Los Angeles Times Book Prizes

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. The nominees in each category are listed below; winners will be announced in late September. FICTION WHILE ENGLAND SLEEPS, by David Leavitt (Viking) REMEMBERING BABYLON, by David Malouf (Pantheon Books) THE HOLDER OF THE WORLD, by Bharati Mukherjee (Alfred A. Knopf) THE SOLOIST, by Mark Salzman (Random House) THE RIFLES, by William T.

The 33rd annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes will be presented in a public ceremony Friday night at USC's Bovard Auditorium. The awards are given in 10 categories, including biography, current interest, first fiction and adult literature. In addition, the winners of two prizes, announced in February, will be honored: the Canadian novelist and essayist Margaret Atwood, who will receive the 2012 Innovator's Award for her efforts to push narrative form; and the California historian Kevin Starr, who will receive the 2012 Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement.

LINCOLN: An Illustrated Biography by Philip B. Kunhardt Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III and Peter W. Kunhardt (Alfred A. Knopf). A spellbinding pictorial biography containing more than 700 photographs arranged chronologically that provide a definitive visual record of Lincoln's life and a view of the Civil War from the President's perspective. The text contains extensive quotations from Lincoln and his contemporaries.

Ben Fountain's satire "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" was named the winner of the L.A. Times 2012 book prize for fiction on Friday night at a ceremony in Los Angeles. Katherine Boo's "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity" took the prize in the current interest category. The complete list of winners: --Biography: Robert Caro, "The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson " (Knopf) --Current Interest: Katherine Boo, "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity" (Random House)

Asking Kevin Starr a question is like turning on a fire hose. First there's a blast of erudition. Then, as his intellect gathers, information rushes out in a deluge. He's talking, but it's as if an invisible scholar inside his head is yanking books off shelves, throwing them open, checking the index, then racing off to find the next volume. On the outside, Starr is an avuncular 72-year-old, but his brain is sprinting like an Olympian. Amazingly, it's possible to keep up. This may be Starr's greatest gift: not just that he has amassed a phenomenal body of knowledge but that he can translate it into dynamic works of history.

Alex Shakar's novel "Luminarium," about the role technology and spirituality play in shaping people's reality, and Stephen King's "11/22/1963," about a time traveler who attempts to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination, were among the winners Friday at the 32nd annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. The awards to Shakar in the fiction category and to King in mystery-thrillers were among 12 presented at USC's Bovard Auditorium in a ceremony that launched this weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the campus.

— Ramona Quimby is everywhere. She's outside the front door of Beverly Cleary's retirement community apartment, on a poster that proclaims: "Libraries are forever!" She's on a sideboard in the living room, in the form of a life-size bust, hair wild and face cut into the shape of a grin. Most important, she's on the bookshelf in Cleary's neat, spare bedroom, along with the author's other books, 40 or so of them, the work of half a century. Asked which is her favorite character, the 95-year-old doesn't hesitate.

Finalists for the 30th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were announced on Monday, and for the first time, graphic novels will be among the categories in competition. Prizes in 10 categories will be awarded on April 23, in an invitation-only ceremony at The Times. In addition to the new graphic novel category, The Times will also present its first Innovators Award, which will go to author and publisher Dave Eggers for his multifaceted, spirited commitment to literature. Eggers leads the trend-bucking San Francisco independent publisher McSweeney's, which offers books, magazines and a shape-shifting quarterly journal.

Marilynne Robinson took the top fiction prize Friday for her novel "Home," and Barton Gellman the current interest award for his book on Dick Cheney's vice presidency at the 29th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. Robert Alter, a UC Berkeley professor and author of 22 works on the Bible, literary modernism and contemporary Hebrew literature, had earlier been named the recipient of the Robert Kirsch Award, given annually to a living author "with a substantial connection to the American West."

Robert Alter, a UC Berkeley professor and author of 22 works on the Bible, literary modernism and contemporary Hebrew literature, will be the 29th recipient of the Robert Kirsch Award when the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes are presented April 24. The Kirsch is a lifetime achievement honor named for a past L.A. Times book critic. The Times Book Prizes honor 45 nominees in nine categories. Here is a complete list: Biography H.W.

A haunting novel about the Israeli victim of a suicide bombing, a provocative biography of Walt Disney and a probing analysis of the 9/11 attacks were among the winners of the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, announced Friday evening at UCLA. The awards ceremony, hosted by author and PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer, honored books in nine categories. A final prize, the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, was given to author and memoirist William Kittredge.

AMERICAN book festivals are often dominated by a theme or a high-profile author, but good luck finding the hook at this weekend's 12th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA. Beyond a love for literature and good writing, it's hard to find the common thread in an event featuring authors such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julie Andrews, Dr. Phil McGraw, James Ellroy, Lee Iacocca, Ray Bradbury, Frank McCourt, Amy Goodman, William Kittredge, Lawrence Wright, Jim Lehrer and Joseph Wambaugh.