Announcing the finalists for the 2024 Oregon Book Awards

(Graphic courtesy of Literary Arts)

Literary Arts is thrilled to announce this year’s Oregon Book Awards finalists and Special Award recipient. Thirty-seven Oregonians across seven genre categories were chosen as finalists by panels of out-of-state judges, from a total of 190 submitted titles.

Winners will be announced live at the 2024 Oregon Book Awards Ceremony, hosted by Kwame Alexander, at Portland Center Stage at The Armory on Monday, April 8, 2024.

This year’s awards include the biennial award for Graphic Literature.

Ken Kesey Award for Fiction

Judges: Allison Escoto, Morgan Talty, Jacinda Townsend

Patrick deWitt of Portland, The Librarianist (Ecco/HarperCollins)
Marcelle Heath of Portland, Is That All There Is? (Awst Press)
Lydia Kiesling of Portland, Mobility (Crooked Media Reads/Zando)
Rachel King of Portland, Bratwurst Haven: Stories (West Virginia University Press)
Jen Wheeler of Portland, The Light on Farallon Island (Lake Union Publishing/Amazon Publishing)

Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry

Judges: Abigail Chabitnoy, Eleni Sikelianos, Mark Wunderlich

Stephanie Adams-Santos of Hillsboro, Dream of Xibalba (Orison Books)
Jessica E. Johnson of Portland, Metabolics (Acre Books)
Daniela Naomi Molnar of Portland, CHORUS (Omnidawn)
Sara Quinn Rivara of Portland, Little Beast (Riot in Your Throat)
Rebecca Wadlinger of Portland, Terror, Terrible, Terrific (Octopus Books)

Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction

Judges: Timothy Denevi, Chris Mathers Jackson, Steve Olson

Jessica Applegate and Paul Koberstein of Portland, Canopy of Titans: The Life and Times of the Great North American Temperate Rainforest (OR Books)
Steven C. Beda of Eugene, Strong Winds & Widow Makers: Workers, Nature, and Environmental Conflict in Pacific Northwest Timber Country (University of Illinois Press)
Tove Danovich of Milwaukie, Under the Henfluence: Inside the World of Backyard Chickens and the People Who Love Them (Agate Publishing)
Jacob Mikanowski of Portland, Goodbye, Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land (Pantheon/Knopf Doubleday)
Josephine Woolington of Portland, Where We Call Home: Lands, Seas, and Skies of the Pacific Northwest (Ooligan Press)

Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction

Judges: Rachel Martin, Molly McCully Brown, Jared Yates Sexton

Erica Berry of Portland, Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear (Flatiron Books)
Erika Bolstad of Portland, Windfall: The Prairie Woman Who Lost Her Way and the Great-Granddaughter Who Found Her (Sourcebooks)
Lauren Fleshman of Bend, Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World (Penguin Press)
Alyssa Graybeal of Astoria, Floppy: Tales of a Genetic Freak of Nature at the End of the World (Red Hen Press)
Steven Moore of Portland, The Distance From Slaughter County: Lessons From Flyover Country (University of North Carolina Press)

Eloise Jarvis Mcgraw Award for Children’s Literature

Judges: Kari Allen, Lindsay Craig, Gary Golio

Valerie Coulman of Medford, Dragons on the Inside (And Other Big Feelings) (Free Spirit Publishing/Teacher Created Materials)
Nora Ericson of Portland, Too Early (Abrams Books for Young Readers)
Linda Meanus of Warm Springs, My Name is Lamoosh (Oregon State University Press)
Stephanie Shaw of McMinnville, All By Myself (Peachtree)
C. E. Winters of Hillsboro, Cut!: How Lotte Reiniger and a Pair of Scissors Revolutionized Animation (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)

Leslie Bradshaw Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Literature

Judges: Ellen Hagan, Jennifer Longo, Kathryn Reiss

Cindy Baldwin of Hillsboro, No Matter the Distance (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins)
Waka T. Brown of West Linn, The Very Unfortunate Wish of Melony Yoshimura (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins)
Courtney Gould of Salem, Where Echoes Die (Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Publishing)
April Henry of Portland, Girl Forgotten (Christy Ottaviano Books/Little, Brown Young Readers)
Rosanne Parry of Portland, A Horse Named Sky (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)

Award for Graphic Literature (Biennial)

Judges: Michael Gianfrancesco, Roberta Gregory, Marjorie Liu

Matthew Bogart and Jesse Holden of Portland, Incredible Doom: Volume 2 (HarperAlley/HarperCollins)
Kelly Sue DeConnick of Portland, Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons (DC Comics)
Greg Means of Lake Oswego, Asylum (Tugboat Press)
David F. Walker of Portland, Bitter Root Omnibus (Image Comics)
Kerilynn Wilson of Oregon City, The Faint of Heart (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)

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, the Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award, and the C.E.S. Wood Award.

The Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award