The Oregon Book Awards finalists were announced this morning. While there're no Oprah-approved writers this time around (read our madcap recap of last year), there're heavy hitters nonetheless.

The most widely recognized name (and literal top of the list) is Portland's grande dame Ursula K. Le Guin, who hand-selected her own best short stories in The Unreal and The Real: Collected Stories: Volume 1 and 2? When this master of the genre speaks, we should listen.

Then, of course, poet Mary Szybist recently won the National Book Award for Incarnadine (read our interview with Szybist after her win). It seems to follow that she'd take home the Oregon Book Award, too? (It actually seems like she should've taken it home first, but who can account for schedules?)

If Graham Salisbury wins the Children's Literature Award for Calvin Coconut: Extra Famous, he'll bolster his Oregon Book Awards record from six to seven victories.

Finally, the Graphic Literature Award includes two internationally recognized cartoonists (and humble friends, who no doubt would tell you the other should win if you asked). None can match the reporting rigor of war cartoonist Joe Sacco, whose Journalism collects his best stories from over the years, many never before published in America, that take readers from Abu Ghraib to India's Untouchables. The book comes in the same year as his first foray into American-based reportage, the collaboration with journalist Chris Hedges, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. Meanwhile, few can match the illustrative rigor of Craig Thompson. His 1001 Arabian Nights–influenced Habibi, the long-awaited follow-up to his international hit, Blankets, is unparalleled in its epically imaginative, richly detailed, fairy-tale exploration of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. (Read our interview with Thompson about Habibi.)

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on March 17.

Here's the full list of nominees from Literary Arts:

 
KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION
Judge: Alan Cheuse
 
Ursula K. Le Guin of Portland, The Unreal and The Real: Collected Stories: Volume 1 and 2 (Small Beer Press)
Whitney Otto of Portland, Eight Girls Taking Pictures (Scribner)
Amanda Coplin of Portland, The Orchardist (Harper Perennial)
Roger Hobbs of Portland, Ghostman (Knopf)
 

STAFFORD/HALL AWARD FOR POETRY
Judge: Kwame Dawes
 
Jennifer Boyden of Milton-Freewater, The Declarable Future (University of Wisconsin Press)
Matthew Dickman of Portland, Mayakovsky¹s Revolver (Norton)
Andrea Hollander of Portland, Landscape with Female Figure: New and Selected Poems, 1982-2012 (Autumn House Press)
Ralph Salisbury of Eugene, Like the Sun in Storm (The Habits of Rainy Nights Press)
Mary Szybist of Portland, Incarnadine (Graywolf)
 

FRANCES FULLER VICTOR AWARD FOR GENERAL NONFICTION
Judge: Amanda Vail
 
C. B. Bernard of Portland, Chasing Alaska (Lyons Press)
William J. Bernstein of Portland, Masters of the Word (Grove Press)
Paul Collins of Portland, Duel with the Devil (Crown Publishers)
R. Gregory Nokes of West Linn, Breaking Chains (OSU Press)    
Martin N. Raitiere of Portland, The Complicity of Friends (Bucknell University Press)
 

SARAH WINNEMUCCA AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION
Judge: Ander Monson
 
Jay Ponteri of Portland, Wedlocked (Hawthorne Books)
Scott Nadelson of Salem, The Next Scott Nadelson (Hawthorne Books)
Elena Passarello of Corvallis, Let Me Clear My Throat (Sarabande Books)
Kim Stafford of Portland, 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do
(Trinity University Press)
Sandra Stone of Portland, The Inmost House (Prospect Cove Press)
 
 
ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Judge: Anita Silvey
 
Scott William Carter of Salem, Wooden Bones (Simon & Schuster)
Deborah Hopkinson of West Linn, Knit Your Bit (G.P. Putnam)
Barbara Kerley of Portland, The World Is Waiting for You (National Geographic)
Graham Salisbury of Lake Oswego, Calvin Coconut: Extra Famous (Wendy Lamb Books)
Allen Say of Portland, The Favorite Daughter (Arthur A. Levine)
 
 
LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
Judge: Benjamin Saenz
 
Kari Luna of Portland, The Theory of Everything (Philomel Books)
Kelly Moore, Larkin Reed and Tucker Reed of Jacksonville, Amber House (Arthur A. Levine)
Rosanne Parry of Portland, Written in Stone  (Random House)
 

PACIFIC NORTHWEST COLLEGE OF ART GRAPHIC LITERATURE AWARD
Judge: Jesse Karp
 
Barry Deutsch of Portland, Hereville: How Mirtka Met a Meteorite (Amulet Books)
Steve Duin and Shannon Wheeler of Portland, Oil and Water (Fantagraphics Books)
Natalie Nourigat of Portland, Between Gears (Image Comics)
Joe Sacco of Portland, Journalism (Metropolitan Books)
Craig Thompson of Portland, Habibi (Pantheon)
 

SPECIAL AWARDS: In addition to recognizing the finest achievements of Oregon authors in several genres, Literary Arts recognizes individual contributions with the C.E.S. Wood Award, the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award, and the Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award.     
 
The C.E.S. Wood Distinguished Writer Award
Vern Rutsala of Portland
 
The Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award
Vince and Patty Wixon of Ashland
 
The Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award
Ellen Fader of Portland
 
 
2014 OREGON LITERARY FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS    
 
Literary Arts is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2013 Oregon Literary Fellowships to writers and to publishers. The judges named eight writers and two publishers to receive grants of $2500.   

WRITERS
 
Poetry  
Toni Hanner of Eugene, The Friends of the Lake Oswego Library William Stafford Fellowship
Armin Tolentino of Portland, The C. Hamilton Bailey Fellowship
 
Fiction
Robert Arellano of Talent, The Leslie Bradshaw Fellowship
Sarah Marshall of Portland, Women Writer's Fellowship
 
Literary Nonfiction
Kristy Athens of Enterprise
Alena Nevarte Nahabedian of Portland, The Walt Morey Fellowship

Drama
Stephanie Golisch of Portland  
 
Young Readers Literature
Anjie Seewer Reynolds of Ashland, The Edna L. Holmes Fellowship in Young Readers Literature
 

PUBLISHERS

Calyx of Corvallis
Forest Avenue Press of Portland