Congratulations to this year’s finalists! Literary Arts announced this year’s Oregon Book Awards finalists and Special Award recipient.
Thirty-five titles from Oregonians across seven genre categories were chosen as finalists by panels of out-of-state judges, from a total of 200 submitted titles.
Winners will be announced live at the 2026 Oregon Book Awards Ceremony, hosted by Kimberly King Parsons, at Portland Center Stage at The Armory on Monday, April 20, 2026. The event will also honor our 2026 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipients
This year’s awards include the biennial Award for Graphic Literature.
Ken Kesey Award for Fiction
JUDGES: LAIRD HUNT, ISLE MCELROY, TARA KARR ROBERTS
OLUFUNKE GRACE BANKOLE of Portland, The Edge of Water (Tin House)
LING LING HUANG of Portland, Immaculate Conception: A Novel (Dutton)
KEVIN MALONEY of Portland, Horse Girl Fever (Clash Books)
MADELINE MCDONNELL of Corvallis, Lonesome Ballroom (Rescue Press)
KAREN THOMPSON WALKER of Portland, The Strange Case of Jane O. (Random House)
Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry
JUDGES: SUMITA CHAKRABORTY, TIMOTHY DONNELLY, JENNY MOLBERG
H. G. DIERDORFF of Portland, Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter (University of Nevada Press)
GARRETT HONGO of Eugene, Ocean of Clouds (Alfred A. Knopf)
JENNIFER PERRINE of Portland, Beautiful Outlaw (Kelsey Street Press)
LISA WELLS of Portland, The Fire Passage (Four Way Books)
JOE WILKINS of McMinnville, Pastoral, 1994 (River River Books)
Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction
JUDGES: LUCAS BESSIRE, EVAN HUGHES, SHAHNAZ HABIB
JONATHAN BACH of Tigard, High Desert, Higher Costs: Bend and the Housing Crisis in the American West (Oregon State University Press)<
REBECCA GRANT of Portland, Access: Inside the Abortion Underground and the Sixty-Year Battle for Reproductive Freedom (Avid Reader Press)
M. L. HERRING of Corvallis, Born of Fire and Rain: Journey into a Pacific Coastal Forest (Yale University Press)
JAMIE MUSTARD of Portland, Child X: A Memoir of Slavery, Poverty, Celebrity, and Scientology (BenBella Books)
LEAH SOTTILE of Portland, Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age (Hachette Book Group/Grand Central Publishing)
Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction
JUDGES: DEBORAH JACKSON TAFFA, JOSEPH EARL THOMAS, MELINE TOUMANI
JUDITH BARRINGTON of Portland, Virginia’s Apple: Collected Memoirs(Oregon State University Press)
KARLEIGH FRISBIE BROGAN of Portland, Holding: A Memoir About Mothers, Drugs, and Other Comforts (Steerforth)
JUSTIN HOCKING of Portland, A Field Guide to the Subterranean: Reclaiming the Deep Earth and Our Deepest Selves (Counterpoint Press/Catapult Book Group)
WAYNE SCOTT of Portland, The Maps They Gave Us: One Marriage Reimagined (Black Lawrence Press)
LIDIA YUKNAVITCH of Portland, Reading the Waves (Riverhead Books)
Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children’s Literature
JUDGES: BONNY BECKER, LAURA RIZZUTTO, BENSON SHUM
ZOEY ABBOTT of Portland, This Year, a Witch! (Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Simon & Schuster)
MICHELLE SUMOVICH of Portland, I Have Three Cats… (Penguin Random House)
A.A. LIVINGSTON of Lake Oswego, Grizelda the Green Hates Halloween(Flamingo Books/Penguin Random House)
ELIZABETH RUSCH of Portland, All About Patterns (Charlesbridge)
KERILYNN WILSON of Oregon City, A Monstrous Bedtime (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)
Leslie Bradshaw Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Literature
JUDGES: EVAN GRIFFITH, JEWELL PARKER RHODES, COREY ANN HAYDUWAKA T. BROWN of West Linn, Rick Kotani’s 400 Million Dollar Summer (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins Children’s Books)
COURTNEY GOULD of Salem, What the Woods Took: A Novel (Wednesday Books)
ROSANNE PARRY of Portland, A Wolf Called Fire (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)
SARA RYAN of Portland, Mountain Upside Down (Dutton Books for Young Readers)
SHANA TARGOSZ of Portland, River of Spirits (The Underwild #1) (Aladdin Books/Simon & Schuster)
Award for Graphic Literature
JUDGES: KIKU HUGHES, TESSA HULLS, JOSHUA NEUFELD
BREENA BARD of Portland, Wildfire (Little, Brown Ink)
STEVEN CHRISTIAN of Portland, Welcome To Iltopia: An Eyelnd Feevr Augmented Reality Experience (Iltopia Studios)
ROWAN KINGSBURY of Portland, Avery and the Fairy Circle (Flying Eye Books)
ARON NELS STEINKE of Portland, Speechless (Graphix/
DAVID F. WALKER of Portland, Big Jim and the White Boy (Ten Speed Graphic)
Special Award
In 2026, Literary Arts will honor the following organization with the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award, in recognition of outstanding, long-term support of Oregon’s literary community:
STEWART H. HOLBROOK LITERARY LEGACY AWARD
Willamette Writers of Portland, Oregon
Get your tickets to the Oregon Book Awards Ceremony
Monday, April 20, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.
Portland Center Stage at The Armory
Hosted by Kimberly King Parsons
Winners will be announced live at the ceremony!
