On April 24th, 2009 the winners of the 29th Annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize were announced at a ceremony held during the L. A. Times Festival of Books. The Prize was established in 1980 and includes a $1,000 cash award.

For more information about the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, go to http://www.LATimes.com.

2008 Winners

Biography
IDA: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by Paula J. Giddings (Amistad/HarperCollins)

Current Interest
ANGLER: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Barton Gellman (The Penguin Press)

Fiction
HOME by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
FINDING NOUF by Zoë Ferraris (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

History
HITLER'S EMPIRE: How the Nazis Ruled Europe by Mark Mazower (The Penguin Press)

Mystery/Thriller
ENVY THE NIGHT by Michael Koryta (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Minotaur)

Poetry
WATHING THE SPRING FESTIVAL: Poems by Frank Bidart
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Science and Technology
THE BLACK HOLE WAR: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind (Little, Brown and Co.)

Young Adult Literature
NATION by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)

2008 Robert Kirsch Award Winner
Robert Alter

2008 Nominees

Biography
A TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt by H.W. Brands (Doubleday)
DEMOCRACY'S PRISONER: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent by Ernest Freeberg (Harvard University Press)
IDA - A SWORD AMONG LIONS: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by Paula J. Giddings (Amistad Press)
AMERICAN LION: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (Random House)
CHAGALL: A Biography by Jackie Wullschlager (Knopf)

Current Interest
THE BIN LADENS: An Arabian Family in the American Century by Steve Coll (Penguin)
THE FOREVER WAR by Dexter Filkins (Knopf)
ANGLER: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Barton Gellman (Penguin Press)
THE DARK SIDE: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer (Doubleday)
MY STROKE OF INSIGHT: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor (Viking)

Fiction
THE SECRET SCRIPTURE by Sebastian Barry (Viking)
LUSH LIFE by Richard Price (Picador)
HOME by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
THE SIZE OF THE WORLD by Joan Silber (W.W. Norton)
THE GOD OF WAR by Marisa Silver (Simon & Schuster)

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
SAY YOU'RE ONE OF THEM by Uwem Akpan (Little, Brown)
FINDING NOUF by Zoe Ferraris (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
THE OUTCAST by Sadie Jones (Harper)
MOSQUITO by Roma Tearne (HarperCollins)
THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE by David Wroblewski (Ecco)

History
ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs (Knopf)
THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust (Knopf)
HITLER'S EMPIRE: How the Nazis Ruled Europe by Mark Mazower (Penguin Press)
SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North by Thomas J. Sugrue (Random House)
OBSCENE IN THE EXTREME: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath by Rick Wartzman (PublicAffairs)

Mystery/Thriller
THE FINDER by Colin Harrison (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
ENVY THE NIGHT by Michael Koryta (Minotaur)
BAD TRAFFIC: An Inspector Jian Novel by Simon Lewis (Scribner)
THE AGE OF DREAMING by Nina Revoyr (Akashic Books)
CHILD 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Grand Central)

Poetry
WATCHING THE SPRING FESTIVAL: Poems by Frank Bidart (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
SEA CHANGE: Poems by Jorie Graham (Ecco)
THE KINGDOM OF ORDINARY TIME: Poems by Marie Howe (W. W. Norton)
OURS by Cole Swensen (University of California Press)
RARE HIGH MEADOW OF WHICH I MIGHT DREAM by Connie Voisine (University of Chicago Press)

Science & Technology
WHAT THE NOSE KNOWS: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life by Avery Gilbert (Crown)
ONLY A THEORY: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul by Kenneth R. Miller (Viking)
WORLDS BEFORE ADAM: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform by Martin J.S. Rudwick (University of Chicago Press)
THE BLACK HOLE WAR: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind (Little, Brown)
MICROCOSM: E. coli and the New Science of Life by Carl Zimmer (Pantheon)

Young Adult Literature
THE LINCOLNS: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming (Schwartz & Wade)
THE GRAVEYARD BOOK by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
DARK DUDE by Oscar Hijuelos (Atheneum)
SWALLOW ME WHOLE by Nate Powell (Top Shelf Productions)
NATION by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)