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Riverhead's Dinaw Mengestu Wins 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize First Fiction Award for The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears

Riverhead Books is thrilled that Dinaw Mengestu's critically-acclaimed debut novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, has won the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize First Fiction Award, announced this past weekend at the LA Times Book Festival. Dinaw's novel was also a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, in addition to being chosen as the newest selection for this year's Seattle Reads program. Dinaw will be in Seattle for five days in early May participating in ongoing events in support of the Seattle Reads program.

Ron Currie, author of God is Dead (Viking/Penguin), has won the NYPL 2008 Young Lions Fiction Award. The announcement was made at a ceremony at the New York Public Library this past Monday, hosted by actor Ethan Hawke. The Young Lions Fiction Award is given annually to an American writer age 35 or younger for either a novel or collection of short stories. Each year five young fiction writers, which this year also included Riverhead's Dinaw Mengestu, author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, are selected as finalists by a reading committee of Young Lions members, writers, editors, and librarians. A panel of award judges, including novelists Han Ong, Helen Shulman, and last year's winner Ogla Grushin (for her Putnam/Marian Wood book, The Dream Life of Sukhanov), selected Ron Currie the winner of this year's $10,000 prize.