Los Angeles Times Book Prize
The Los Angeles Times Book Prize is a renowned literary prize that has been awarded annually by the Los Angeles Times since 1980 .
The prizes are awarded in twelve categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first work (since 1991), history, poetry, science and technology (since 1989), children's books (since 1998), mystery / thriller (since 2000), innovative (since 2009), graphic novel (since 2009) and autobiographical literature (since 2016). There is also the Robert Kirsch Award for a living author from the western United States, named after Robert Kirsch, the long-time literary critic of the Los Angeles Times. Each category is endowed with prize money of $ 500, the Robert Kirsch Award with $ 1000. Nine different independent juries with three members each decide on the awarding of the prizes.
Categories
biography
- 1981: Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough
- 1982: Waldo Emerson: A Biography by Gay Wilson Allen
- 1983: The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House by Seymour Hersh
- 1984: The Nightmare of Reason by Ernst Pawel
- The life of Franz Kafka, German by Michael Müller, Carl Hanser, Munich 1986. ISBN 3-446-14250-9
- 1985: Solzhenitsyn by Michael Scammell
- 1986: Alexander Pope: A Life by Maynard Mack
- 1987: Hemingway by Kenneth S. Lynn
- Hemingway: A biography, German by Werner Schmitz ; Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989. ISBN 3-498-03851-6
- 1988: Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom by Brenda Maddox
- Nora: the life of Nora Joyce, German by Karin Kersten; Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1990. ISBN 3-462-02063-3
- 1989: This Boy's Life: A Memoir by Tobias Wolff
- The heart is a dark forest, German by Frank Heibert; Piper, Munich, Zurich 1990. ISBN 3-492-03344-X
- 1990: A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt by Geoffrey C. Ward
- 1991: Righteous Pilgrim: The Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes , 1874-1952 by TH Watkins
- 1992: Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One 1884-1993 by Blanche Wiesen Cook
- 1993; Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer by John Mack Faragher
- 1994: Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore
- The heart of violence, German by Pociao and Roberto de Hollanda; Goldmann, Munich 1994. ISBN 3-442-30607-8
- 1995: Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 by Doris Lessing
- Under the Skin: Autobiography 1919-1949, German by Karen Nölle-Fischer; Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1994. ISBN 3-455-04390-9
- 1996: Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
- My mother's ashes: Irish memories, German by Harry Rowohlt ; Luchterhand, Munich 1996. ISBN 3-630-86945-9
- 1997: Whittaker Chambers: A Biography by Sam Tanenhaus
- 1998: Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg
- Charles Lindbergh: an idol of the 20th century, German by Andrea Ott ; Blessing, Munich 1999. ISBN 3-89667-089-1
- 1999: Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
- Colette: novel of her life, German by Brigitte Flickinger. Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2001. ISBN 3-8270-0342-3
- 2000: Jefferson Davis, American by William J. Cooper
- 2001: Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
- 2002: Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 3 by Robert A. Caro
- 2003: American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization by Neil Smith
- 2004: de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
- 2005: Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Conquest of Color, 1909-1954 by Hilary Spurling
- Matisse - life and work, German by Jürgen Blasius; DuMont, Cologne 2006. ISBN 3-8321-7704-3
- 2006: Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler
- 2007: Young Stalin by Simon Sebag-Montefiore
- The young Stalin, German by Bernd Rullkötter; Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007. ISBN 3-10-050608-1
- 2008: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by Paula J. Giddings
- 2009: Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon
- 2010: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience & Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
- Unbending: A true story of resilience and struggle for survival, German by Susanne Held; Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2011. ISBN 978-3-608-94624-6
- 2011: Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned by John A. Farrell
- 2012: The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro
- 2013: Bolivar: American Liberator by Marie Arana
- 2014: Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts
- 2015: Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi by Hayden Herrera
- 2016: Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 by Volker Ullrich
- Adolf Hitler - The Years of Ascent; S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013. ISBN 978-3-100-86005-7
- 2017: Henry David Thoreau: A Life by Laura Dassow Walls
- 2018: Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
- 2019: Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century by George Packer
Current interest
- 1980: Without Fear or Favor by Harrison Salisbury
- 1981: Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number by Jacobo Timerman
- We roared inwards: Torture in the dictatorship today, German by Joachim A. Frank; S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1982. ISBN 3-10-090802-3
- 1982: The Fate of the Earth by Jonathan Schell
- The fate of the earth: danger and consequences of a nuclear war, German by Hainer Schober; Piper, Munich, Zurich 1982. ISBN 3-492-02802-0
- 1983: Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy
- Hole in the cosmos: the last help yourself book, German by Hans-Ulrich Möhring; Sphinx, Basel 1991. ISBN 3-85914-189-9
- 1984: Cities and the Wealth of Nations by Jane Jacobs
- 1985: Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life by Robert N. Bellah , Richard Madsen , William M. Sullivan , Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton
- Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Public Sense in American Society, German by Ingrid Peikert; Bund, Cologne 1987. ISBN 3-7663-0967-6
- 1986: Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White by Joseph Lelyveld
- Time is black: Tragedy South Africa, German by Bernd Rullkötter; Ullstein, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main 1986. ISBN 3-550-07740-8
- 1987: The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
- The blind watchmaker: a new plea for Darwinism, German by Karin de Sousa Ferreira; Kindler, Munich 1987. ISBN 3-463-40078-2
- 1988: Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country by William Greider
- 1989: Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963 by Taylor Branch
- 1990: Disappearing through the Skylight: Culture and Technology in the Twentieth Century by OB Hardison
- 1991: Why Americans Hate Politics: The Death of the Democratic Process by EJ Dionne
- 1992: The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama
- The end of the story: where are we ?, German by Helmut Dierlamm; Kindler, Munich 1992. ISBN 3-463-40132-0
- 1993: Mexican Americans: The Ambivalent Minority by Peter Skerry
- 1994: Diplomacy from Henry Kissinger
- The Reason of Nations: About the Nature of Foreign Policy, by Matthias Vogel; Siedler, Berlin 1994. ISBN 3-88680-486-0
- 1995: Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black by Gregory Howard Williams
- 1996: Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War by Peter Maass
- The thing with the war: Bosnia from 1992 to Dayton, German by Barbara Scriba-Sethe; Knesebeck, Munich 1997. ISBN 3-89660-023-0
- 1997: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman
- The spirit grabs you and you fall to the ground: a Hmong child, his western doctors and the clash of two cultures, German by Leonie von Reppert-Bismarck and Thomas Rütten; Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2000. ISBN 3-8270-0336-9
- 1998: We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch
- We would like to inform you that we and our families will be killed tomorrow: reports from Rwanda, German by Meinhard Büning; Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 1999. ISBN 3-8270-0351-2
- 1999: Sidewalk (with Photographs by Ovie Carter ) by Mitchell Duneier
- 2000: Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War by Frances FitzGerald
- 2001: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
- Arbeit poor: on the way in the service society, German by Niels Kadritzke; Kunstmann, Munich 2001. ISBN 3-88897-283-3
- 2002: Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex by Judith Levine
- 2003: The New Chinese Empire - And What It Means for the United States by Ross Terrill
- 2004: Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War by Evan Wright
- Generation Kill: the new face of the American war, by Andreas Simon dos Santos; Two thousand and one 2005. ISBN 3-86150-725-0
- 2005: Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War , by Anthony Shadid
- 2006: Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance by Ian Buruma
- The limits of tolerance: the murder of Theo van Gogh, German by Wiebke Meier; Hanser, Munich 2006. ISBN 3-446-20836-4
- 2007: Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point by Elizabeth D. Samet
- 2008: Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency by Barton Gellman
- 2009: Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
- Zeitoun, German by Ulrike Wasel and Klaus Timmermann; Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 2011. ISBN 3-462-04299-8
- 2010: The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis
- The Big Short: How a handful of traders gambled the world away, German by Ulrike Bischoff, Petra Pyka and Birgit Schöbitz; Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2010. ISBN 978-3-593-39357-5
- 2011: Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- Fast thinking, slow thinking, German by Thorsten Schmidt; Siedler, Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-88680-886-1
- 2012: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
- Annawadi or The Dream of Another Life , German by Pieke Biermann , Droemer, Munich 2012. ISBN 978-3-426-27592-4
- 2013: Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink
- 2014: The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
- 2015: Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security by Sarah Chaynes
- 2016: Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Swetlana Alexijewitsch
- Secondhand time: living on the ruins of socialism; German by Ganna-Maria Braungardt; Suhrkamp, Berlin 2013. ISBN 978-3-446-24150-3
- 2017: Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America by Nancy MacLean
- 2018: The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantú
- 2019: Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon
fiction
- 1980: The Second Coming by Walker Percy
- Die Wiederkehr (novel), German by Sabine Hübner; Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1989. ISBN 3-518-38399-X
- 1981: The White Hotel by DM Thomas
- Das weisse Hotel (Roman), German by Wolfgang Schlueter; Hanser, Munich, Vienna 1983. ISBN 3-446-13499-9
- 1982: A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone
- The cry of your enemies (novel), German by Benjamin Schwarz; Rowohlt, Reinbek 1988. ISBN 3-499-12416-5
- 1983: Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
- Schindler's List (novel), German by Günter Danehl; Bertelsmann, Munich 1983. ISBN 3-570-00489-9
- 1984: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
- 1985: Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
- Liebeszauber (novel), German by Helga Pfetsch; Rowohlt, Reinbek 1986. ISBN 3-498-01634-2
- 1986: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- 1987: Fools Crow by James Welch
- Fools Crow (novel), German by Christoph Renfer, Verlag Freies Geistesleben, Stuttgart 2001. ISBN 3-7725-1896-6
- 1988: El amor en los tiempos del cólera by Gabriel García Marquez
- 1989: The Heart of the Country by Fay Weldon
- No wonder that Harry sündigte (novel), German by Sabine Hedinger , Frauenbuch, Munich 1989. ISBN 3-88897-136-5
- 1990: Lantern Slides by Edna O'Brien
- 1991: White People by Allan Gurganus
- Black and white (stories), German by Werner Richter; Goldmann, Munich 1993. ISBN 3-442-09855-6
- 1992: Maus II, A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
- 1993: Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
- Siebengestirn (novel), German by Dorothee Asendorf; Piper, Munich, Zurich 1994. ISBN 3-492-03684-8
- 1994: Remembering Babylon by David Malouf
- 1995: The Blue Afternoon by William Boyd
- 1996: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
- The balance of the world (novel), German by Matthias Müller; Krüger, Frankfurt am Main 1998. ISBN 3-8105-1249-4
- 1997: In the Rogue Blood by James Carlos Blake
- Evil in the Blood (novel), German by Matthias Müller; Liebeskind, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3-95438-016-9
- 1998: The Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald
- The rings of Saturn. An English pilgrimage; 1995. ISBN 3-596-13655-5
- 1999: Freedom Song: Three Novels by Amit Chaudhuri
- The Melody of Freedom: three novels, German by Gisela Stege; Blessing, Munich 2001. ISBN 3-89667-129-4
- 2000: Assorted Fire Events: Stories by David Means
- Coitus (Stories), German by Dirk van Gunsteren ; DuMont, Cologne 2005. ISBN 3-8321-7869-4
- 2001: Why Did I Ever by Mary Robison
- 2002: Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan
- 2003: Train: A Novel by Pete Dexter
- Train (novel), German by Jürgen Bürger; Liebeskind, Munich 2006. ISBN 3-935890-38-9
- 2004: The Master: A Novel by Colm Tóibín
- Portrait of the middle-aged master (novel), German by Giovanni and Ditte Bandini ; Hanser, Munich, Vienna 2005. ISBN 3-446-20664-7
- 2005: Memoria de mis putas tristes by Gabriel García Márquez
- 2006: A Woman in Jerusalem by Abraham B. Jehoshua
- The Passion of the Personnel Officer (novel), German by Ruth Achlama ; Piper, Munich, Zurich 2006. ISBN 3-492-04709-2
- 2007: Be Near Me by Andrew O'Hagan
- 2008: Home of Marilynne Robinson
- At home, German by Uda Strätling. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2018. ISBN 978-3-100-02458-9
- 2009: A Happy Marriage from Rafael Yglesias
- Happy marriage (novel), German by Cornelia Holfelder-von der Tann; Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2010. ISBN 978-3-608-93707-7
- 2010: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- 2011: Luminarium by Alex Shakar
- 2012: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
- 2013: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
- 2014: The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
- The glittering world (novel), German by Uli Aumüller , Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2015. ISBN 978-3-498-03024-7
- 2015: The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli
- The story of my teeth (novel), German by Dagmar Ploetz , Kunstmann, Munich 2016. ISBN 978-3-95614-092-1
- 2016: Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
- Imagine I'm gone, German by Dirk van Gunsteren , Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 2018. ISBN 978-3-498-03028-5
- 2017: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
- Exit West, German by Monika Köpfer, Dumont, Cologne 2017. ISBN 978-3-832-19868-8
- 2018: The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
- Die Optimisten, German by Bettina Abarbanell, Julia Eisele, Munich 2020. ISBN 978-3-96161-077-8
- 2019: The Topeka School: A Novel by Ben Lerner
First work
- 1991: Pangs of Love by David Wong Louie
- 1992: High Cotton by Darryl Pinckney
- 1993: Love <Enter> by Paul Kafka
- 1994: The Year of the Frog by Martin M. Šimecka
- 1995: American Studies by Mark Merlis
- This long forgotten longing, German by Elfi Jäger; Droemer Knaur, Munich 1996. ISBN 3-426-60436-1
- 1996: The Smell of Apples by Mark Behr
- Crocodiles don't cry, German by Ulrike Beck and Marie Rahn; Ullstein, Berlin 1997. ISBN 3-548-24196-4
- 1997: Don't Erase Me: Stories by Carolyn Ferrell
- 1998: Kalimantaan by Christina Godshalk
- Kalimantaan, German by Astrid Arz and Hans M. Herzog; Krüger, Frankfurt am Main 1999. ISBN 3-8105-0869-1
- 1999: Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
- Amy & Isabelle, German by Margarete Längfeld, Piper, Munich, Zurich 2000. ISBN 3-492-04200-7
- 2000: The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra
- Benares or an education of the heart, German by Barbara Schaden; Blessing, Munich 2001. ISBN 3-89667-133-2
- also as: Die Romantischen, same translation; Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2008. ISBN 3-518-45934-1
- 2001: The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert
- The dark chamber, German by Olaf Matthias Roth; Ullstein, Berlin 2001. ISBN 3-89834-024-4
- 2002: Prague by Arthur Phillips
- Prague, German by Sigrid Ruschmeier; Schöffling, Frankfurt am Main 2003. ISBN 3-89561-148-4
- 2003: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- 2004: Harbor by Lorraine Adams
- 2005: Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
- You should be a beast! By Marcus Ingendaay; Ammann, Zurich 2008. ISBN 3-250-60119-5
- 2006: White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway
- Weisse Geister, German by Uwe-Michael Gutzschhahn; Marebuch, Hamburg 2009. ISBN 978-3-86648-101-5
- 2007: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu
- To the reunion of the stars, German by Volker Oldenburg; Claassen, Berlin 2009. ISBN 978-3-546-00439-8
- 2008: Finding Nouf by Zoe Ferraris
- The last sura, German by Matthias Müller; Pendo, Munich 2007. ISBN 3-86612-129-6
- 2009: American Rust by Philipp Meyer
- Rost, German by Frank Heibert; Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2010. ISBN 978-3-608-93893-7
- 2010: The House of Tomorrow by Peter Bognanni
- 2011: Shards by Ismet Prcic
- Shards, German by Conny Lösch ; Suhrkamp, Berlin 2013. ISBN 978-3-518-42366-0
- 2012: Seating arrangements by Maggie Shipstead
- Slight turbulence with increased flow velocity , by Karen Nölle; dtv, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3-423-24967-6
- 2013: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
- We need new names , from Miriam Mandelkow; Suhrkamp, Berlin 2014. ISBN 978-3-518-42451-3
- 2014: Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli
- The Weightless , German by Dagmar Ploetz, Verlag Antje Kunstmann, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3-88897-819-7
- 2015: The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
- The dark river, German by Nicolai von Schweder-Schreiner; Structure, Berlin 2015. ISBN 978-3-351-03592-1
- 2016: The Nix by Nathan Hill
- Geister, German by Werner Loch-Lawrence and Katrin Behringer; Piper, Munich 2016. ISBN 978-3-492-05737-0
- 2017: Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang
- 2018: Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spiers
- 2019: The Old Drift: A Novel by Namwali Serpell
history
- 1980: Walter Lippmann and the American Century by Ronald Steel
- 1981: Land of Savagery / Land of Promise by Ray Allen Billington
- 1982: The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895-1980 by Jonathan D. Spence
- The Gate of Heavenly Peace: the Chinese and their Revolution 1895 - 1980, German by Ulrike Unschuld; Beck, Munich 1985. ISBN 3-406-30536-9
- 1983: The Wheels of Commerce by Fernand Braudel
- Social history of the 15th-18th centuries Century. Vol. 2: The trade, German by Siglinde Summerer u. Gerda Kurz; Kindler, Munich 1986. ISBN 3-463-40026-X
- 1984: The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History by Robert Darnton
- The great cat massacre: Forays into French culture before the revolution, German by Jörg Trobitius; Hanser, Munich, Vienna 1989. ISBN 3-446-14158-8
- 1985: Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Bighorn by Evan S. Connell
- 1986: The First Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within by Geoffrey Hosking
- 1987: not awarded
- 1988: Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner
- 1989: An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood by Neal Gabler
- A realm of its own: how Jewish emigrants invented Hollywood, German by Klaus Binder and Bernd Leineweber; Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-8270-0353-9
- 1990: The Quest for El Cid by Richard A. Fletcher
- El Cid: the life and legend of the Spanish national hero; a biography, German by Martin Pfeiffer; Beltz, Weinheim, Berlin 1999. ISBN 3-88679-312-5
- 1991: The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America by Nicholas Lemann
- 1992: Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families under Fascism by Alexander Stille
- 1993: New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery by Anthony Grafton
- 1994: Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 by George Chauncey
- 1995: Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America by Jackson Lears
- 1996: Black Sea by Neal Ascherson
- 1997: A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution by Orlando Figes
- The tragedy of a people: the epoch of the Russian Revolution 1891 to 1924, German by Barbara Conrad with the collaboration of Brigitte Flickinger and Vera Stutz-Bischitzky; Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 1998. ISBN 3-8270-0243-5
- 1998: The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity by Roy Porter
- The art of healing: a medical history of mankind from antiquity to today, German by Jorunn Wissmann; Spectrum, Heidelberg, Berlin 2000. ISBN 3-8274-0472-X
- 1999: Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower
- 2000: The Collaborator: The Trial and Execution of Robert Brasillach by Alice Kaplan
- 2001: Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by Rick Perlstein
- 2002: Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael B. Oren
- 2003: An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America by Henry Wiencek
- 2004: Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism by Geoffrey R. Stone
- 2005: Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves by Adam Hochschild
- Break the chains: the decisive fight for the abolition of slavery, German by Ute Spengler; Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2007. ISBN 3-608-94123-1
- 2006: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
- Death will find you : Al-Qaida and the way to September 11th, German by Stefan Gebauer and Hans Freundl; DVA, Munich 2007. ISBN 3-421-04303-5
- 2007: Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner
- CIA: The whole story , German by Elke Enderwitz; S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2008. ISBN 3-10-091070-2
- 2008: Hitler's Empire: How the Nazis Ruled Europe by Mark Mazower
- Hitler's Empire: Europe under the Rule of National Socialism, German by Martin Richter; Beck, Munich 2009. ISBN 978-3-406-59271-3
- 2009: Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance 1950 - 1963 by Kevin Starr
- 2010: The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers
- 2011: Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America by Richard White
- 2012: America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union by Fergus M. Bordewich
- 2013: The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark
- The sleepwalkers: How Europe moved into the First World War, in German by Norbert Juraschitz, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3-421-04359-7
- 2014: The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 by Adam Tooze
- Deluge: The new order of the world 1916-1931, German by Norbert Juraschitz and Thomas Pfeiffer, Siedler Verlag, Munich 2015. ISBN 978-3-88680-928-8
- 2015: Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel by Dan Ephron
- 2016: An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 by Benjamin Madley
- 2017: The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan
- 2018: Travelers In The Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism 1919–1945 by Julia Boyd
- 2019: They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
Mystery / thriller
- 2000: A Place of Execution: A Novel by Val McDermid
- A place for eternity, by Doris Styron; Droemer Knaur, Munich 2001. ISBN 3-426-61911-3
- 2001: Silent Joe by T. Jefferson Parker
- The silent man, German by Klaus-Dieter Schmidt; Ullstein, Munich 2002. ISBN 3-548-25410-1
- 2002: Hell to Pay: A Novel by George P. Pelecanos
- Anger in the stomach, German by Bettina Zeller, Rotbuch, Hamburg 2004. ISBN 3-434-54055-5
- 2003: Soul Circus: A Novel by George P. Pelecanos
- 2004: Tijuana Straits: A Novel by Kem Nunn
- 2005: Legends: A Novel of Dissimulation by Robert Littell
- The cold legend, German by Ulrike Wasel and Klaus Timmermann; Scherz, Frankfurt am Main 2006. ISBN 3-502-10033-0
- 2006: Echo Park: A Novel by Michael Connelly
- Echo-Park, German by Sepp Leeb; Heyne, Munich 2008. ISBN 978-3-453-26560-8
- 2007: The Indian Bride by Karin Fossum
- Silent Screams, German by Gabriele Haefs; Piper, Munich, Zurich 2001. ISBN 3-492-04362-3
- 2008: Envy the Night by Michael Koryta
- Bloody Guilt, German by Thomas Bertram; Knaur, Munich 2010. ISBN 978-3-426-50442-0
- 2009: The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville
- The shadows of Belfast, German by Armin Gontermann; Rütten & Loening, Berlin 2011. ISBN 978-3-352-00797-2
- 2010: Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
- Krumme Type, crooked type, German by Nikolaus Stingl . Pulp Master, Berlin 2018. ISBN 978-3-927-73499-9
- 2011: 11/22/63 by Stephen King
- 2012: Broken Harbor by Tana French
- Schattenstill, German by Ulrike Wasel and Klaus Timmermann, Scherz, Frankfurt am Main 2012. ISBN 978-3-502-10223-6
- 2013: The Cuckoo's Calling by JK Rowling (under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith)
- The call of the cuckoo , German by Wulf Bergner , Christoph Göhler and Kristof Kurz; Blanvalet, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3-764-50510-3
- 2014: Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman , WW Norton, New York City 2014.
- On the hunt, detective novel, German by Gottfried Röckelein . Ars Vivendi, Cadolzburg, ISBN 978-3-86913-722-3
- 2015: The Cartel by Don Winslow .
- Das Kartell , German by Chris Hirte, Droemer, Munich 2015. ISBN 978-3-426-30429-7
- 2016: Dodgers by Bill Beverly
- Dodgers, German by Hans M. Herzog; Diogenes; Zurich 2018. ISBN 978-3-257-07037-8
- 2017: A Book of American Martyrs by Joyce Carol Oates
- 2018: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
- My sister, the serial killer; German by Yasemin Dinçer; Flower bar; Berlin 2020. ISBN 978-3-351-05074-0
- 2019: Your House Will Pay: A Novel by Steph Cha
science and technology
- 1989: Peacemaking among Primates by Frans de Waal
- Wild diplomats. Reconciliation and détente among monkeys and humans, German by Ellen Vogel; Hanser, Munich, Vienna 1991. ISBN 3-446-16003-5
- 1990: Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine by Jane S. Smith
- 1991: The Truth about Chernobyl by Grigori Medvedev
- 1992: The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal by Jared Diamond
- 1993: Fuzzy Logic: The Discovery of a Revolutionary Computer Technology - and How It Is Changing Our World by Daniel McNeill and Paul Freiberger
- Fuzzy logic. The "fuzzy" logic is conquering technology, by Robert Jaroslawski; Dromer Knaur, Munich 1994. ISBN 3-426-26583-4
- 1994: The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner
- The beak of the finch or the short breath of evolution, German by Matthias Reiss; Munich: Droemer Knaur 1994. ISBN 978-3-426-26536-9 )
- 1995: Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson
- The fullness of life. A declaration of love to the wonders of nature, by Thorsten Schmid; Claassen, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-546-00159-1 )
- 1996: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
- The dragon in my garage or the art of science to expose nonsense, German by Michael Schmidt; Droemer Knaur, Munich 1997. ISBN 3-426-26912-0
- 1997: How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker
- How thinking arises in the head, German by Martina Wiese and Sebastian Vogel; Kindler, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-463-40341-2
- 1998: Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce by Douglas Starr
- Blood - material for life and commerce, German by Inge Leipold; Gerling, Munich 1999. ISBN 3-932425-12-X
- 1999: Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel
- Galileo's daughter. A story of science, the stars and love, by Barbara Schaden; Berliner Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 2008. ISBN 3-8333-0517-7
- 2000: The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine by James Le Fanu , MD
- 2001: The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies by Richard Hamblyn
- The invention of the clouds. How an unknown meteorologist explored the language of the sky, German by Ilse Strasmann; Insel, Frankfurt am Main, Leipzig 2001. ISBN 3-458-17084-7
- 2002: Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox
- Rosalind Franklin. The discovery of DNA or a woman's struggle for scientific recognition, by Conny Lösch; Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2003. ISBN 3-593-37192-8
- 2003: Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation by Philip J. Hilts
- 2004: The Whale and the Supercomputer: On the Northern Front of Climate Change by Charles Wohlforth
- 2005: Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima by Diana Preston
- 2006: In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind by Eric R. Kandel
- In search of memory. The emergence of a new science of the mind, German by Hainer Kober; Siedler, Munich 2006. ISBN 3-88680-842-4
- 2007: I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter
- I am a strange loop, German by Susanne Held; Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2008. ISBN 3-608-94444-3
- 2008: The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind
- The war over the black hole. How I struggled with Stephen Hawking to save quantum mechanics, German by Friedrich Griese; Suhrkamp, Berlin 2010. ISBN 978-3-518-42205-2
- 2009: The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom by Graham Farmelo
- 2010: The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness by Oren Harman
- 2011: Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius by Sylvia Nasar
- Market and Morals: The Great Economists and Their Ideas, German by Yvonne Badal, Bertelsmann; Munich 2012. ISBN 978-3-570-10026-4
- 2012: Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams
- The bosom: masterpiece of evolution, German by Anne Emmert, Diederichs, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3-424-35083-8
- 2013: Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? by Alan Weisman
- Countdown: Does the earth have a future ?, dt by Ursula Pesch and Werner Roller, Piper Verlag, Munich 2013. ISBN 978-3-492-05431-7
- 2014: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
- The sixth dying: How man writes natural history, German by Ulrike Bischoff, Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2015. ISBN 978-3-518-42481-0
- 2015: The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf
- Alexander von Humboldt and the Invention of Nature, German by Hainer Kober , C. Bertelsmann, Munich 2016. ISBN 978-3-570-10206-0
- 2016: Patient HM: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets by Luke Dittrich
- 2017: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky
- Violence and compassion. The biology of human behavior, German by Hainer Kober and Antoinette Gittinger; Hanser, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-446-25672-9 .
- 2018: Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy
- Dopesick: How Doctors and the Pharmaceutical Industry Make Us Addicted, German by Andrea Kunstmann; Heyne, Munich 2019. ISBN 978-3-453-27227-9
- 2019: Figuring by Maria Popova
Poetry
- 1980: Kill the Messenger by Robert Kelly
- 1981: Three Pieces by Ntozake Shange
- 1982: Plutonian Ode and Other Poems, 1977-1980 by Allen Ginsberg
- 1983: The Changing Light at Sandover by James Merrill
- 1984: The Maximus Poems by Charles Olson
- 1985: Cross Ties by XJ Kennedy
- 1986: Collected Poems, 1948-1984 by Derek Walcott
- 1987: Partial Accounts: New and Selected Poems by William Meredith
- 1988: New and Collected Poems by Richard Wilbur
- 1989: The One Day: A Poem in Three Parts by Donald Hall
- 1990: The Color of Mesabi Bones by John Caddy
- 1991: What Work Is by Phillip Levine
- 1992: An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems 1988-1991 by Adrienne Rich
- 1993: My Alexandria by Mark Doty
- 1994: The Angel of History by Carolyn Forché
- 1995: The Inferno of Dante by Robert Pinsky
- 1996: Mixed Company by Alan Shapiro
- 1997: Black Zodiac by Charles Wright
- 1998: Mysteries of Small Houses by Alice Notley
- 1999: Repair: Poems by CK Williams
- 2000: The Throne of Labdacus by Gjertrud Schnackenberg
- 2001: The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos by Anne Carson
- 2002: The Watercourse: Poems by Cynthia Zarin
- 2003: Collected Later Poems by Anthony Hecht
- 2004: Inner Voices: Selected Poems, 1963-2003 by Richard Howard
- 2005: Refusing Heaven: Poems by Jack Gilbert
- 2006: Ooga-Booga by Frederick Seidel
- 2007: Old Heart: Poems by Stanley Plumly
- 2008: Watching the Spring Festival: Poems by Frank Bidart
- 2009: Practical Water by Brenda Hillman
- 2010: Where I Live: New & Selected Poems 1990-2010 by Maxine Kumin
- 2011: Double Shadow by Carl Phillips
- 2012: Poems 1962-2012 by Louise Glück
- 2013: Collected Poems by Ron Padgett
- 2014: Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- 2015: From the World: Poems 1976 - 2014 by Jorie Graham
- 2016: Gap Gardening: Selected Poems by Rosmarie Waldrop
- 2017: Incendiary Art: Poems by Patricia Smith
- 2018: Wild is the Wind: Poems by Carl Phillips
- 2019: Deaf Republic: Poems by Ilya Kaminsky
youth book
- 1998: Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer
- On the way with Mrs. Gladstone, German by Marion Schweizer; Bertelsmann, Munich 2000. ISBN 3-570-12442-8
- 1999: Frenchtown Summer by Robert Cormier
- A summer in Frenchtown, German by Cornelia Krutz-Arnold; Bertelsmann, Munich 2003. ISBN 3-570-12723-0
- 2000: Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson
- 2001: The Land by Mildred D. Taylor
- My dream of my own country, German by Heike Brandt; Beltz and Gelberg, Weinheim, Basel 2005. ISBN 3-407-80960-3
- 2002: Feed from MT Anderson
- 2003: A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
- The light of the north, German by Angelika Felenda; Piper, Munich, Zurich 2005. ISBN 3-492-27102-2
- 2004: Doing It by Melvin Burgess
- Doing it, German by Andreas Steinhöfel; Carlsen, Hamburg 2004. ISBN 3-551-58131-2
- 2005: You & You & You by Per Nilsson
- Du & du & du, German by Birgitta Kicherer; DTV Munich 2003. ISBN 3-423-20651-9
- 2006: Tyrell by Coe Booth
- 2007: A Darkling Plain by Philip Reeve
- 2008: Nation by Terry Pratchett
- Eine Insel, German by Peder Brehnkmann, Manhattan, Munich 2009. ISBN 978-3-442-54655-8
- 2009: Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don't You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge
- 2010: A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
- The Legends of Attolia 4: The Conspirators, German by Maike Claußnitzer, Blanvalet, Munich 2012. ISBN 978-3-442-26879-5
- 2011: The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman
- 2012: Ask the Passengers by AS King
- 2013: Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang
- 2014: The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
- 2015: My Seneca Village by Marilyn Nelson
- 2016: The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
- 2017: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
- 2018: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
- 2019: When the Ground is Hard by Malla Nunn
Graphic novel
- 2009: Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
- Asterios Polyp, German by Thomas Pletzinger, Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001. ISBN 978-3-8218-6130-2
- 2010: Duncan the Wonder Dog: Show One by Adam Hines
- 2011: Finder: Voice by Carla Speed McNeil
- 2012: Everything Together: Collected Stories by Sammy Harkham
- 2013: Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust
- Today is the last day of the rest of your life, Avant Verlag, Berlin 2009. ISBN 978-3-939080-36-7
- 2014: The Love Bunglers by Jaime Hernandez
- 2015: Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984: A Graphic Memoir by Riad Sattouf
- The Arab of Tomorrow: A Childhood in the Middle East (1978-1984), German by Andreas Platthaus , Knaus, Munich 2015. ISBN 978-3-8135-0666-2
- 2016: Beverly by Nick Drnaso
- 2017: Present by Leslie Stein
- 2018: On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
- 2019: The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor Davis
Autobiography
- 2016: They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery
- 2017: The Hue and Cry at Our House: A Year Remembered by Benjamin Taylor
- 2018: Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
- 2019: Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard
Innovator's Award
- 2009: Dave Eggers
- 2010: Powell's Books (bookstore in Portland / Oregon )
- 2011: Figment (online publisher)
- 2012: Margaret Atwood
- 2013: John Green
- 2014: LeVar Burton
- 2015: James Patterson
- 2016: Ruebén Martinez
- 2017: Glory Edim
- 2018: Library of America
- 2019: Keren Taylor
Robert Kirsch Award
- 1980: Wallace Stegner
- 1981: Wright Morris
- 1982: Ross Macdonald
- 1983: MFK Fisher
- 1984: Christopher Isherwood
- 1985: Janet Lewis
- 1986: Kay Boyle
- 1987: Paul Horgan
- 1988: Thom Gunn
- 1989: Karl Shapiro
- 1990: Czeslaw Milosz
- 1991: Ken Kesey
- 1992: Diane Johnson
- 1993: Carolyn See
- 1994: Brian Moore
- 1995: Stephen J. Pyne
- 1996: Gary Snyder
- 1997: Ray Bradbury
- 1998: John Sanford
- 1999: Ursula K. Le Guin
- 2000: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- 2001: Tillie Olsen
- 2002: Larry McMurtry
- 2003: Ishmael Reed
- 2004: Tony Hillerman
- 2005: Joan Didion
- 2006: William Kittredge
- 2007: Maxine Hong Kingston
- 2008: Robert Alter
- 2009: Evan S. Connell
- 2010: Beverly Cleary
- 2011: Rudolfo Anaya
- 2012: Kevin Starr
- 2013: Susan Straight
- 2014: TC Boyle
- 2015: Juan Felipe Herrera
- 2016: Thomas McGuane
- 2017: John Rechy
- 2018: Terry Tempest Williams
- 2019: Walter Mosley