedy to explore class and family strain.

Behind the celebration, discomfort and truth slowly surface.

320 pages
familyclassweddingsocial satire

A biography of Lyndon Johnson that reconstructs the transfer of power at the center of American politics.

The road to the presidency is rendered with all the weight of power.

736 pages
biographypoliticsAmerican historypower
Katherine Boo Winner

Narrative nonfiction about Mumbai’s Annawadi settlement, where poverty, hope, and inequality collide.

In the shadow of a glittering city, daily survival becomes a contest.

254 pages
nonfictionIndiapovertyinequality
Ben Fountain Winner

A novel about a young soldier’s single day after war, exposing the emptiness of patriotism and spectacle.

Around the celebrated soldiers, the spectacle slowly reveals its hollowness.

447 pages
waryouthAmericasatire
Sammy Harkham Winner

A graphic collection of short comics that move between humor, sadness, and formal invention.

Scattered stories come together as a richly textured reading experience.

120 pages
graphic novelshort fictionhumorform

A history of the Compromise of 1850 and the crisis over slavery and union that surrounded it.

A story of compromise on the edge of national rupture, told through the drama of Congress.

496 pages
American historyslaveryCongressantebellum politics
Tana French Winner

A murder mystery in suburban Dublin that exposes family breakdown and the unease beneath an ordinary neighborhood.

A familiar neighborhood turns steadily more uneasy.

576 pages
mysteryfamilyDublinpsychology
Louise Glück Winner

A selected volume of poems from 1962 to 2012 that traces a voice continually reinventing itself.

Within a single volume, a poet’s voice keeps changing with time.

634 pages
poetryselected worksvoicetime

A report on the science, evolution, and environmental pressures shaping breasts and breast health.

A familiar part of the body becomes a lens on health and environment.

344 pages
sciencebodyhealthenvironment
A. S. King Winner

A YA novel about a girl who struggles to find a place at home and in school while facing her own feelings.

Every time she looks up, the unsaid parts of her life grow a little lighter.

304 pages
young adultself-discoveryfamilyidentity
Margaret Atwood Special Award
Kevin Starr Winner