The winners of the 2019 Oregon Book Awards have been announced, and I'm excited to report that the Leni Zumas' very deserving Red Clocks won the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction! Red Clocks not only received a glowing review from the Mercury's former Arts Editor Megan Burbank upon its release, but was also highlighted in our round-up of the top books of 2018 where Joshua James Amberson wrote:
Based on proposed legislation, Red Clocks is stunning and horrifying in how it imagines the potential reality of the pro-life agenda. But the book works because it’s about people—five women who are complex, flawed, and real. It’s not a political book. It’s a book about how politics operate as an undercurrent in our lives. It’s a book about the marketing of motherhood and how cultural measures of success infiltrate our minds. Zumas is bold in how she allows the book’s biggest moments to be quiet, understated, and uncomfortable—just as significant moments often are in real life.
Other Portland authors who won awards last night are: Emily Whitman, Kenneth R. Coleman, Andrea Stolowitz, Matthew Minicucci, and Beth Wood. Check out the full list of winners and after the jump!
ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Emily Whitman of Portland
The Turning (Greenwillow Books)
LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
Shea Ernshaw of Bend
The Wicked Deep (Simon & Schuster)
FRANCES FULLER VICTOR AWARD FOR GENERAL NONFICTION
Kenneth R. Coleman of Portland
Dangerous Subjects: James D. Saules and the Rise of Black Exclusion in Oregon (OSU Press)
SARAH WINNEMUCCA AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION
Apricot Irving of Corbett
The Gospel of Trees (Simon & Schuster)ANGUS L. BOWMER AWARD FOR DRAMA
Andrea Stolowitz of Portland
Successful Strategies
STAFFORD/HALL AWARD FOR POETRY
Matthew Minicucci of Portland
Small Gods (New Issues Poetry & Prose)
KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION
Leni Zumas of Portland
Red Clocks (Little,Brown)
READERS' CHOICE AWARD
Beth Wood of Portland
Ladder to the Light (Mezcalita Press)SPECIAL AWARDS:
STEWART H. HOLBROOK LITERARY LEGACY AWARD
José González of Portland
