The Oregon Book Awards are presented annually by the

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, United States–based organization Literary Arts, Inc. to honor the "state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers." Oregon Book Award was founded in 1987 by Brian Booth and Oregon Institute for Literary Arts (OILA). In 1993, Literary Arts, Inc., a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of Oregonians through language and literature, joined with the OILA and continued to support and promote Oregon's authors with the book awards and Oregon Literary Fellowships. Award winners are selected based solely on literary merit by out-of-state judges who change each year. In 2005, the award ceremony was moved from Portland's Scottish Rite Center to the

Wonder Ballroom The Wonder Ballroom is a music venue located in northeast Portland, Oregon. Prior to opening in 2004, the building (originally constructed in 1914) was occupied by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Catholic Youth Organization, the Portland Box ...

, in an effort to make it more lively and fun. Since 2009, the awards ceremony has been held at the Gerding Theatre at the Armory, the home of

Portland Center Stage Portland Center Stage at The Armory is a theater company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Theater productions are presented at The Armory in Portland's Pearl District. Portland Center Stage at The Armory was founded in 1988 as the no ...

Recipients

Book Awards

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...
/
Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...
Award for Poetry

Award for Fiction

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Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (; September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and Counterculture of the 1960s, countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies o ...
Award for the Novel

=
Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (; September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and Counterculture of the 1960s, countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies o ...
Award for Fiction

=
H. L. Davis Harold Lenoir Davis (October 18, 1894 – October 31, 1960), also known as H. L. Davis, was an American novelist and poet. A native of Oregon, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel ''Honey in the Horn'', the only Pulitzer Prize for Liter ...
Award for Short Fiction

Award for Literary Nonfiction

=
Frances Fuller Victor Frances Auretta Victor ( Fuller; formerly Barritt; pen names: Florence Fane, Dorothy D.) (May 23, 1826 – November 14, 1902) was an American historian and historical novelist. She has been described as "the first Oregon historian to gain regio ...
Award for General Nonfiction

=
Sarah Winnemucca Sarah (née Winnemucca) Hopkins ( – October 17, 1891) was a Northern Paiute writer, activist, lecturer, teacher, and school organizer. Her Northern Paiute name was Thocmentony, also spelled Tocmetone, which translates as " Shell Flower." Sara ...
Award for Creative
Nonfiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to present topics objectively ...

Angus L. Bowmer Award for Drama

Award for Young Readers Literature

=
Eloise Jarvis McGraw Eloise Jarvis McGraw (December 9, 1915 – November 30, 2000) was an American author of children's books and young adult novels. Early life Eloise Jarvis McGraw was born on December 9, 1915 in Houston, Texas. At age 8 her family moved to Oklaho ...
Award for Children's Literature

= Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature

Pacific Northwest College of Art The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is an art school of Willamette University and is located in Portland, Oregon. Established in 1909, the art school grants Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and graduate degrees including the Master of Fine ...
Graphic Literature Award

Readers Choice Award

Special Awards

:1988: William Everson :1989: George Venn :1990:

Mary Barnard Mary Ethel Barnard (December 6, 1909 – August 25, 2001) was an American poet, biographer and Greek language, Greek-to-English language, English translator. She is known for her elegant rendering of the works of Sappho, a translation which has n ...

:1991: Don James :1992: Paul Pintarich :1994:

Ralph Friedman Ralph Friedman (June 3, 1916 – June 3, 1995) was an American author, best known for his books about Oregon, which included travel guides and popular histories. Born and raised to an impoverished Lithuanian Jewish immigrant family in Chicago, ...

:1995: Wilma Erwin

Charles Erskine Scott Wood Charles Erskine Scott Wood (February 20, 1852January 22, 1944), also known as C. E. S. Wood, was an American author, civil liberties advocate, artist, soldier, attorney, and Georgist. He is best known as the author of the 1927 satirical bestselle ...
Distinguished Writer Award

:1987: George Belknap :1988:

Dorothy Johansen Dorothy Olga Johansen (19 May 1904 – 13 December 1999) was an American historian of the Pacific Northwest. Life and work Dorothy Johansen was born in Seaside, Oregon on 19 May 1904. She taught school in Oregon from 1922 to 1927 and then in Y ...

:1989:

Vi Gale Viola M. Gale ( Håkansson; 1917–2007) was a Swedish-born American poet and publisher, who worked in Oregon. She began writing poems and short stories that were published in minor magazines and reviews in the 1950s. Gale's first book was publi ...

:1990:

Janet Stevenson Janet Marshall Stevenson (February 4, 1913 – June 9, 2009) was an American writer, teacher and social activist who wrote in the areas of civil rights, the women's movement, the peace movement, the environment and the arts. She published works ...

:1991:

Walt Morey Walter Morey (February 3, 1907 – January 12, 1992), was a writer of numerous works of children's fiction, set in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Alaska, the places where Morey lived for all of his life. His book ''Gentle Ben'' was the basis fo ...

:1992:

Terence O'Donnell Terence O'Donnell (1924 - 2001) was an American writer. He was born in Portland, Oregon and graduated from the University of Chicago. He resided in Portland most of his life and worked at the Oregon Historical Society. During the latter part of ...

:1993:

Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. Alvin M. Josephy Jr. (May 18, 1915 – October 16, 2005) was an American historian who specialized in Native American issues. ''New York Times'' reviewer Herbert Mitgang called him in 1982 the "leading non-Indian writer about Native Americans". ...

:1994:

Earl Pomeroy Earl Ralph Pomeroy III (born September 2, 1952) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 1993 to 2011. He is a member of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party. He currently serves as senior counsel fo ...

:1995:

Damon Knight Damon Francis Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was an American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He is the author of " To Serve Man", a 1950 short story adapted for ''The Twilight Zone''.Stanyard, ''Dimensions Behind ...

:1996: Eloise McGraw :1998: Priscilla Knuth :1999:

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (; September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and Counterculture of the 1960s, countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies o ...

:2003: George Hitchcock :2006:

Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...

:2008:

Barry Lopez Barry Holstun Lopez (January 6, 1945 – December 25, 2020) was an American author, essayist, nature writer, and fiction writer whose work is known for its humanitarian and environmental concerns. In a career spanning over 50 years, he ...

:2014:

Vern Rutsala Vern Rutsala (February 5, 1934 – April 2, 2014) was an American poet. Born in McCall, Idaho, he was educated at Reed College (B.A.) and the Iowa Writers' Workshop (M.F.A.). He taught English and creative writing at Lewis & Clark College in Portla ...

:2015:

Ralph Salisbury Ralph James Salisbury (January 24, 1926 - October 9, 2017) was an American poet. His poem "In the Children's Museum in Nashville" was published in ''The New Yorker'' in 1960. His autobiography ''So Far, So Good'' won the 2012 River Teeth Litera ...

:2017: Jarold Ramsey :2020:

Lawson Fusao Inada Lawson Fusao Inada (born May 26, 1938) is a Japanese American poet. He was the fifth poet laureate of the state of Oregon. Early life Born May 26, 1938, Inada is a third-generation Japanese American ('' Sansei''). His father, Fusaji, worked as a ...

:2021:

Molly Gloss Molly Gloss (born November 20, 1944) is an American writer of historical fiction and science fiction. Life Gloss grew up in rural Oregon and began writing seriously when she became a mother. She now lives in Portland, Oregon, and was close friend ...

Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award

:1987: ''

Northwest Review The University of Oregon has a diverse array of student-run and non-student-run media outlets. Newspapers ''Daily Emerald'' The ''Daily Emerald'', published Monday through Friday, primarily features news items and commentary pertaining to the Un ...

'' :1988: '' Calyx, A Journal of Art & Literature'' :1989: Katharine McCanna :1990: Sandra Williams :1991:

Walt Curtis Walt Curtis (July 4, 1941 – August 25, 2023) was an American poet, novelist, and painter from Portland, Oregon. His autobiographical work, ''Mala Noche'' (1977), became the basis for Gus Van Sant's 1985 film of the same name. He was the co-foun ...

:1992: Clyde Rice :1993: Penny Avila :1994: George Venn :1995: Tom Ferte :1996: Brian Booth :1997: Ruth Gundle & Judith Barrington :1998: Dennis & Linny Stovall :1999: Peter Sears :2000: Rich Wandschneider :2001: Erik Muller :2002: Carla Perry :2003: David Hedges :2004: David Milholland :2005: Barbara LaMorticella :2006:

Paulann Petersen Paulann Petersen (born 1942) an American poet from the state of Oregon. A native of Portland, she was Oregon's sixth poet laureate. Biography Petersen was born in 1942 in Portland, Oregon, where she graduated from Franklin High School in Southe ...

:2007:

Kim Stafford Kim Robert Stafford (born October 15, 1949) is an American poet and essayist who lives in Portland, Oregon. Early life and education Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Stafford is the son of poet William Stafford. He earned a Bachelor of Arts ...

:2008: Marlene Howard :2009: Matt Love :2011: John Laursen :2013: Larry Colton :2014: Vince & Patty Wixon :2015:

Tom Spanbauer Tom Spanbauer (June 30, 1946 – September 21, 2024) was an American writer whose work often explored issues of sexuality, race, and the ties that bind disparate people together. Raised in Idaho, Spanbauer lived in Kenya and across the United Sta ...

:2016: Douglas Spangle :2017: The

Independent Publishing Resource Center The Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) is a resource center based in Portland, Oregon that provides access to tools for the creation of books, prints, posters, zines, and comics. The studios include a computer lab and general workspace, ...

:2018: Tracey Daugherty and Marjorie Sandor :2019: José González :2020: Write Around Portland :2021: Elizabeth Lyon :2023: Gary Miranda :2024: Ellen Waterston

Walt Morey Walter Morey (February 3, 1907 – January 12, 1992), was a writer of numerous works of children's fiction, set in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Alaska, the places where Morey lived for all of his life. His book ''Gentle Ben'' was the basis fo ...
Young Readers Literary Legacy Award

:1998: Barbara J. McKillip :1999: Claudia Jones :2000: Cathy Schneider :2001: Oregon advisory boards of

First Book First Book is a nonprofit organization established in 1992 that aims to provide educational resources to children from low-income communities. The organization works to eliminate barriers to education by distributing books and other learning mate ...

:2002: Ready to Learn :2003: Jerry Isom :2004: Patricia R. Gallagher :2005: Carol Brown :2006: John Monteverde :2007: Mark Mizell :2008: Young Writers Association :2009: The Dove Lewis Read to the Dogs Program :2011: The Children's Book Bank :2012: Ulrich Hardt :2013: Oregon Battle of the Books :2014: Ellen Fader :2015: Jann Tankersley :2016: Curtis Kiefer :2017: The SMART ( Start Making A Reader Today) Program :2018: Carmen T. Bernier-Grand :2020: Reading Results :2021: PlayWrite, Inc. :2023: Dawn Babb Prochovnic

Literary Fellowships

C. Hamilton Bailey Fellowship in Poetry

:2018:

Matthew Minicucci Matthew Minicucci is an American writer and poet. His first full-length collection, ''Translation'', won the 2015 Wick Poetry Prize. His second collection, ''Small Gods'', was published in 2017 and won the 2019 Stafford/Hall Oregon Book Award i ...

:2019: Pamela K. Santos :2020:

Alicia Jo Rabins Alicia Jo Rabins is a performer, musician, singer, composer, poet, writer, and Jewish scholar. She lives in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. Her use of language and words is central to her work: "Words may be the closest we get to immortal ...

:2021: Amy Miller

Edna L. Homes Fellowship in Young Readers

:2018: Erica A. Briggs :2019: Amy Baskin :2020: Kelly Garrett :2021: Shana Targosz

Fellowship in Fiction

:2018:

Omar El Akkad Omar El Akkad (born 1982) is an Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist, whose novel '' What Strange Paradise'' was the winner of the 2021 Giller Prize. Early life and education Omar El Akkad was born in Cairo, Egypt, and grew up in Doha, ...

and Adair V

Fellowship in Poetry

:2018: manuel arturo abreu, Danielle Cadena Deulen, and Milo R. Muise

Fellowship in Publishing

:2018: '' Clackamas Literary Review'' and ''Pacifica: Poetry International'' :2019: ''Atelier 26 Books'' and ''Opossum: A Literary Marsupial'' :2020: ''Fonograf Editions'' and ''Octopus Books'' :2021: ''Forest Avenue Press'' and ''Northwest Review''

Fellowship in Nonfiction

:2018: Elizabeth Enslin, Susan Shepard, and Brian Trapp :2019: Sterling Cunio and Justin Taylor :2020: Garet Lahvis

Laurell Swails and
Donald Monroe Donald Keith was a pseudonym for authors Donald (1888–1972) and Keith Monroe (1915–2003). They are best known for their series of stories in the Time Machine series, which were originally published in ''Boys' Life'' magazine between 1959 ...
Memorial Fellowship in Fiction

:2018: Takashi L. Kendrick and Mika Tanner :2019: Ana-Maurine Lara and Chris Stuck :2020: Cynthia L. Brown and Taylor Koekkoek :2021: Pedro Hoffmeister and Emily Woodworth

Leslie Bradshaw Fellowship

:2018: Alberto Yáñez (for nonfiction) :2019: Chelsea Biondolillo (for nonfiction) :2020: Rachael Carnes (for drama) :2021: Sara Jean Accuardi (for drama)

Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship

:2018: Jacob Aiello and Jake Vermaas :2019: Karen Luper and Marcus Lund :2020:

Marjorie Celona Marjorie Celona (born January 7, 1981) is an American-Canadian writer. Their debut novel, '' Y'', published in 2012, won the Waterstones 11 literary prize and was a shortlisted nominee for the Center for Fiction's Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Pr ...

and Gabriel Urza

Oregon Literary Career Fellowship

:2020: Beth Alvarado and Dao Strom :2021: Annie Sheppard and Sandy Tanaka

Oregon Poetry Community Fellowship

:2019: Jennifer Perrine :2021: Alyssa Ogi

Walt Morey Fellowship

:2018: Cindy Baldwin (for drama) :2019: Stacy Brewster (for drama) :2020: Jamie Cooper (for poetry) :2021: Scott Korb (for nonfiction)

Women Writers Fellowship

:2018: Naomi Ulsted :2019: Natalie Hirt :2020: Eliza Rotterman :2021: A. M. Rosales

Writers of Color Fellowship

:2018: Reema Zaman :2019: Christopher Rose :2020: Olufunke Grace Bankole :2021: Kesha Ajose-Fisher

External links

Complete list of literary award finalists and winners for all yearsComplete list of literary fellowship winners for all years

References

{{reflist Awards established in 1987 American fiction awards American poetry awards Oregon culture Culture of Portland, Oregon