Andrew Garfield, Percival Everett and Attica Locke among L.A. Times Book Prize finalists
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The finalists for the 45th Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were announced Wednesday morning, recognizing a group of celebrated writers. Actor Andrew Garfield, novelist Percival Everett and author, screenwriter and TV producer Attica Locke are among the 61 nominees across more than a dozen categories honoring literary achievement.
Garfield is one of the finalists, alongside actor Matt Bomer, in the audiobook production category, which is being given in collaboration with Audible and spotlights performance, production and innovation in storytelling. The category was first introduced last year. Garfield is recognized alongside several actors, including Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott and Tom Hardy, for lending their talents to Audible’s original adaptation “George Orwell’s 1984.” Bomer is up for his work narrating James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room.”
Among the dozens of finalists are the writers behind some of the most talked-about books of 2024, including author and activist Ta-Nehisi Coates. Journalist and author Jesse Katz’s “The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA” is also up in the current interest category. Filmmaker and writer Miranda July, who wrote and directed “Kajillionaire,” is among the fiction finalists for “All Fours.”
Miranda July has hit a creative, life-giving stride, at 50, with her deeply funny and achingly true new novel, ‘All Fours’ -- her first in almost 10 years.
‘Pemi Aguda, Cynthia Carr, Taiyo Matsumoto, Andrea Freeman, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Lev Grossman, Zoë Schlanger and K.A. Cobell are also finalists.
The awards ceremony, which will take place April 25 at USC’s Bovard Auditorium ahead of the 30th Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, also includes a number of honorees in special categories. Poet Amanda Gorman will be honored with the Innovator’s Award recognizing her work to “bring books, publishing and storytelling into the future.” The former Los Angeles youth poet laureate rose to fame when she read her stirring poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration and has since used her voice to highlight important issues including climate change, social justice and literacy.
“Amanda Gorman is an eloquent voice for the next generation. Her skillful use of poetry to motivate, inspire and enact social change is incredibly powerful,” Times Executive Editor Terry Tang said in a news release Wednesday. “We are thrilled to be honoring Gorman with this year’s Innovator’s Award and to shine a light on the work she has done — and continues to do — in promoting literacy to empower the youth to get involved.”
As the L.A. Times Festival of Books turns 25 with a virtual fest, the author recalls how its tight-knit community helped obliterate his L.A. cliches.
Pico Iyer, the renowned author of “The Art of Stillness,” will receive the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, which celebrates a writer with a substantial connection to the American West. Iyer’s latest work, “Aflame: Learning From Silence,” is a reflection on the power of meditation, even through stressful life events, including his California home burning down decades ago.
“Pico Iyer is a treasure,” said Ann Binney, Times associate director of events and book prizes administrator. “While he travels the world, he always finds his way back to California. I have known Pico for many years, and it is such an honor to recognize him with the Robert Kirsch Award. His beautiful words sharing his own experience of loss and recovery offer us welcome comfort, especially during this time as we recover from our recent devastating wildfires.”
The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose will go to Emily Witt for “Health and Safety: A Breakdown,” a bestselling memoir about Witt’s exploration with psychedelic substances and the New York City dance-club scene. It offers a sharp and timely examination of life in America during Donald Trump’s first presidential term. Witt is also an investigative journalist and has previously written “Future Sex,” a deep dive into modern dating and sexuality.
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“Emily Witt exposes a country in the throes of ongoing trauma in a coming-of-age memoir — keenly observed, unapologetically told — that feels scarily emblematic of our life and times,” the judges of the Isherwood Prize said in a statement. The award, which is sponsored by the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, honors exceptional work and encompasses fiction, travel writing, memoir and diary.
The Book Prizes recognize titles in the following categories: audiobooks, autobiographical prose (the Christopher Isherwood Prize), biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award), graphic novel/comics, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science fiction, science and technology and young adult literature. Finalists and winners are selected by panels of writers who specialize in each genre.
For more information about the Book Prizes, including the complete list of 2024 finalists, visit latimes.com/BookPrizes.
Robert Kirsch Award
Pico Iyer, “Aflame: Learning From Silence”
The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose
Emily Witt, “Health and Safety: A Breakdown”
Innovator’s Award
Amanda Gorman
The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
Jiaming Tang, “Cinema Love: A Novel”
‘Pemi Aguda, “Ghostroots: Stories”
Joseph Earl Thomas, “God Bless You, Otis Spunkmeyer: A Novel”
Jessica Elisheva Emerson, “Olive Days: A Novel”
Julian Zabalbeascoa, “What We Tried to Bury Grows Here”
Achievement in Audiobook Production, presented by Audible
Matt Bomer (narrator), Kelly Gildea (director, co-producer), Lauren Klein (producer); “Giovanni’s Room: A Novel”
Narrators: Clare Brown, Ayanna Dookie, Korey Jackson, Andrea Jones-Sojola, Brittany Pressley, Emana Rachelle, Malika Samuel, Heather Alicia Simms, Diana Bustelo, Tyla Collier, Alejandra Reynoso, David Sadzin, André Santana, Shaun Taylor-Corbett; Producer: Allison Light; “New Nigeria County”
Narrators: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, Tom Hardy, Chukwudi Iwuji, Romesh Ranganathan, Natasia Demetriou, Francesca Mills, Alex Lawther, Katie Leung; Producers: Chris Jones, Mariele Runacre-Temple, Robin Morgan-Bentley, Nathan Freeman; “George Orwell’s 1984: An Audible Original adaptation”
Dominic Hoffman (narrator), Linda Korn (producer); “James: A Novel”
Michele Norris With a Full Cast (narrator), Mike Noble (producer); “Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity”
Biography
Laura Beers, “Orwell’s Ghosts: Wisdom and Warnings for the Twenty-First Century”
Cynthia Carr, “Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar”
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde”
Pamela D. Toler, “The Dragon From Chicago: The Untold Story of An American Reporter in Nazi Germany”
Jessica Goudeau, “We Were Illegal: Uncovering a Texas Family’s Mythmaking and Migration”
Current Interest
Jonathan Blitzer, “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis”
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Message”
Jesse Katz, “The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA”
Robin Wall Kimmerer, “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World”
Wright Thompson, “The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi”
Fiction
Rita Bullwinkel, “Headshot: A Novel”
Jennine Capó Crucet, “Say Hello to My Little Friend: A Novel”
Percival Everett, “James: A Novel”
Yuri Herrera translated by Lisa Dillman, “Season of the Swamp: A Novel”
Miranda July, “All Fours: A Novel”
Graphic Novel/Comics
Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes, “Hobtown Mystery Stories Vol. 2: The Cursed Hermit”
Taiyo Matsumoto, “Tokyo These Days, Vol. 1”
Bhanu Pratap, “Cutting Season”
Miroslav Sekulic-Struja translated by Jenna Allen, “Petar & Liza”
Ram V and Filipe Andrade, “Rare Flavours”
History
Andrea Freeman, “Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, From the Trail of Tears to School Lunch”
Andrew W. Kahrl, “The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America”
Aaron Robertson, “The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America”
Joseph M. Thompson, “Cold War Country: How Nashville’s Music Row and the Pentagon Created the Sound of American Patriotism”
Michael Waters, “The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports”
Mystery/Thriller
Christopher Bollen, “Havoc: A Novel”
Michael Connelly, “The Waiting: A Ballard and Bosch Novel”
Attica Locke, “Guide Me Home: A Highway 59 Novel”
Liz Moore, “The God of the Woods: A Novel”
Danielle Trussoni, “The Puzzle Box: A Novel”
Poetry
Remica Bingham-Risher, “Room Swept Home”
Andrea Cohen, “The Sorrow Apartments”
Cindy Juyoung Ok, “Ward Toward”
Pam Rehm, “Inner Verses”
Alison C. Rollins, “Black Bell”
Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction
Jedediah Berry, “The Naming Song”
Lev Grossman, “The Bright Sword: A Novel of King Arthur”
Kelly Link, “The Book of Love”
Jeff VanderMeer, “Absolution: A Southern Reach Novel”
Nghi Vo, “The City in Glass”
Science & Technology
Rebecca Boyle, “Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are”
Ferris Jabr, “Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life”
Daniel Lewis, “Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future”
Kyne Santos, “Math in Drag”
Zoë Schlanger, “The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth”
Young Adult Literature
Traci Chee, “Kindling”
K.A. Cobell, “Looking for Smoke”
Safia Elhillo, “Bright Red Fruit”
Carolina Ixta, “Shut Up, This Is Serious”
Kim Johnson, “The Color of a Lie”
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