Literary Arts Announces Oregon Book Awards Shortlists

Image courtesy Sebastien Wiertz, via Flickr. CC license.
Image: Sebastien Wiertz
Literary Arts has announced the finalists for this year's Oregon Book Awards, with 37 writers from the state shortlisted in seven different categories. Arthur Bradford, Gail Chehab, Valerie Geary, Molly Gloss, and Lidia Yuknavitch all made the shortlist for the fiction category, while Carl Adamshick, Jessica Johnson, Andrew Michael Roberts, Pepper Trail, and John Witte were nominated for poetry.
Books about motorcycles, poetry, third level education, rivers, and grammar were all represented, with several previous nominees making an appearance on the shortlists, among them Yuknavitch, YA writer Graham Salisbury, and Brian Doyle, this year nominated in both the Young Adult Literature category for Martin Marten and in Creative Nonfiction for Children and Other Wild Animals.
The winners will be announced at the 29th annual Oregon Book Awards ceremony on April 11, at the Gerding Theater. For a full list of nominees and literary fellowship recipients, see below:
KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION
Judge: Chinelo Okparanta
Arthur Bradford of Portland, Turtleface and Beyond (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux)
Gail Chehab of Portland, The Tunnel (Media Aria)
Valerie Geary of Portland, Crooked River (William Morrow)
Molly Gloss of Portland, Falling from Horses (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Lidia Yuknavitch of Portland, The Small Backs of Children (Harper Collins)
STAFFORD/HALL AWARD FOR POETRY
Judge: Spencer Reece
Carl Adamshick of Portland, Saint Friend (McSweeney’s)
Jessica Johnson of Portland, In Absolutes We Seek Each Other (New Michigan Press)
Andrew Michael Roberts of Portland, Good Beast (Burnside Review)
Pepper Trail of Ashland, Cascade-Siskiyou (Painted Thrush Press)
John Witte of Eugene, Disquiet (University of Washington Press)
FRANCES FULLER VICTOR AWARD FOR GENERAL NONFICTION
Judge: Akiko Busch
David Biespiel of Portland, A Long High Whistle (Antilever Press)
Lily Brooks-Dalton of Portland, Motorcycles I’ve Loved (Riverhead Books)
William Deresiewicz of Portland, Excellent Sheep (Simon & Schuster)
Rosemarie Ostler of Eugene, Founding Grammars (St. Martin’s Press)
Tim Palmer of Orford, Field Guide to Oregon Rivers (OSU Press)
SARAH WINNEMUCCA AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION
Judge: Domingo Martinez
Kate Carroll deGutes of Portland, Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear (Ovenbird Books)
Barbara Drake of Yamhill, Morning Light (OSU Press)
Brian Doyle of Lake Oswego, Children and Other Wild Animals (OSU Press)
Elizabeth Enslin of Enterprise, While the Gods Were Sleeping (Seal Press)
Nick Jaina of Portland, Get It While You Can (Perfect Day Publishing)
ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
Judge: Peter H. Reynolds
Kim Griswell of Ashland, Rufus Goes to Sea (Sterling Publishing)
Barbara Kerley of Portland, With a Friend by Your Side (National Geographic Society)
Marie and Roland Smith of Wilsonville, T is For Time (Sleeping Bear Press)
Heather Vogel Frederick of Portland, Absolutely Truly: A Pumpkin Falls Mystery (Simon & Schuster)
LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
Judge: Deb Caletti
Brian Doyle of Lake Oswego, Martin Marten (St. Martin’s Press)
Fonda Lee of Portland, Zeroboxer (Flux)
William Ritter of Springfield, Jackaby (Algonquin Young Readers)
Graham Salisbury of Lake Oswego, Hunt for the Bamboo Rat (Wendy Lamb Books)
Hilary T. Smith of Portland, A Sense of the Infinite (Harper Collins)
AWARD FOR GRAPHIC LITERATURE
Judge: Gabrielle Bell
Ariel Cohn and Aron Nels Steinke of Portland, The Zoo Box (First Second Books)
Erika Moen of Portland, Oh Joy, Sex Toy (Erika Moen Comics & Illustration)
Jeff Parker of Portland, Meteor Men (Oni Press)
Elizabeth Rusch and Mike Lawrence of Portland, Muddy Max (Andrews McMeel Publishing)
Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover of Portland, Bandette Volume 2: Stealers Keepers (Dark Horse Comics)
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 special awards recipients will be announced in February 2016.
2016 OREGON LITERARY FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS
Literary Arts is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowships to writers and to publishers. The judges named eight writers and two publishers to receive grants of $3000. This year Literary Arts awarded the Writer of Color Fellowship for the first time.
WRITERS
Poetry
John Brehm of Portland, The C. Hamilton Bailey Fellowship
Cindy Williams Gutiérrez of Oregon City, The Writer of Color Fellowship
Fiction
Leslie Barnard Booth of Portland, The Women Writers Fellowship
Matthew Robinson of Portland, The Leslie Bradshaw Fellowship
Literary Nonfiction
Siobhan Ruby McConnell of Eugene, The Walt Morey Fellowship
Denver David Robinson of Portland, The Friends of the Lake Oswego Library William Stafford Fellowship
The nonfiction, fiction and poetry fellowships were judged by a panel of writers:
Dana Johnson, Brynn Saito and Sherry Quan Lee.
Drama
Judge: Laura Censabella
E.M. Lewis of Woodburn
Young Readers Literature
Judge: David-Matthew Barnes
Sonja Thomas of Portland, The Edna L. Holmes Fellowship in Young Readers Literature
PUBLISHERS
Judge: Peter Pettit
Tavern Books of Portland
Ooligan Press of Portland