- Graywolf Press
The winners of this year’s Oregon Book Awards were announced at a fancy-pants ceremony yesterday, and a whole slew of Portland writers were among them. A few highlights from the giant list: Justin Hocking, former director of the Independent Publishing Resource Center, won in the creative nonfiction category for the (great) Great Floodgates of the Wonder World; Emily Kendal Frey won in poetry for Sorrow Arrow from Octopus Books; and Cari Luna’s novel about squatters in the East Village*, The Revolution of Every Day (Tin House), won in the fiction category (named for Ken Kesey, duh).
*This book features a vividly wonderful description of a dumpster-dive mission that will fill you with the shock of recognition if you’ve spent any time at all with freegans.
Full list of winners after the jump.
ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
Susan Hill Long of Portland
Whistle in the Dark (Holiday House)LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
April Henry of Portland
The Body In the Woods (Henry Holt)FRANCES FULLER VICTOR AWARD FOR GENERAL NONFICTION
Alex Tizon of Eugene
Big Little Man: In Search of My Asian Self (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)SARAH WINNEMUCCA AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION
Justin Hocking of Portland
The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld (Graywolf Press)ANGUS L. BOWMER AWARD FOR DRAMA
Andrea Stolowitz of Portland
IthakaSTAFFORD/HALL AWARD FOR POETRY
Emily Kendal Frey of Portland
Sorrow Arrow (Octopus Books)KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION
Cari Luna of Portland
The Revolution of Every Day (Tin House Books)READERS CHOICE AWARD
Willy Vlautin of Scappoose
The Free (Harper Perennial)SPECIAL AWARDS:
STEWART H. HOLBROOK LITERARY LEGACY AWARD
Tom Spanbauer of PortlandWALT MOREY YOUNG READERS LITERARY LEGACY AWARD
Jann Tankersley of McMinnvilleC.E.S. WOOD DISTINGUISHED WRITER AWARD
Ralph Salisbury of Eugene
You’ll notice that many of these writers have books out from big publishing houses; it’s always nice to see smaller, more indie operations (and squatters!) getting recognition alongside, you know, Harper Perennial. Say what you want about the death of books, but independent publishing is alive and well.