April 25, 2008
LOS ANGELES, April 25, 2008--The Los Angeles Times tonight honored 2007's most accomplished authors at its' 28th annual Book Prizes ceremony at UCLA's Royce Hall, held on the eve of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.


Gay Talese served as master of ceremonies for the event that drew many of the biggest names in the book world and honored Maxine Hong Kingston with the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. In addition, a first-time Special Commendation was presented to Doug Dutton of Dutton's Brentwood Books, which is closing its doors at the end of April after 24 years of service to the literary community in Los Angeles.

The best books of 2007 and their writers were recognized in nine distinct categories:

Biography:
Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin (Alfred A. Knopf)

Current Interest
Elizabeth D. Samet, Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Fiction:
Andrew O'Hagan, Be Near Me (Harcourt)

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction:
Dinaw Mengestu, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (Riverhead Books)

History:
Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Doubleday Books)

Mystery/Thriller:
Karin Fossum, (Translated by Charlotte Barslund) The Indian Bride (Harcourt)

Poetry:
Stanley Plumly, Old Heart: Poems (W.W. Norton)

Science and Technology: