Following last month's announcement of finalists and special honorees, the Los Angeles Times named winners of its 46th annual Book Prizes on April 17, kicking off the weekend Festival of Books. The awards recognized excellence across 13 categories, from fiction to graphic novels.
Building on the February finalists reveal—which highlighted special honorees like Amy Tan (Robert Kirsch Award), We Need Diverse Books (Innovator’s Award), and Adam Ross (Christopher Isherwood Prize)—the Los Angeles Times announced the 2025 Book Prizes winners ahead of its Festival of Books in Los Angeles.In main categories: Bryan Washington won fiction for Palaver: A Novel; Megan Abbott took mystery/thriller for El Dorado Drive; Silvia Park claimed science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction with Luminous: A Novel.Other winners: Justin Haynes (first fiction, Ibis: A Novel); Ekow Eshun (biography, The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them); Karen Hao (science and technology, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI); Allison Benis White (poetry, A Magnificent Loneliness); Trung Le Nguyen (young adult literature, Angelica and the Bear Prince).Audiobook award (Audible): The Correspondent: A Novel by Virginia Evans, narrated by David Pittu, Steve West, and team, produced by Kelly Gildea. Additional categories: Bench Ansfield (history/current interest), Brian Gladstone (graphic novels), Jaime Hernandez (another graphic novels? wait, specified as graphic novels).The prizes, selected by specialist panels, celebrate literary excellence ahead of the main ceremony.