Reading List · Literary fiction
The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes have been awarded by the newspaper since 1980, an idea first proposed by its book critic Robert Kirsch and put into practice by book editor Art Seidenbaum. Fiction is one of more than a dozen categories. Books are eligible in the year of their first US publication in English, so translated novels compete alongside English-language ones. Winners are announced at a ceremony at the University of Southern California that opens the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.
By Lisanne Swart · 46 Fiction winners, 1980–2025 · Literary fiction · All literary prizes · Last reviewed 28 October 2026
Click a title to read about it further down ↓
The 46th prizes, for books published in 2025, were announced on 17 April 2026 at Bovard Auditorium, USC, where Palaver by Bryan Washington won Fiction. The next round covers books first published in the US in 2026.
Quick answer
The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction is an annual award from the Los Angeles Times for a work of fiction first published in the US in English during the prize year. It has been given since 1980. The latest winner is Palaver by Bryan Washington (2025 prize, announced April 2026).
How this page chooses
The timeline at the top lists every winner for Fiction, all 46 of them. The latest fifteen have their own entry further down, oldest first; the titles in the timeline that you can click are those.
Under each book is a line of plain fact about the book or its author, and nothing that cannot be checked.
Oldest first. The line in red is a fact about the book or its author, not an opinion about it.
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Fred Brounian’s identical twin George, a games designer behind a virtual world called Urth, lies in a coma after the venture collapses following 9/11. Fred begins receiving strange emails signed ‘George’ and starts visiting alternative worlds as a form of therapy.
Shakar’s second novel, following The Savage Girl, which was published on 18 September 2001.
Over a single Thanksgiving Day, 19-year-old Specialist Billy Lynn and his Bravo Squad, made famous by footage of a firefight in Iraq, end a victory tour as guests at a Dallas Cowboys halftime show.
Won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was filmed by Ang Lee in 2016.
Nao, a Japanese American teenager whose family has moved from California to Tokyo, keeps a diary. Years later it washes up on a remote British Columbia island, where a novelist named Ruth tries to learn what became of her.
Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize.
Harriet Burden, an artist who feels ignored by the New York art establishment, secretly exhibits her work under the names of three male artists. Even after she reveals the deception, some people refuse to accept that the work is hers.
Longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize.
Gustavo ‘Highway’ Sánchez Sánchez, an auctioneer in Mexico City, tells his life story and sells off teeth he claims belonged to famous historical and literary figures. Christina MacSweeney translated the novel into English.
Began as a catalogue for Galería Jumex, written with factory workers in Ecatepec who responded to chapters read aloud to them.
A British-American family is held together and strained by the chronic depression and anxiety that the eldest son, Michael, has inherited from his father, John. The story is told in turn by the parents and their three children.
A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kirkus Prize.
Saeed and Nadia fall in love in an unnamed city sliding into civil war. As militants take control, they escape through mysterious doors that open onto distant parts of the world.
Shortlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize and winner of the 2018 Aspen Words Literary Prize.
In 1980s Chicago, gallery worker Yale Tishman pursues a major art acquisition as AIDS devastates his circle of friends. In 2015 Paris, Fiona, whose life was shaped by the epidemic, searches for her estranged daughter.
Also won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Adam Gordon, a high-school debate champion in 1990s Topeka, prepares for a national tournament while his psychologist parents, Jane and Jonathan, work at a clinic known as the Foundation. A classmate, Darren Eberheart, becomes central to the story.
Shortlisted for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalese soldier in the French army during the First World War, is consumed by grief and rage after his adopted brother Mademba dies in battle. Translated from French by Anna Moschovakis.
The English translation won the 2021 International Booker Prize, the first win for a French writer.
Set during the West African Ebola epidemic of the mid-2010s, the book moves between many narrators, including doctors, a volunteer, the infected and their neighbours, and an ancient baobab tree that has watched over the region for generations.
Translated from French by the author in collaboration with John Cullen.
An unnamed schoolteacher in 1980s Bucharest, once a would-be writer, keeps a manuscript about his life and failed literary hopes. His daily routine at the school gives way to surreal, interconnected realities. Translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter.
Won the 2024 Dublin Literary Award.
In 2015, Korean American writer Soon Sheen reads an advance copy of a novel by the poet Echo that tells a secret history of the Korean Provisional Government, while his own life and tech-company job continue alongside.
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Ismael Reyes, 20, lives in his aunt’s garage in Miami and works as a Pitbull impersonator until a cease-and-desist letter ends the act. He takes Tony Montana from Scarface as his new role model.
Capó Crucet’s earlier story collection, How to Leave Hialeah, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award.
An English tutor living in Tokyo, long estranged from his family in Texas, calls his mother after years of silence. She takes two weeks off work at a Houston dental office and flies to Japan to see him.
A finalist for the 2025 National Book Award for Fiction.
Fiction sits alongside a long list of other categories. Wikipedia lists Biography, Current Interest, Fiction, First Fiction, History, Mystery/Thriller, Poetry, Science and Technology and Young Adult Fiction as core categories, and recent years have added Graphic Novel/Comics, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction (the Ray Bradbury Prize), the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose and an award for audiobook production.
The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction was added in 1991, a year after Seidenbaum’s death; the 2025 award went to Ibis by Justin Haynes. The Robert Kirsch Award honours a living author with a substantial connection to the American West; Jane Smiley, Pico Iyer and Amy Tan received it in the last three rounds. An Innovator’s Award is also given, in 2025 to We Need Diverse Books.
Each prize year refers to the year the books were published, not the year of the ceremony. The 2025 prizes, the 46th, were announced on 17 April 2026; the 2024 prizes, including Fiction for Say Hello to My Little Friend, were announced in April 2025; Ed Park’s 2023 win was announced at Bovard Auditorium on 19 April 2024.
Because translations are eligible, translators are credited alongside the authors for the 1998, 2005, 2006, 2020 and 2022 winners, among them Michael Hulse, Edith Grossman and Sean Cotter. Several winners went on to win elsewhere: The Great Believers also took the Carnegie Medal, and At Night All Blood Is Black won the International Booker Prize.
It is one of the categories of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, awarded each year since 1980 to a work of fiction first published in the US in English during the prize year.
Palaver by Bryan Washington won the 2025 prize, announced on 17 April 2026.
In 1980, when the Fiction prize went to The Second Coming by Walker Percy.
They were founded by the Times book editor Art Seidenbaum, from an idea proposed by the paper’s critic Robert Kirsch.
Yes. Books are eligible in the year of their first US publication in English, and translated novels such as Solenoid and At Night All Blood Is Black have won.
Yes. Gabriel García Márquez won for Love in the Time of Cholera (1988) and Memories of My Melancholy Whores (2005).
It is the prize’s award for first fiction, added in 1991 and named after the programme’s founder.
An award for a living author with a substantial connection to the American West; Amy Tan received it in the most recent round.
Winner list last verified 28 October 2026.
The notes on this page are all mine,
and the books are all theirs.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
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