 | | | Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Adds Mystery/Thriller Category | LOS ANGELES, Oct. 24, 2000 –- Recognizing the increased stature and popularity of the mystery/thriller genre, the Los Angeles Times has added a ninth judging category – Mystery/Thriller – to its annual Book Prize literary competition.
The first Mystery/Thriller Book Prize, which includes a $1,000 cash award, will be presented at the 21st annual awards ceremony, to be held April 28, 2001 in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be the highlight of the sixth annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which will be held April 28-29 at UCLA.
"It's especially fitting that we add this category to a literary competition based in a city so identified with the genre, a city where many of the great mysteries have been, and continue to be, written," said Kenneth Turan, director of the Book Prizes and Times film critic.
Any mystery/thriller book having its first U.S. publication this year is eligible for the award. There is no nationality requirement for the authors. With the exception of significant new translations of a deceased author's work, all authors should be living at the time of U.S. publication.
"Since the birth of the thriller, led by the incomparable work of Edgar Allen Poe, the mystery/thriller has provided provocative entertainment and literary suspense for generations of readers," said Times Book Review Editor Steve Wasserman. "With this award, the Los Angeles Times honors the most accomplished of its living practitioners."
As with the other eight competition categories, a panel of three judges will select the five Mystery/Thriller finalists, including the winner. Most of the judges are published authors and usually serve a two-year term. None of them is a Los Angeles Times employee.
The five finalists in each of the nine Book Prize categories will be announced March 2, 2001 in New York.
The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, established in 1980, recognize outstanding literary achievements in nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult fiction. The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction commemorates the work of the late Times book editor and Book Prize program founder.
In addition to the nine single-title categories, the annual Robert Kirsch Award recognizes the body of work of an author who resides in, or whose work focuses, on the Western United States. The award is named after the late Robert Kirsch who served as The Times' book critic for more than 25 years prior to his death in 1980.
The Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Publishing company, has won 24 Pulitzer Prizes and is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country. It publishes four daily regional editions – covering the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the San Fernando Valley, and Orange and Ventura counties – as well as a National Edition. | |