T. Coraghessan Boyle, LeVar Burton to Be Honored at 35th Annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes
2014 Awards Finalists Announced
Today the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes announced that T. Coraghessan Boyle will receive the 2014 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, LeVar Burton will be honored with the Innovator’s Award, and the finalists in 10 categories that will be presented April 18th at the University of Southern California’s Bovard Auditorium. The event will take place during the 20th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the nation’s largest public literary festival, to be held on USC’s campus April 18th and 19th.
“T.C. Boyle has had a long-standing presence as both a writer and a teacher in the Southern California literary world,” said Times book critic David L. Ulin. “His stature within our community is unique, from the breadth of his novels and stories to his engagement with his students and role as a mentor.”
Santa Barbara-based Boyle has published 14 novels and more than 100 short stories and is a Distinguished Professor of English at USC. His work has been translated into more than two dozen languages and his stories have appeared in a broad range of magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, The Paris Review, GQ, Antaeus, Granta and McSweeney’s. He has been the recipient of a number of literary awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction (World’s End, 1988); the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction (1999); and the Prix Médicis Étranger for best foreign novel in France (The Tortilla Curtain, 1997).
The recipient of the 2014 Innovator’s Award, which spotlights cutting-edge business models, technology or applications of narrative art, is LeVar Burton.
“As someone who has influenced young people through the Reading Rainbow television show and continued advocacy of children’s literature over more than 25 years, LeVar Burton embodies the very spirit of the Innovator’s Award,” said Ulin. “His phenomenally successful Kickstarter campaign to re-launch Reading Rainbow in app and web-based forms exemplifies forward thinking and illustrates the way a time-tested and beloved brand can reach a whole new generation using modern technology.”
The Book Prizes recognize 50 remarkable works in 10 different categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award), graphic novel/comics, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult literature. Finalists and winners are selected by judging panels composed of writers who specialize in each genre. The complete list of this year’s finalists and further information, including past winners, is available at latimes.com/bookprizes. Tickets for the ceremony will be made available for purchase later this month.
