Overview

32nd Annual Presentation

The 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes ceremony honors the best books of 2011

The 2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were presented on Friday, April 20, 2012, in a public ceremony in the Bovard Auditorium on the campus of USC.

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2011 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winners
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Biography
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Current Interest
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Fiction
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Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
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  • Shards, Ismet Prcic (Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic)
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Graphic Novel
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History
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Mystery / Thriller
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Poetry
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Science & Technology
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Young Adult Literature
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2011 Robert Kirsch Award Winner
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Robert Kirsch, whose idea became the inspiration for the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, was the newspaper’s book critic from 1952 until his death in 1980. In addition to writing criticism, Kirsch was a novelist, editor and teacher.

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Rudolfo Anaya is the recipient of the annual Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. The New Mexico-born Anaya’s award-winning 1972 debut novel “Bless Me, Ultima” became the most widely read and critically acclaimed novel in the Chicano literary canon. It was followed by the sequels “Heart of Aztlan” and “Tortuga.” Anaya’s other works include “Albuquerque,” the Sonny Baca quartet of detective novels and a number of books for children and young adults. Anaya also served as a professor in the University of New Mexico’s Department of English Language and Literature, and is a winner of the National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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2011 Innovator’s Award
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The Innovator’s Award recognizes the people and institutions that are doing cutting edge work to bring books, publishing and storytelling into the future, whether in terms of new business models, new technologies or new applications of narrative art.

figment™ LOGOTYPE - RGB - 300 dpi

Figment is a digital writing community with connections to – and roots in – traditional publishing, a space where young writers and readers are encouraged to share and comment on each other’s creativity, an early adaptor of the digital landscape as a publishing and literary territory, and a site in constant evolution, developing and expanding to meet both the needs of its users and its own digital imperatives. Figment is the third winner of the Innovator’s Award whose previous winners include Dave Eggers and Powell’s Books.

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2011 Award Presenters
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Emcee: David L. Ulin
Presenters: Eric Lax / Biography

Jim Newton / Current Interest

Patt Morrison / Fiction

Aimee Bender / Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

Geoff Boucher / Graphic Novel Award

Leo Braudy / History

Gar Anthony Haywood / Mystery-Thriller

Harryette Mullen / Poetry

David Baltimore/ Science and Technology

Cornelia Funke / Young Adult Literature

Jonathan Kirsch / Robert Kirsch Award

David L. Ulin/ Innovator’s Award

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