2018 Oregon Book Awards Finalists Announced

Literary Arts is pleased to announce the 2018 Oregon Book Awards finalists.

The Oregon Book Award winners will be announced at the 31st annual Oregon Book Awards ceremony on Monday, April 30 at the Gerding Theater at The Armory. Renée Watson, author of Piecing Me Together, will host the ceremony. Tickets are available at BrownPaperTickets.com.

The Oregon Book Awards honor the finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers.

2018 Oregon Book Awards Finalists

KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION

Judges: Eowyn Ivey, Shanthi Sekaran, Justin Tussing

• Omar El Akkad of Portland, American War: A novel (Knopf)
• Wayne Harrison of Springfield, Wrench and Other Stories (New American Press)
• Victor Lodato of Ashland, Edgar and Lucy: A Novel (St. Martin's Press)
• Matthew Robinson of Portland, The Horse Latitudes (Propeller Books)
• Lidia Yuknavitch of Milwaukie, The Book of Joan: A Novel (HarperCollins)

STAFFORD/HALL AWARD FOR POETRY

Judges: Chris Abani, Laura Kasischke, D.A. Powell

• manuel arturo abreu of Portland, transtrender (Quimérica Books)
• Samiya Bashir of Portland, Field Theories (Nightboat Books)
• Allison Cobb of Portland, After We All Died (New Series) (Ahasahta Press)
• Stephen Lackaye of Beaverton, Self-Portrait in Dystopian Landscape (Unicorn Press)
• Ed Skoog of Portland, Run the Red Lights (Copper Canyon Press)

FRANCES FULLER VICTOR AWARD FOR GENERAL NONFICTION

Judges: Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Peter Cozzens, Bridget Quinn

• G.A. Bradshaw of Jacksonville, Carnivore Minds: Who These Fearsome Animals Really Are (Yale University Press)
• Peter Ames Carlin of Portland, Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon (Henry Holt and Company)
• Edward Hershey of Portland, "The Scorekeeper" (Joy Media LLC)
• Gary Leiser of Sisters, Prostitution in the Eastern Mediterranean World: The Economics of Sex in the Late Antique and Medieval Middle East (Library of Middle East History) (I.B. Tauris)
• Lee van der Voo of Portland, The Fish Market: Inside the Big-Money Battle for the Ocean and Your Dinner Plate (St. Martin's Press)

SARAH WINNEMUCCA AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION

Judges: Stephen Church, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Lia Purpua

• Michael Copperman of Eugene, Teacher: Two Years in the Mississippi Delta (University Press of Mississippi)
• Tracy Daugherty of Corvallis, Let Us Build Us a City (Crux: The Georgia Series in Literary Nonfiction Ser.) (University of Georgia Press)
• Aaron Gilbreath of Portland, Everything We Don't Know: Essays (Curbside Splendor Publishing)
• Mike Lankford of Bend, Becoming Leonardo: An Exploded View of the Life of Leonardo da Vinci (Melville House Publishing)
• Elena Passarello of Corvallis, Animals Strike Curious Poses (Sarabande Books)

ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Judges: Jessixa Bagley, Bryan Collier, Marisa de Jesús Paolicelli

• Patricia Bailey of Klamath Falls, The Tragically True Adventures of Kit Donovan (Albert Whitman & Company)
• Kurt Cyrus of McMinnville, Shake a Leg, Egg! (Beach Lane Books)
• Diane Rios of Portland, Bridge of the Gods: The Silver Mountain Series, Book One (She Writes Press)
• Elizabeth Rusch of Portland, The Music of Life (Atheneum Books)
• Cynthia Rylant of Portland, Life (Beach Lane Books)

LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE

Judges: Rachel DeWoskin, Lamar Giles, Jennifer Longo

• Kenn Amdahl of Eugene, Jumper and the Apple Crate (Clearwater Publishing Company)
• Kelly Garrett of Portland, The Last to Die (Poisoned Pen Press)
• Fonda Lee of Portland, Exo (a novel) (Scholastic)
• Paula Stokes of Portland, This Is How It Happened (Harper Teen)
• Laini Taylor of Portland, Strange the Dreamer (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

AWARD FOR GRAPHIC LITERATURE

Judges: Hillary Chute, Amy Kurzweil, Kristen Radtke

• Jonathan Case of Portland, The New Deal (Dark Horse Comics)
• Colleen Conover and Paul Tobin of Portland, Bandette Volume 3: The House of the Green Mask(Dark Horse Comics)
• Kelly Sue DeConnick of Portland, Bitch Planet Volume 2: President Bitch (Image Comics)
• Barry Deutsch of Portland, Hereville: How Mirka Caught a Fish (Amulet Books)
• Nicole J. Georges of Portland, Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

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.

The Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award

Tracey Daugherty and Marjorie Sandor of Corvallis

The Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award

Carmen T. Bernier-Grand of Portland

2018 Readers' Choice Award

Cast your vote in the Readers' Choice Award survey and help your favorite Oregon Book Award finalist win a special honor. The winner will also be announced live at the ceremony on April 30. Vote here.