Last week, the Los Angeles Times [2] announced the 2009 Book Prize winners [3]. This is an annual event that takes place during their Festival of Books [4] and honors authors in ten categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award), graphic novel, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult literature. Graphic Novel is a new category to the 30-year ceremony.
Listed below are the finalists of the 2009 Book Prize Winners. For a list of all finalists and runners up, visit here [5].
[6] 
[7] 
[8] 
[9] 
[10] 
[11] 
[12] 
[13]
- Biography: Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits [6] by Linda Gordon [14]
- Current Interest: Zeitoun [7] by Dave Eggers [15]
- Fiction: A Happy Marriage [8] by Rafael Yglesias [16]
- First Fiction (Art Seidenbaum Award): American Rust [9] by Philipp Meyer [17]
- Graphic Novel: Asterios Polyp [10] by David Mazzucchelli [18]
- History: Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance 1950-1963 by Kevin Starr [19]
- Mystery/Thriller: The Ghosts of Belfast [11] by Stuart Neville [20]
- Poetry: Practical Water by Brenda Hillman [21]
- Science & Technology: The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom [12] by Graham Farmelo [22]
- Young Adult Literature: Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don't You Grow Weary [13] by Elizabeth Partridge [23]
Apart from the ten categories of new works, Dave Eggers [15] received the Innovators Award and Evan S. Connell [24] received the Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Acheivement. The Innovators Award is new to the program and it recognizes "cutting-edge work, specifically endeavors that bring storytelling into the future via new business models, technology or applications of narrative art."
