- Perfect Day Publishing
Literary Arts announced the finalists for this year's Oregon Book Awards, and just like last year, it's wonderful to see some excellent small press (and self-published!) titles on this list—in particular Nick Jaina's Get It While You Can, from Perfect Day Publishing (which we excerpted last year), and Erika Moen's Oh Joy Sex Toy Volume 2, whose smutty lil' comics are a genuine public service for anyone who grew up with sub-par (or nonexistent) sex education. "Between making terrible (slash awesome) puns, patting pony-sized penises on the head for a job well done, and creating a mascot for butt stuff (the Anal Safety Snails, who say, 'Go slow'), Moen's the most welcoming, honest, and chipper sex-ed teacher ever," Courtney Ferguson wrote of Moen's latest.
It's also no surprise to see Lidia Yuknavitch on this list. Here's what Suzette Smith wrote about her novel, The Small Backs of Children:
Yuknavitch's writing style works in absolutes and blanket statements like large swaths of color on a canvas. There were moments where mentions of Jim Morrison or Balvenie scotch almost ejected me from the book altogether, but I stayed with it and realized Yuknavitch wasn't saying clichéd things just to seem cool. She was saying them to be bare and vulnerable and known, like crying in front of a friend for the first time.
And speaking of small presses, Portland's own Ooligan Press and Tavern Books both made the cut for the Oregon Literary Fellowships for publishing.
You'll find the entire enormous list of finalists (and fellowship recipients) after the jump. Winners will be announced April 11 at a ceremony hosted by writer Heidi Durrow.
2016 OREGON BOOK AWARDS FINALISTS
KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION
Judge: Chinelo OkparantaArthur 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 ReeceCarl 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 BuschDavid 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 MartinezKate 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. ReynoldsKim 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 CalettiBrian 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 BellAriel Cohn and Aron Nels Steinke of Portland, The Zoo Box (First Second Books)
Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan of Portland, Oh Joy Sex Toy: Volume 2 (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 Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award, and the Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award.
Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award
Doug Spangle of PortlandWalt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award
Curtis Kiefer of Philomath2016 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 FellowshipFiction
Leslie Barnard Booth of Portland, The Women Writers Fellowship
Matthew Robinson of Portland, The Leslie Bradshaw FellowshipLiterary 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 WoodburnYoung Readers Literature
Judge: David-Matthew BarnesSonja Thomas of Portland, The Edna L. Holmes Fellowship in Young Readers Literature
PUBLISHERS
Judge: Peter PettitTavern Books of Portland
Ooligan Press of Portland
