 | | | Los Angeles Times Names Book Prize Winners | LOS ANGELES, May 1, 2000 - The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes has presented its prestigious Robert Kirsch Award to Ursula K. Le Guin, whose widely respected fiction, poetry, essays and children's literature include "The Left Hand of Darkness," "Earthsea (A Trilogy)," and "Always Coming Home."
Le Guin and eight other Book Prize winners were honored during an April 29 awards ceremony held at UCLA's Royce Hall. Each winner received a $1,000 cash award.
The annual Robert Kirsch Award is presented to a living author who has resided in or whose work focuses on the Western United States. The award is named after the late Robert Kirsch - novelist, editor, teacher and one of the nation's foremost book critics - who served as The Times' book critic for more than 25 years prior to his death in 1980.
The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, established in 1980, recognize outstanding literary achievements in eight subject categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction, history, poetry, science and technology, and young adult fiction. The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction commemorates the contributions of the late Times book editor and Book Prize program founder.
The Book Prize winner in each category is:
Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction - Elizabeth Strout, "Amy and Isabelle: A Novel" (Random House);
Biography - Judith Thurman, "Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette" (Alfred A. Knopf);
Current Interest - Mitchell Duneier, "Sidewalk" (with photographs by Ovie Carter), (Farrar, Straus and Giroux);
Fiction - Amit Chaudhuri, "Freedom Song: Three Novels" (Alfred A. Knopf);
History - John W. Dower, "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II" (W.W. Norton & Company);
Poetry - C.K. Williams, "Repair: Poems" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux);
Science and Technology - Dava Sobel, "Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love" (Walker and Company); and
Young Adult Fiction - Robert Cormier, "Frenchtown Summer" (Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers).
The eight category winners were among 40 Times Book Prize finalists selected by seven three-member committees. Most of the members are published authors and serve a two-year term. None of the judges are current Los Angeles Times employees. The winner of the Robert Kirsch Award is selected by a separate, anonymous panel.
Other finalists in each category were:
Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
"By the Shore: A Novel" by Galaxy Craze (Grove/Atlantic);
"For the Relief of Unbearable Urges" by Nathan Englander (Alfred A. Knopf);
"Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri (Houghton Mifflin); and
"Last Things" by Jenny Offill (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Biography
"My Grandfather's House: A Genealogy of Doubt and Faith" by Robert Clark (Picador USA);
"Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame" by Benita Eisler (Alfred A. Knopf);
"Walt Whitman: The Song of Himself" by Jerome Loving (University of California Press); and
"Rembrandt's Eyes" by Simon Schama (Alfred A. Knopf).
Current Interest
"A Border Passage: From Cairo to America - A Woman's Journey" by Leila Ahmed (Farrar, Straus and Giroux);
"Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War" by Mark Bowden (Grove/Atlantic);
"Chosen by God: A Brother's Journey" by Joshua Hammer (Hyperion); and
"An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton" by Richard A. Posner (Harvard University Press).
Fiction
"House of Sand and Fog" by Andre Dubus, III (W.W. Norton & Company);
"Plainsong" by Kent Haruf (Alfred A. Knopf);
"Waiting" by Ha Jin (Pantheon Books); and
"Close Range: Wyoming Stories" by Annie Proulx (Scribner).
History
"Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad" by David Haward Bain (Viking);
"The First World War" by John Keegan (Alfred A. Knopf);
"Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945" by David M. Kennedy (The Oxford History of the United States, Vol. 9) (Oxford University Press); and
"The Holocaust in American Life" by Peter Novick (Houghton Mifflin).
Poetry
"The Father of the Predicaments" by Heather McHugh (Wesleyan University Press/University Press of New England);
"The Oval Hour" by Kathleen Peirce (University of Iowa Press);
"The Dreamhouse" by Tom Sleigh (Phoenix Poets Series) (University of Chicago Press); and
"The Red Leaves of Night" by David St. John (HarperCollins Publishers).
Science and Technology
"Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds" by Bernd Heinrich (Cliff Street Books, HarperCollins Publishers);
"The River: A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS" by Edward Hooper (Little, Brown and Company);
"Lucy's Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution" by Alison Jolly (Harvard University Press); and
"The Code Book: The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography" by Simon Singh (Doubleday Books).
Young Adult Fiction
"Skellig" by David Almond (Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers);
"Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux);
"Monster" by Walter Dean Myers (HarperCollins Children's Books); and
"Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy" by Sonya Sones (HarperCollins Children's Books).
| |