Congratulations to Oregon Book Award Finalists!

The Literary Arts Council has just released finalists' names for the 2006 Oregon Book Award. Winners will be announced at the 20th Annual Oregon Book Awards ceremony on Friday, December 1st. For more details and to buy tickets, visit www.literary-arts.org or call 503-227-2583.

Congratulations to all the finalists. You've already achieved a great honor!

Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry

David Axelrod of La Grande, The Cartographer’s Melancholy (Eastern Washington University Press)
Dorianne Laux of Eugene, Facts About the Moon (Norton)
Paulann Petersen of Portland, A Bride of Narrow Escape (Cloudbank Books)
Vern Rutsala of Portland, How We Spent Our Time (The University of Akron Press)
Floyd Skloot of Portland, Approximately Paradise (Tupelo Press)
Matt Yurdana of Portland, Public Gestures (University of Tampa Press)

Ken Kesey Award for the Novel

Laila Lalami of Portland, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (Algonquin Books)
Peter Rock of Portland, The Bewildered (MacAdam Cage)
Justin Tussing of Portland, The Best People in the World (Harper Collins)

H.L. Davis Award for Short Fiction

Tracy Daugherty of Corvallis, Late in the Standoff (Southern Methodist University Press)
Scott Nadelson of Portland, The Cantor’s Daughter (Hawthorne Books)
Gina Ochsner of Keizer, People I Wanted to Be (Houghton Mifflin/Mariner Books)
Geronimo G. Tagatac of Salem, The Weight of the Sun (Ooligan Press)

Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction

Edwin L. Battistella of Astoria, Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others? (Oxford University Press)
Andrew Bernstein of Portland, Modern Passings: Death Rites, Politics, and Social Change in Imperial Japan (University of Hawaii Press)
Judy Blankenship of Portland, Cañar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador (University of Texas Press)
William G. Robbins of Corvallis, Oregon: This Storied Land (Oregon Historical Society Press)
Dick Weissman of Portland, Which Side Are You On? An Inside History of the Folk Music Revival in America (Continuum)

Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction

George W. Aguilar, Sr. of Warm Springs, When the River Ran Wild! Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and the Warm Springs Reservation (Oregon Historical Society/University of Washington Press)
Brian Doyle of Portland, The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vineyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir in the Whole Wild World (Oregon State University Press)
Kristin Kaye of Portland, Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World (Thunder’s Mouth Press)

Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children’s Literature

Susan Hill of Portland, Ruby Paints a Picture (Harper Collins)
Deborah Hopkinson of Corvallis, Sky Boys (Schwartz and Wade Books)
Allen Say of Portland, Kamishibai Man (Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books)
Diane Siebert of Culver, Tour America (Chronicle Books)

Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature

Heather Vogel Frederick of Portland, Spy Mice: For Your Paws Only (Simon and Schuster)
Graham Salisbury of Portland, Eyes of the Emperor (Wendy Lamb Books)

Angus L. Bowmer Award for Drama

Doug Baldwin of Portland, Wrestling with Charlotte
Shelly Lipkin of Lake Oswego, Sylver Beach’s
Richard Moeschl of Ashland, Arthur’s Dreams
Keith J. Scales of Portland, What Mad Pursuit
Molly Best Tinsley of Ashland, Fission