Feb. 18, 2026 8 AM PT
The Los Angeles Times today announced the finalists and honorees for its 46th annual Book Prizes. Amy Tan will be honored with the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement and We Need Diverse Books will receive the Innovator’s Award. Additionally, Adam Ross will receive the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose. The awards recognize outstanding literary achievements in 13 categories and celebrate the highest quality of writing from authors at all stages of their careers. Winners will be announced in a ceremony on Friday, April 17 at USC’s Bovard Auditorium, a prologue to the 31st annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, taking place April 18-19.
Acclaimed author Amy Tan will receive the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement, which recognizes a writer with a substantial connection to the American West. Tan’s expansive body of work, including essays, memoirs, and such bestselling novels as “The Joy Luck Club,” “The Kitchen God’s Wife” and “The Bonesetter’s Daughter,” is widely celebrated for its profound exploration of the immigrant experience, family bonds and the quest for individual identity. Born in Oakland, Calif. to Chinese immigrant parents, Tan not only gives voice to the Chinese American experience, but also illuminates the broader American story. In her most recent book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” she has turned her observational eye to the natural world, chronicling her foray into birding through daily entries and sketches of the winged visitors to her backyard.
“Throughout her extraordinary career, Amy Tan has transformed American literature by shining a light on the emotional complexities of family, identity and cultural inheritance,” said Times senior editor for Books Sophia Kercher. “Her work confronts the social and cultural legacies of the American West with rich details of the immigrant experience. We are honored to recognize her with this year’s Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement.”
Tan’s work has earned recognition for both literary excellence and cultural impact. She was selected as a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the International Orange Prize. Her many honors include the Commonwealth Club Gold Award, the Carl Sandburg Literary Award and the upcoming 2026 Preston Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community. She was also inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2021, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden.
The Innovator’s Award, which spotlights efforts to bring books, publishing and storytelling into the future, will be presented to We Need Diverse Books (WNDB), a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing diversity and inclusion in publishing. What began in 2014 as a trending hashtag on social media, has expanded into organized mentorships, workshops, grants and professional development programs. WNDB supports writers, illustrators and publishing professionals to ensure better representation on the bookshelves, and also works closely with educators and libraries to drive systemic change across the publishing ecosystem.
“We Need Diverse Books has played an important role in publishing by championing stories that reflect our world, and opening doors for writers and readers,” said Times Executive Editor Terry Tang. “We are thrilled to recognize them with this year’s Innovator’s Award, honoring their unwavering commitment to access and representation in literature.”
Adam Ross is the winner of the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose for “Playworld,” a coming-of-age story set in New York City in the 1980s. Inspired by his own childhood, the novel follows teenager Griffin Hurt through formative relationships and family issues, as he bridges between youth and maturity, and grapples with life. Sponsored by the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the award honors exceptional work and encompasses fiction, travel writing, memoir and diary.
“Like Isherwood’s stories, ‘Playworld’ is indelibly contextualized in time and place — in this case, New York City in the 1980s — in a voice that is wholly original and hilarious, beguiling and edgy, and in a way that speaks across generations, cultures and time itself,” commented the judges of the Isherwood Prize. “A glowing example of autobiographical fiction, ‘Playworld,’ as with the best performances, rings dangerously, wonderfully true.”
The Book Prizes recognize 61 titles in the following 13 categories: audiobooks (presented by Audible), autobiographical prose (the Christopher Isherwood Prize), biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award), graphic novel/comics, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science fiction, science and technology, and young adult literature. Judging panels of writers who specialize in each genre select finalists and winners.
For more information about the Book Prizes, including the complete list of 2025 finalists and past winners; eligibility and judging information; and how to make a tax-deductible donation in support of the annual literary awards, go to latimes.com/BookPrizes. Tickets to attend the Book Prizes ceremony, as well as Festival of Books VIP packages, are on sale now.
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is presented in association with USC. Festival news and updates are available on the event website and Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok profiles (#bookfest).
