Oregon’s Literary Arts will announce the winners of the 2011 Oregon Book Awards this Monday, April 25. Oregon Public Broadcasting interviewed Diana Abu Jaber about her 1994 Oregon Book Award for her novel Arabian Jazz. “I think that there’s a series of gates that writers pass through, but you rarely feel like you’ve arrived because there’s always another one,” Abu Jaber says. “A book award makes you feel like you’ve gotten some sort of affirmation and acknowledgement.”
Abu Jaber, who splits her time between Portland and Miami, also won an award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers for her novel The Language of Baklava in 2006.
OPB’s Emily Harris will interview one or two Oregon Book Award winners on Think Out Loud April 29.