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This year’s Los Angeles Times Book Prizes honored outstanding literary achievement in nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult fiction. Each winner, including Didion, receives a $1,000 cash award.

National Endowment for the Arts Chair Dana Gioia served as the master of ceremonies for the presentation of the Book Prizes.

Book Prizes winners

Biography: Hilary Spurling, “Matisse the Master: A Life of Henri Matisse, the Conquest of Colour,” 1909-1954 (Alfred A. Knopf); presented by Blanche Wiesen Cook

Current Interest: Anthony Shadid, “Night Draws Near: Iraq’s People in the Shadow of America’s War” (Henry Holt); presented by Ronald Brownstein

Fiction: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “Memories of My Melancholy Whores” [translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman] (Alfred A. Knopf); presented by Luis J. Rodriguez

Art Seidenbaum Award For First Fiction: Uzodinma Iweala, “Beasts of No Nation: A Novel” (HarperCollins); presented by David L. Ulin

History: Adam Hochschild, “Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves” (Houghton Mifflin); presented by Leo Braudy

Mystery/Thriller: Robert Littell, “Legends: A Novel of Dissimulation” (Overlook Press); presented by Mary Higgins Clark

Poetry: Jack Gilbert, “Refusing Heaven: Poems” (Alfred A. Knopf); presented by Dana Goodyear

Science and Technology: Diana Preston, “Before the Fallout: From Marie Curie to Hiroshima” (Walker & Company); presented by Robert Lee Hotz

Young Adult Fiction: Per Nilsson, “You & You & You” [translated from the Swedish by Tara Chace] (Front Street/Boyds Mills Press); presented by Adam Gopnik

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