The Word from L.A.

From all accounts, the 2007 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books was an even bigger success than usual. And that’s saying something. As the L.A. Times reported after the first day of festivities, “LA Times Book Fest Day 1: Shorter Lines + More Food = More Fun.” According to the piece, the food was remarkable. “If there weren't so many book booths and authors running about, we'd think this was a cooking festival.”

Fun and food aside, one of the highlights of the event was the presentation of the prestigious Los Angeles Times Book Awards, held at Royce Hall (also the location of the best secret bathroom find, but that’s from the other story) on Friday night.

The winners are as follows:

Robert Kirsch Award for Lifetime Achievement:
William Kittredge

Fiction:
A Woman in Jerusalem, by A.B. Yehoshua, translated by Hillel Halkin (Harcourt)

Biography:
Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, by Neal Gabler (Alfred A. Knopf)

History:
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright (Knopf)

Current Interest:
Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance, by Ian Buruma (Penguin)

Mystery/Thriller:
Echo Park, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction:
White Ghost Girls, by Alice Greenway (Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic).

Young Adult Fiction:
Tyrell, by Coe Booth (Push/Scholastic)

Science and Technology:
In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind, by Eric R. Kandel (W.W. Norton)

Poetry:
Ooga-Booga, by Frederick Seidel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

Each prize included a $1,000 cash award.