Los Angeles Times Book Prize Shortlist Announced

New awards and a deeper shortlist than ever before will mark the 30th year of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

The awards will be announced in a ceremony at the Times’ Chandler Auditorium on April 23rd. The event provides the opening act for the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, an event that bills itself as the “nation’s premier public literary festival,” in its 15th year in 2010.

From a release:

The Book Prizes recognize 50 distinguished works in ten categories and the list of finalists in biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award), graphic novel, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult literature can be found at http://events.latimes.com/bookprizes. The addition of the graphic novel category makes The Times the first major book prize in the United States to honor an art form that has indelibly expanded the literary landscape, both aesthetically and commercially.

The complete shortlist can be found here.