Gene Luen Yang’s critically acclaimed, New York Times Best-Selling graphic novel diptych Boxers & Saints has won the LA Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature.

Boxers & Saints is the first ever graphic novel to win the LA Times Book Prize in a non-graphic novel category. The graphic novel is a two book recounting of the events of China’s Boxer Rebellion — one book told from the perspective of the Boxers, the other from their Chinese Catholic victims.

(Gene Luen Yang — and the other winners of this year’s LA Times Book Prize)

Gene Luen Yang says, “I’m deeply, deeply grateful to the Los Angeles Times, the judges, and all the other fine folks who put together this past weekend. Being acknowledged by the LA Times for this particular project has special resonance for me. One of the protagonists of Boxers & Saints, Vibiana, shares the same name as the patron saint of the city of Los Angeles.”

“Boxers & Saints is a deep and powerful insight into history, but above all, it’s a magnificent reading pleasure from one of the great literary voices of our time,” says :01 Editorial Director Mark Siegel. “It’s the kind of work a publisher hopes for once in a decade.”

(Gene Luen Yang and Rainbow Rowell, also a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize for Young Adult Literature — for her excellent novel Fangirl)

Boxers & Saints, which Dave Eggers calls, “a masterful work of historical fiction,” was also a National Book Award finalist (the third ever graphic novel to be so recognized), a Time Top Graphic Novel of the Year, an NPR Best Book of the Year, and a New York Times Notable Children’s Book – among many other honors.

(Gene Luen Yang and John Green, the winner of the LA Times Innovators Award)

Gene Luen Yang began drawing comic books in the fifth grade. He was an established figure in the indie comics scene when he published his first book with First Second, American Born Chinese, which is now in print in over ten languages. American Born Chinese‘s critical and commercial success catapulted Yang into stardom as a major voice of our times. His graphic novel The Shadow Hero (with Sonny Liew) is currently being serialized in monthly e-issues leading up to the publication of the book in July.