LA Times Book Prizes Ceremony Reinvented; Will Be Free, Open Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

The L.A. Times Book Prizes ceremony is still happening and it will be free and open to all.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced several ceremonies, festivals and galas to be postponed or canceled and the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is among the affected events. It was originally set for next weekend in the University of Southern California campus, but it won’t be happening as planned.

However, the ceremony will still push through and everyone can watch it because it is going virtual. It will be the first time for the L.A. Times to host its annual Book Prizes ceremony virtually since it was launched in 1980. The ceremony will begin at 8 a.m. Pacific Time on April 17. Fourteen winners will be announced and it will be followed by brief video acceptance speeches from the recipients, Los Angeles Times reported.

“It seems people are at their most creative in these times,” Ann Binney, the special projects coordinator, said about the new format. “In our case with the book prizes, in just a few weeks we found a new way to celebrate all these book prize finalists and winners virtually. And we all came together, with our various expertise, and came up with this idea.”

“While we’re really going to miss the community that gathers in person,” she continue, “we’ve reinvented the celebration for the moment that we’re in right now.”

According to Binney, at the very beginning, there was lunch or dinner and it was just a small affair. In the late 1990s, the celebration expanded and opened its doors to the public when it started receiving thousands of guests.

Meanwhile, the 2020 BAFTA Game Awards red carpet event was also canceled due to the coronavirus. The ceremony was scaled down to a digital-only event to curb the spread of COVID-19.

“The health and wellbeing of our guests and our staff remain our top priority, so there will be no live audience and we are now in the process of informing all our nominees, guests, partners and suppliers of the change,” the academy said in a statement.

The 2020 Billboard Music Awards was also rescheduled. In a statement released on Twitter, the organizers stated that the NBC’s live airing which was set to happen on April 29 would be pushed back to a later date.