The 44th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were awarded on April 19th. The best books of 2022 were recognized in 12 categories, along with the winners of the Robert Kirsch and Innovator’s awards.

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2023 Winners

Achievement in Audiobook Production

• THANK YOU (FALETTINME BE MICE ELF AGIN): A Memoir, narrated by Dion Graham

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

• COMPANY: Stories, by Shannon Sanders (Graywolf Press)

Biography

• THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANNAH CRAFTS: The True Story of The Bondwoman’s Narrative, by Gregg Hecimovich (Ecco)

The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose

• MONSTERS: A Fan’s Dilemma, by Claire Dederer (Knopf)

Current Interest

• WE WERE ONCE A FAMILY: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America, by Roxanna Asgarian (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Fiction

• SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS by Ed Park (Random House)

Graphic Novel/Comics

• A GUEST IN THE HOUSE by Emily Carroll (First Second)

History

• SHADOWS AT NOON: The South Asian Twentieth Century, by Joya Chatterji (Yale University Press)

Innovator’s Award

• Access Books

Mystery/Thriller

• SING HER DOWN by Ivy Pochoda (MCD)

Poetry

• BREAD AND CIRCUS: Poems, by Airea D. Matthews (Scribner)

Robert Kirsch Award

• Jane Smiley

Science & Technology

• IS MATH REAL? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths, by Eugenia Cheng (Basic Books)

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction

• THE REFORMATORY by Tananarive Due (Saga Press)

Young Adult Literature

• GONE WOLF by Amber McBride (Feiwel & Friends)
   

2023 Finalists and Honorees

Achievement in Audiobook Production

• SURE, I'LL JOIN YOUR CULT: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere, narrated by Maria Bamford (Simon & Schuster Audio)
• WILD AND PRECIOUS: A Celebration of Mary Oliver, narrated by Sophia Bush (Pushkin Industries)
• THANK YOU (FALETTINME BE MICE ELF AGIN): A Memoir, narrated by Dion Graham
• ALL THE SINNERS BLEED narrated by Helen Laser (Macmillan Audio)
• YELLOWFACE narrated by Suzanne Franco Mitchell (HarperAudio)

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

• THE FIVE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES OF ANDY AFRICA by Stephen Buoro (Bloomsbury Publishing)
• I’M A FAN by Sheena Patel (Graywolf Press)
• COMPANY: Stories, by Shannon Sanders (Graywolf Press)
• IDLEWILD by James Frankie Thomas (The Overlook Press)
• DEARBORN: Stories, by Ghassan Zeineddine (Tin House Books)

Biography

• YOUNG QUEENS: Three Renaissance Women and the Price of Power, by Leah Redmond Chang (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HANNAH CRAFTS: The True Story of The Bondwoman’s Narrative, by Gregg Hecimovich (Ecco)
• WINNIE AND NELSON: Portrait of a Marriage, by Jonny Steinberg (Knopf)
• LONGSTREET: The Confederate General Who Defied the South, by Elizabeth R. Varon (Simon & Schuster)
• THE ODYSSEY OF PHILLIS WHEATLEY: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence, by David Waldstreicher (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose

• MONSTERS: A Fan’s Dilemma, by Claire Dederer (Knopf)

Current Interest

• PUNISHED FOR DREAMING: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal, by Bettina L. Love (St. Martin's Press)
• WE WERE ONCE A FAMILY: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America, by Roxanna Asgarian (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• AMERICAN GUN: The True Story of the AR-15, by Cameron McWhirte and Zusha Elinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• ORDINARY NOTES by Christina Sharpe (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• WE COULD HAVE BEEN FRIENDS, MY FATHER AND I: A Palestinian Memoir, by Raja Shehadeh (Other Press)

Fiction

• LOVED AND MISSED by Susie Boyt (New York Review Books)
• WEDNESDAY'S CHILD: Stories, by Yiyun Li (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE DOG OF THE NORTH by Elizabeth McKenzie (Penguin Press)
• SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS by Ed Park (Random House)
• BLACKOUTS by Justin Torres (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Graphic Novel/Comics

• CARTOONSHOW by Derek M. Ballard (Oni Press)
• CODA by Matías Bergara (BOOM! Studios)
• A GUEST IN THE HOUSE by Emily Carroll (First Second)
• BLOOD OF THE VIRGIN by Sammy Harkham (Pantheon)
• SOCIAL FICTION by Chantal Montellier (New York Review Comics)

History

• THE REDISCOVERY OF AMERICA: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History, by Ned Blackhawk (Yale University Press)
• SHADOWS AT NOON: The South Asian Twentieth Century, by Joya Chatterji (Yale University Press)
• PALO ALTO: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, by Malcolm Harris (Little, Brown and Company)
• BLACK FOLK: The Roots of the Black Working Class, by Blair L.M. Kelley (Liveright)
• BROODING OVER BLOODY REVENGE: Enslaved Women’s Lethal Resistance, by Nikki M. Taylor (Cambridge University Press)

Innovator’s Award

• Access Books

Mystery/Thriller

• DARK RIDE by Lou Berney (William Morrow)
• ALL THE SINNERS BLEED by S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)
• EVERYBODY KNOWS by Jordan Harper (Mulholland Books)
• TIME'S UNDOING by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton)
• SING HER DOWN by Ivy Pochoda (MCD)

Poetry

• SHORT FILM STARRING MY BELOVED'S RED BRONCO by K. Iver (Milkweed Editions)
• BREAD AND CIRCUS: Poems, by Airea D. Matthews (Scribner)
• COUPLETS: A Love Story, by Maggie Millner (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• THE COURT OF NO RECORD: Poems, by Jenny Molberg (Louisiana State University Press)
• MASTER: Poems, by Simon Shieh (Sarabande Books)

Robert Kirsch Award

• Jane Smiley

Science & Technology

• IS MATH REAL? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths, by Eugenia Cheng (Basic Books)
• THE HEAT WILL KILL YOU FIRST: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet, by Jeff Goodell (Little, Brown and Company)
• THE POSSIBILITY OF LIFE: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos, by Jaime Green (Hanover Square Press)
• A BOOK OF NOISES: Notes on the Auraculous, by Caspar Henderson (University of Chicago Press)
• A CITY ON MARS: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (Penguin Press)

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction

• THE REFORMATORY by Tananarive Due (Saga Press)
• WHALEFALL by Daniel Kraus (MTV Books)
• LONE WOMEN by Victor LaValle (One World)
• THE FRAGILE THREADS OF POWER by V. E. Schwab (Tor Books)
• JEWEL BOX: Stories, by E. Lily Yu (Erewhon Books)

Young Adult Literature

• FORGIVE ME NOT by Jennifer Baker (Nancy Paulsen Books)
• DEAR MEDUSA by Olivia A. Cole (Labyrinth Books)
• INVISIBLE SON by Kim Johnson (Random House Books for Young Readers)
• GONE WOLF by Amber McBride (Feiwel & Friends)
• MONSTROUS: A Transracial Adoption Story, by Sarah Myer (First Second)