2006 Winners & Finalists

The 20th Annual Oregon Book Awards took place on Friday, December 1, 2006 at the Portland Art Museum. The ceremony celebrated the state’s finest authors and nearly 500 people attended, including State Senator and Oregon Cultural Trust board member Ben Westlund, Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams, and many past recipients of Oregon Book Awards and Oregon Literary Fellowships.

National Book Award and two-time Oregon Book Awards winner Barry Lopez served as Master of Ceremonies. Brian Booth and Gwyneth Gamble Booth were specially honored as the founders of the Oregon Book Awards.

The Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry was presented to Dorianne Laux for Facts About the Moon. Judge Ai praised Laux’s “enchanting poems that make one feel the ‘lunar strength and brutal pull’ of love that exists in spite of our human frailty.”

Finalists:
• David Axelrod, The Cartographer’s Melancholy (Eastern Washington University Press)
• Paulann Petersen, A Bride of Narrow Escape (Cloudbank Books)
• Vern Rutsala, How We Spent Our Time (The University of Akron Press)
• Floyd Skloot, Approximately Paradise (Tupelo Press)
• Matt Yurdana, Public Gestures (University of Tampa Press)

The H.L. Davis Award for Short Fiction was presented to Gina Ochsner for People I Wanted to Be. Judge Francine Prose praised Ochsner for mixing “the otherworldly, the psychological, the domestic, and the political in a way that seems seamless, and the way she deals with the whole subject of nationality and national identity is particularly deft.”

Finalists:
• Tracy Daugherty, Late in the Standoff (Southern Methodist University Press)
• Scott Nadelson, The Cantor’s Daughter (Hawthorne Books)
• Geronimo G. Tagatac, The Weight of the Sun (Ooligan Press)

The Ken Kesey Award for the Novel was presented to Justin Tussing for The Best People in the World. Judge Francine Prose noted that at “a time when so many first novels seem safe and conventional, this one is a refreshing and promising departure from the familiar.”

Finalists:
• Laila Lalami, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits (Algonquin Books)
• Peter Rock, The Bewildered (MacAdam Cage)

The Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction was presented to Andrew Bernstein for Modern Passings: Death Rites, Politics, and Social Change in Imperial Japan. Judge Shirley Geok-lin Lim described this book as a “fascinating and original study, rigorously researched, theoretically sharp, and offers history at its most readable and subtle form.”

Finalists:
• Edwin L. Battistella, Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others? (Oxford University Press)
• Judy Blankenship, Cañar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador (University of Texas Press)
• William G. Robbins, Oregon: This Storied Land (Oregon Historical Society Press)
• Dick Weissman, Which Side Are You On? An Inside History of the Folk Music Revival in America (Continuum)

The Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction was presented to George Aguilar, Sr., for When the River Ran Wild! Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and the Warm Springs Reservation. Judge Jonathan Yardley called the book “an important contribution to the history of the author’s people, the Eastern Chinook Indians, and to the history of Oregon as well, and is a moving book in its own right.”

Finalists:
• Brian Doyle, The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vineyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir in the World (Oregon State University Press)
• Kristin Kaye, Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World (Thunder’s Mouth Press)

The Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children’s Literature was presented to Diane Siebert for Tour America, a book judge Louise Borden praised as “a beautiful literary and visual journey that will resonate with young readers across our United States.”

Finalists:
• Susan Hill, Ruby Paints a Picture (HarperCollins)
• Deborah Hopkinson, Sky Boys (Schwartz and Wade Books)
• Allen Say, Kamishibai Man (Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books)

The Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature was presented to Graham Salisbury for Eyes of the Emperor. Judge Louise Borden remarked that Salisbury’s “first person story about loyalty, courage, honor, understanding, and fear, is a powerful book.”

Finalist:
• Heather Vogel Frederick, Spy Mice: For Your Paws Only (Simon and Schuster)

The Angus L. Bowmer Award for Drama was presented to Richard Moeschl for Arthur’s Dreams. Judge Lawrence Bommer called the play a “tender-hearted family drama about a family overcoming fears and friction over the course of the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.”

Finalists:
• Doug Baldwin, Wrestling with Charlotte
• Shelly Lipkin, Sylver Beaches
• Keith J. Scales, What Mad Pursuit
• Molly Best Tinsley, Fission

In addition to the Oregon Book Awards, we presented Special Awards to recognize three accomplished members of Oregon’s literary community.

Ursula K. Le Guin received the C.E.S. Wood Distinguished Writer Award, in recognition of a lasting, substantial literary career. Le Guin is an internationally-acclaimed author of dozens of books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translation and children’s literature. She has won many awards, including the Newberry, Nebula, Hugo, Locus and National Book Award. Le Guin’s C.E.S. Wood Award was presented by Brian Booth and Gwyneth Gamble Booth.

Paulann Petersen received the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award, in recognition of outstanding, long-term support of Oregon’s literary community. Peterson serves on the Board of Trustees for Friends of William Stafford, a nonprofit organization committed to continuing the legacy of Stafford’s poetry. Since 1998, she has organized the Stafford Birthday Celebrations, readings which take place throughout the country in the month of January. She has published three books of poetry—The Wild Awake, Blood-Silk and A Bride of Narrow Escape. Peterson’s Holbrook Award was presented by Dorothy Stafford.

John Monteverde received the Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award, in recognition of extraordinary support of Oregon’s young readers. Monteverde was one of the founders of Northwest Children’s Theater (NWCT) in 1993, and served as its artistic director for 13 years. While at NWCT, he adapted many children’s books for the stage, including the first stage production of Beverly Cleary’s Henry Huggins and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Monteverde’s Morey Award was presented by Tobias Andersen, artistic director of Mount Hood Repertory Theatre Company.

Since 1987, the Oregon Book Awards have annually honored the finest accomplishments by Oregon writers in genres of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, drama and young readers’ literature. Out-of-state judges choose finalists in each category, including a winner, using literary merit as the sole criterion. Literary Arts promotes all finalists in libraries and bookstores across the state. The Oregon Book Awards Author Tour brings finalists to public libraries and independent bookstores in towns such as La Grande, Klamath Falls, Roseburg and Astoria.

The Oregon Book Awards program is sponsored by the Oregon Cultural Trust, investing in Oregon’s arts, humanities and heritage, and by Tonkon Torp LLP. Additional support is provided by Betty Bradshaw, Leslie Bradshaw Endowment Fund, The Collins Foundation, Gray Family Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation, The Heathman Hotel, Robert H. and Cecelia Huntington, The Ruth Manary Fund of The Samuel S. Johnson Foundation, The Keller Foundation,Walt Morey Endowment Fund, Multnomah County Library, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Center for the Book at the Oregon State Library, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, Regional Arts & Culture Council, Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust and Viviano Design.

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