The Oregon literary community is celebrating Oscar nominations morning. The 2025 Oregon Book Awards finalists and special award winners were revealed by Literary Arts on Tuesday.
According to a press statement from Literary Arts executive director Andrew Proctor, the organization has been honoring extraordinarily gifted and innovative writers from all throughout Oregon for the past 38 years. Our writing community contributes significantly to local and regional discussions that influence our society in addition to the national dialogue.
Judges from outside the state selected 35 novels as finalists for this year’s prizes. On Monday, April 28, 2025, Omar El Akkad will host a presentation at Portland Center Stage at The Armory to present the honors.
Tickets are on sale right now.
Continue reading:
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2024 Oregon Book Awards honors 8 literary Oregonians
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2023 Oregon Book Awards winners include a former Oregonian reporter
This year, special recognition will be given to Jelani Memory, founder of A Kids Co., for her important contributions to the development of young readers in Oregon, and Laura Moulton, founder of Street Books, Portland, for her important contributions to the literary community in Oregon.
The complete list of finalists in each category is as follows:
Ken Kesey Award for Fiction
Judges: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Lauren Grodstein, and Kevin Brockmeier
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Miriam Gershow of Eugene, Survival Tips: Stories (Propeller Books)
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Victor Lodato of Ashland, Honey (Harper/HarperCollins Publishers)
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Kimberly King Parsons of Portland, We Were the Universe (Knopf/Penguin Random House)
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Charlie J. Stephens of Port Orford, A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest (Torrey House Press)
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Willy Vlautin of Scappoose, The Horse (Harper/HarperCollins Publishers)
Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry
Judges: Mai Der Vang, Brian Teare, and Mary-Alice Daniel
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Alisha Dietzman of Newberg, Sweet Movie (Beacon Press)
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Brian S. Ellis of Portland, Against Common Sense (Limit Zero Publications)
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Darla Mottram of Portland, RECURRENT
(Querencia Press)
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Valerie Witte of Portland, A Rupture in the Interiors (Airlie Press)
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Charity E. Yoro of Portland, ten-cent flower & other territories (First Matter Press)
Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction
Judges Yunte Huang, Chlo Cooper Jones, and Chris Feliciano Arnold
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Rebecca Clarren of Portland, The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance (Viking Books/Penguin Random House)
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Kimberly Jensen of Monmouth, Oregon s Others: Gender, Civil Liberties, and the Surveillance State in the Early Twentieth Century (University of Washington Press)
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Catherine McNeur of Portland, Mischievous Creatures: The Forgotten Sisters Who Transformed Early American Science (Basic Books/Hachette Book Group)
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Courtney Thorsson of Eugene, The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture (Columbia University Press)
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Reiko Hillyer of Portland, A Wall Is Just a Wall: The Permeability of the Prison in the Twentieth-Century United States
(Duke University Press)
Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction
Judges: Susan Kiyo Ito, Lars Horn, and Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman
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Becky Ellis of Lake Oswego, Little Avalanches: A Memoir
(Regalo Press)
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Ferris Jabr of Portland
, ”
Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life” (Random House/Penguin Random House)
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Jaclyn Moyer of Corvallis, On Gold Hill: A Personal History of Wheat, Farming, and Family, from Punjab to California (Beacon Press)
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Tim Palmer of Port Orford, Seek Higher Ground: The Natural Solution to Our Urgent Flooding Crisis (University of California Press)
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Marlena Williams of Portland, Night Mother: A Personal and Cultural History of The Exorcist (Mad Creek Books/Ohio State University Press)
Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children s Literature
Judges: Kaz Windness, Angela Joy, and Richard Ho
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Anne Broyles of Portland, I m Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People (Holiday House)
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Dane Liu of Portland, Laolao s Dumplings (Henry Holt BYR/Macmillan Publishing Group)
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Leslie Barnard Booth of Portland, A Stone Is a Story (Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster)
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Leslie Barnard Booth of Portland, One Day This Tree Will Fall (Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster)
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Deborah Hopkinson of West Linn, Evidence!: How Dr. John Snow Solved the Mystery of Cholera (Knopf BYR/Penguin Random House)
Leslie Bradshaw Award for Middle Grade Young Adult Literature
Sheela Chari, Ted Sanders, and Justin A. Reynolds served as judges.
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April Henry of Portland
, ”
Stay Dead”
(Christy Ottaviano Books of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group)
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Deborah Hopkinson of West Linn
, ”
The Plot to Kill a Queen”
(Scholastic Press)
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Megan Lally of Salem
, ”
That s Not My Name”
(Sourcebooks Fire/Sourcebooks)
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Makiia Lucier of Portland, Dragonfruit (Clarion Books/HarperCollins Publishers)
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Elizabeth Rusch of Portland, The Twenty-One: The True Story of the Youth Who Sued the U.S. Government Over Climate Change (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins Publishers)
Angus L. Bowmer Award for Drama
Judges: Jessica Huang, Megan Gogerty, and Angela Jackson-Brown
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E.M. Lewis of Portland,
Strange Birds
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Rich Rubin of Portland
, ”
Kafka s Joke”
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Andrea Stolowitz of Portland, Elegy Play
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Ken Yoshikawa of Portland, From a Hole in the Ground
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Brianna Barrett of Portland, Still Harvey Still
Lizzy Acker writes the advice column and studies culture and life. Why, Tho?You can contact her at [email protected] or 503-221-8052.
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