Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winners Announced

Posted on May 9, 2002

The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes have been announced. The prestigious Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement was presented to Tillie Olsen, one of the pioneers of American feminist writing and author of the critically acclaimed Tell Me a Riddle, Silences and Yonnonido.

Olsen and nine other Book Prize winners were honored during a 7:30 p.m. awards ceremony held April 27 at UCLA's Royce Hall. Each winner will receive a $1,000 cash award. Prize-winning author, KCRW-FM commentator and Public Radio International contributor Sandra Tsing Loh served as emcee. The Robert Kirsch Award was presented by author Jonathan Kirsch, son of 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 award recognizes the body of work of an author who resides in and/or whose work focuses on the Western United States and whose contributions to American letters merit body-of-work recognition.

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winners

Biography -- Edmund Morris, Theodore Rex (Random House).
Current Interest -- Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (Metropolitan Books).
Fiction -- Mary Robison, Why Did I Ever: A Novel (Counterpoint Press).
First Fiction (Art Seidenbaum Award) -- Rachel Seiffert, The Dark Room (a Novel) (Pantheon Books).
History -- Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (Hill and Wang).
Mystery/Thriller -- T. Jefferson Parker, Silent Joe: A Novel (Hyperion).
Poetry -- Anne Carson, The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos (Alfred A. Knopf).
Science and Technology -- Richard Hamblyn, The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Young Adult Fiction -- Mildred D. Taylor, The Land (Phyllis Fogelman Books).

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.

Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalists were announced March 1 during a reception held at the National Arts Club in New York. They were selected by eight, three-member committees. Most of the judges are published authors and serve two-year terms. None of the judges, except for the Kirsch award, is a current Los Angeles Times employee.