Five Eugeneans Are Oregon Book Awards Finalists

Literary Arts has announced the finalists for the 2009 Oregon Book Awards, and five of them are particularly local: Miriam Gershow, Debra Gwartney, Bonnie Henderson, Barbara Pope and Leslie What are all among the finalists for this year’s awards. (Perennial finalist Deborah Hopkinson of Corvallis has already won; her book is the only contender in the children’s category.)

I’ve read three of the fiction finalists and … well, that’s a tough field the judge has to choose from. To see the complete list (with links to EW reviews of several titles), click here.

2009 Oregon Book Awards Finalists
KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION
Miriam Gershow of Eugene, The Local News
Gina Ochsner of Keizer, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight
Barbara Pope of Eugene, Cezanneâ€™s Quarry
Jon Raymond of Portland, Livability: Stories
Leslie What of Eugene, Crazy Love: Stories

STAFFORD/HALL AWARD FOR POETRY
Alicia Cohen of Portland, Debts and Obligations
Matthew Dickman of Portland, All-American Poem
Endi Bogue Hartigan of Portland, One Sun Storm
Andrew Michael Roberts of Portland, something has to happen next
Crystal Williams of Portland, Troubled Tongues

FRANCES FULLER VICTOR AWARD FOR GENERAL NONFICTION
Tracy Daugherty of Corvallis, Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme
Bonnie Henderson of Eugene, Strand: An Odyssey of Pacific Ocean Debris
John Laursen of Portland, Wild Beauty
Donna Matrazzo of Portland, Wild Things: Adventures of a Grassroots Environmentalist
Jeffrey St. Clair of Oregon City, T Born Under a Bad Sky: Notes from the Dark Side of the Earth

SARAH WINNEMUCCA AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION
Bibi Gaston of The Dalles, The Loveliest Woman in America: A Tragic Actress, Her Lost Diaries, and Her Granddaughterâ€™s Search for Home
Debra Gwartney of Finn Rock, Live Through This: A Motherâ€™s Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love
John Kroger of Salem, Convictions: A Prosecutorâ€™s Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves
Floyd Skloot of Portland, The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writerâ€™s Life

ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDRENâ€™S LITERATURE
Deborah Hopkinson of Corvallis, Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson, Co-discoverer of the North Pole

LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
Carmen Bernier-Grand of Portland, Diego: Bigger Than Life
David Greenberg of Portland, A Tugging String
Graham Salisbury of Lake Oswego, Calvin Coconut, Trouble Magnet
Roland Smith of Wilsonville, I.Q. Book One: Independence Hall
Virginia Euwer Wolff of Oregon City, This Full House

Special Awards
THE STEWART H. HOLBROOK LITERARY LEGACY AWARD
Matt Love of Newport

THE WALT MOREY YOUNG READERS LITERARY LEGACY AWARD
The Dove Lewis Animal Assisted Therapy Program: Read to the Dogs Program of Portland

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