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