40th Annual LA Times Book Prizes

The Los Angeles Times will honour Walter Mosley at the 40th Annual Book Prizes.

The LA Times Book Prizes recognize outstanding literary achievements in 12 categories, including the new Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, with winners to be announced April 17.

Walter Mosley will be honoured with the Robert Kirsch Award.

The annual ceremony recognizing outstanding literary achievements will take place on Friday, April 17, 2020. The ceremony kicks off the weekend literary and cultural gathering, Festival of Books, Stories and Ideas, taking place April 18-19 at USC. 

Crime-fiction writer Walter Mosley will receive the 2019 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, which recognizes a writer whose work focuses on the American West. “We are pleased to celebrate Walter Mosley’s 30-year writing life, which spans mysteries, short stories, science fiction, nonfiction, plays, and works for television and film,” said Times Books Editor Boris Kachka. “Whether through a detective story set in the streets of 1950s Los Angeles or essays about contemporary politics, Mosley reaches a wide range of readers, bringing about a deeper understanding of the world and the people who live in it.” 

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mosley eventually settled in New York City. As Columnist Patt Morrison said in a profile for The Times, “You can take Walter Mosley out of Los Angeles … but you can’t take L.A. out of Walter Mosley.” The author of more than 43 books crossing various genres, he is best known for his 14-volume mystery series featuring detective Easy Rawlins, a Black private detective living in South Central Los Angeles. 

A Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, Mosley has received numerous awards, including the Edgar Award for best novel, the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy, a PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award and several NAACP Image awards. 

The finalists for the Mystery/Thriller prize are below. 

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha (Ecco) 

The Night Fire by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company)

The Lost Man by Jane Harper (Flatiron Books)

 Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

 Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke (Mulholland Books) 

The complete list of finalists and further information, including past winners, is available can be found here.