Today’s L.A. Times Book Prizes finalists announcement includes the first nominees for the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction, sponsored by Ray Bradbury Literary Works. The prize honors Bradbury’s literary legacy by celebrating writers working in his field today.
“Ray was a proud Angeleno who used words to both predict and prevent the future,” said a statement from Bradbury’s family. “(T)his prize recognizes authors with a similar passion for storytelling and the far-reaching effects their words have in this world,”
The Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction
- Ted Chiang, Exhalation: Stories (Knopf)
- Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, This is How You Lose the Time War (Gallery / Saga Press)
- Brian Evenson, Song for the Unraveling of the World (Coffee House Press)
- Marlon James, Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy) (Riverhead Books)
- Namwali Serpell, The Old Drift: A Novel (Hogarth)
Also of genre interest —
The 2019 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement
- Walter Mosley
The award recognizes a writer whose work focuses on the American West. Mosley is best known for his mystery series featuring detective Easy Rawlins, a private detective in South-Central Los Angeles, however, he also has written a half-dozen sff novels, and several shorter works, including the Crosstown to Oblivion series.
“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 Book 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.”
Graphic Novel/Comics
- Eleanor Davis, The Hard Tomorrow (Drawn and Quarterly)
- Michael DeForge, Leaving Richard’s Valley (Drawn and Quarterly)
- Jaime Hernandez, Is This How You See Me (Fantagraphics)
- Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, Grass (Drawn and Quarterly)
- Mariko Tamaki & Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me (First Second)
Winners will be announced at an evening ceremony in Los Angeles on April 17, the day before the start of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Stories and Ideas on the USC campus.