Oregon Book Awards Finalists Announced

Portland, Oregon - September 8, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Literary Arts is pleased to announce the finalists for the 22nd annual Oregon Book Awards. Winners will be announced at the ceremony on Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. in the Fields Ballroom at the Portland Art Museum (1219 SW Park Avenue). This year's Oregon Book Awards ceremony is being held in conjunction with Wordstock (www.wordstockfestival.com). Many of this year's finalists will be reading at the festival on Sunday, November 9, before the book awards ceremony. Oregon author John Daniel will host the ceremony, which honors the state's finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, drama and young readers literature. Tickets are $15 and are available exclusively through www.brownpapertickets.com.

For more information or photos please contact Susan Denning at 503.227.2583 or
susan@literary-arts.org


2008 Oregon Book Award Finalists


ANGUS L. BOWMER AWARD FOR DRAMA
Judge: Sherry Kramer

Dori Appel of Ashland, Hat Tricks

Jacklyn Maddux of Portland, Strange Sightings in the Great Southwest

Steve Patterson of Portland, Lost Wavelengths

Francesca Sanders of Portland, I Become a Guitar

George Taylor of Beaverton, Renaissance


KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION
Judge: A.M. Homes

K.B. Dixon of Portland, The Sum of His Syndromes (Inkwater Press)

Molly Gloss of Portland, The Hearts of Horses (Houghton Mifflin)

Ehud Havazelet of Corvallis, Bearing the Body (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Lee Montgomery of Portland, Whose World is This (University of Iowa Press)

Willy Vlautin of Scappoose, The Motel Life (Harper Perennial)


STAFFORD/HALL AWARD FOR POETRY
Judge: Cornelius Eady

Judith Barrington of Portland, Postcard from the Bottom of the Sea (The Eighth Mountain Press)

Brian Doyle of Portland, Thirsty for the Joy (One Day Hill)

Kate Gray of Portland, Another Sunset We Survive (Cedar House Books)

John C. Morrison of Portland, Heaven of the Moment (Fairweather Books)

Penelope Scambly Schott of Portland, A is for Anne (Turning Point)


FRANCES FULLER VICTOR AWARD FOR GENERAL NONFICTION
Judge: Deborah Blum

Steven W. Bender of Portland, One Night in America: Robert Kennedy, Cesar Chavez, and the Dream of Dignity (Paradigm Publishers)

Neil W. Browne of Bend, The World in Which We Occur: John Dewey, Pragmatist Ecology, and American Ecological Writing in the Twentieth Century (University of Alabama Press)

Pamela Smith Hill of Portland, Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life (South Dakota State Historical Society)

Kimberly Jensen of Monmouth, Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War (University of Illinois Press)

Darius Rejali of Portland, Torture and Democracy (Princeton University Press)


SARAH WINNEMUCCA AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION
Judge: Barbara Sjoholm

Beren deMotier of Portland, The Brides of March: Memoir of a Same-Sex Marriage (iUniverse, Inc)

Jill Kelly of Portland, Sober Truths: The Making of an Honest Woman (iUniverse, Inc.)

Lauren Kessler of Eugene, Dancing with Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's (Viking Adult)

Christopher Van Tilburg of Hood River, Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature (St. Martin's Press)


ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Judge: Jacqueline Woodson

Lori Ries of Tigard, Punk Wig (Boyd's Mill Press)

Elizabeth Rusch of Portland, A Day With No Crayons (Rising Moon)

Elizabeth Rusch of Portland, The Planet Hunter: The Story Behind What Happened to Pluto (Rising Moon)

Cynthia Rylant of Eugene, Alligator Boy (Harcourt Children's Books)

Cynthia Rylant of Eugene, Puppies and Piggies (Harcourt Children's Books)


LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
Judge: Jacqueline Woodson

Sara Ryan of Portland, The Rules for Hearts (Viking Juvenile)

Graham Salisbury of Lake Oswego, Night of the Howling Dogs (Wendy Lamb Books)

Roland Smith of Wilsonville, Peak (Harcourt Paperbacks)

Linda Zuckerman of Portland, A Taste for Rabbit (Arthur A. Levine Books)

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Since 1987, the Oregon Book Awards have been presented annually for the finest accomplishments by Oregon writers in genres of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, drama and young readers literature. Out-of-state judges choose finalists in each category, including a winner, using literary merit as the sole criterion. All finalists are promoted in libraries and bookstores across the state, and invited to take part in the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour, which brings finalists to public libraries and independent bookstores in towns including La Grande, Klamath Falls, Roseburg and Astoria.


The Oregon Book Awards are sponsored by the Oregon Cultural Trust, the National Endowment for the Arts and The Oregonian. Additional support is provided by Brian Booth & Gwyneth Gamble Booth, Betty Bradshaw, Leslie Bradshaw Endowment, The Collins Foundation, Rocky & Julie Dixon, Gray Family Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation, Robert H. & Cecelia Huntington, Keller Foundation, Walt Morey Endowment, Multnomah County Library, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Center for the Book at the Oregon State Library, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, Regional Arts & Culture Council, Rick and Halle Sadle, Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust, U.S. Bank and Work for Art.

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Oregon Book Awards is a program of Literary Arts, a nonprofit organization that enriches the lives of Oregonians through language and literature. Other programs of Literary Arts are Oregon Literary Fellowships, Portland Arts & Lectures, Poetry in Motion®, Writers in the Schools and Delve: Readers' Seminars. For more information about Literary Arts, please contact Monica Burke at 503.227.2583 or visit www.literary-arts.org.