And the L.A. Times Book Prize winners are...

The ceremony has just ended at UCLA's Royce Hall, and the winners of the 2007 L.A. Times Book Prizes are:

Novelist Maxine Hong Kingston won this year's Robert Kirsch Award, which honors a living author with a connection to the American West whose works have made a substantial contribution to American letters.

Biography: Simon Sebag Montefiore, "Young Stalin"

Current Interest: Elizabeth D. Samet, "Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point"

Fiction: Andrew O’Hagan, "Be Near Me" 

Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: Dinaw Mengestu, "The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears"

History: Tim Weiner, "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA"

Mystery/Thriller: Karin Fossum (translated by Charlotte Barslund), "The Indian Bride"

Poetry: Stanley Plumly, "Old Heart: Poems"

Science & Technology: Douglas Hofstadter, "I Am a Strange Loop"

Young Adult Fiction: Philip Reeve, "A Darkling Plain (The Hungry City Chronicles)"

-- Carolyn Kellogg