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  "path": "/books/2026/02/09/48304606/literary-arts-announces-2026-oregon-book-award-finalists",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-09T18:15:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.portlandmercury.com",
  "tags": [
    "Books",
    "Culture",
    "ceremony night on Monday, April 20",
    "which the  _Mercury_ praised",
    "it's no surprise to see Lidia Yuknavitch's _Reading the Waves_",
    "which you can check out here"
  ],
  "textContent": "It's no surpise to see Lidia Yuknavitch, Leah Sottile, Breena Bard, and David F. Walker among the nominees.\n\nby Suzette Smith\n\nLiterary Arts announced the finalists for its coveted 2026 Oregon Book Awards this morning, selecting via juries of out-of-state judges just 35 works from 200 submissions. This list always largely dictates our spring reading plans, as we fill in what we may have missed before the ceremony night on Monday, April 20.\n\nThis is a graphic novel year—the category flips biennially, on and off with the award for plays and dramatic works. We're chuffed to see Breena Bard's  _Wildfire_ nominated, which the  _Mercury_ praised for its examination of \"the overall human impact on the environment\" and practical ways that young people can undertake activism \"whether by writing letters, volunteering, or planting trees.\" Other strong contenders in that category are _Speechless by_ past Oregon Book Award winner Aron Nels Steinke and the highly lauded _Big Jim and the White Boy_ by David F. Walker _._\n\nIn the fiction category, it's no surprise to see Lidia Yuknavitch's _Reading the Waves_ face off with _A Field Guide to the Subterranean: Reclaiming the Deep Earth and Our Deepest Selves_ by Justin Hocking. Both writers are previous book award winners. In the nonfiction category, journalist Leah Sottile's  _Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets and the Fever Dream of the American New Age_ brings strong competition for _High Desert, Higher Costs: Bend and the Housing Crisis in the American West_ by the  _Oregonian_ 's Jonathan Bach.\n\nWe haven't read everything on this list just yet, so there are no doubt surprises in store. The bookish nonprofit also awarded a number of fellowships, which you can check out here. Read whole list is below:\n\n**2026 OREGON BOOK AWARD FINALISTS**\n\n**KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION**\n\nOlufunke Grace Bankole,  _The Edge of Water_ (Tin House)\n\nLing Ling Huang, _Immaculate Conception: A Novel_ (Dutton)\n\nKevin Maloney,  _Horse Girl Fever_ (Clash Books)\n\nMadeline McDonnell,  _Lonesome Ballroom_ (Rescue Press)\n\nKaren Thompson Walker, _The Strange Case of Jane O._ (Random House)\n\n**STAFFORD/HALL AWARD FOR POETRY**\n\nH. G. Dierdorff,  _Rain, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Daughter_ (University of Nevada Press)\n\nGarrett Hongo,  _Ocean of Clouds_ (Alfred A. Knopf)\n\nJennifer Perrine, _Beautiful Outlaw_ (Kelsey Street Press)\n\nLisa Wells, _The Fire Passage_ (Four Way Books)\n\nJoe Wilkins,  _Pastoral, 1994_ (River River Books)\n\n**FRANCES FULLER VICTOR AWARD FOR GENERAL NONFICTION**\n\nJonathan Bach, _High Desert, Higher Costs: Bend and the Housing Crisis in the American West_ (Oregon State University Press)\n\nRebecca Grant, _Access: Inside the Abortion Underground and the Sixty-Year Battle for Reproductive Freedom_ (Avid Reader Press)\n\nM. L. Herring,  _Born of Fire and Rain: Journey into a Pacific Coastal Forest_ (Yale University Press)\n\nJamie Mustard, _Child X: A Memoir of Slavery, Poverty, Celebrity, and Scientology_ (BenBella Books)\n\nLeah Sottile, _Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age_ (Hachette Book Group/Grand Central Publishing)\n\n**SARAH WINNEMUCCA AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION**\n\nJudith Barrington,  _Virginia’s Apple: Collected Memoirs_ (Oregon State University Press)\n\nKarleigh Frisbie Brogan, _Holding: A Memoir About Mothers, Drugs, and Other Comforts_ (Steerforth)\n\nJustin Hocking, _A Field Guide to the Subterranean: Reclaiming the Deep Earth and Our Deepest Selves_ (Counterpoint Press/Catapult Book Group)\n\nWayne Scott, _The Maps They Gave Us: One Marriage Reimagined_ (Black Lawrence Press)\n\nLidia Yuknavitch, _Reading the Waves_ (Riverhead Books)\n\n**ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE**\n\nZoey Abbott,  _This Year, a Witch!_ (Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Simon & Schuster)\n\nMichelle Sumovich, _I Have Three Cats…_ (Penguin Random House)\n\nA.A. Livingston, _Grizelda the Green Hates Halloween_(Flamingo Books/Penguin Random House)\n\nElizabeth Rusch, _All About Patterns_(Charlesbridge)\n\nKerilynn Wilson, _A Monstrous Bedtime (_ Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)\n\n**LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR MIDDLE GRADE AND YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE**\n\nWaka T. Brown, _Rick Kotani’s 400 Million Dollar Summer_ (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins Children’s Books)\n\nCourtney Gould, _What the Woods Took: A Novel_ (Wednesday Books)\n\nRosanne Parry,  _A Wolf Called Fire_ (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)\n\nSara Ryan,  _Mountain Upside Down_ (Dutton Books for Young Readers)\n\nShana Targosz,  _River of Spirits (The Underwild #1)_(Aladdin Books/Simon & Schuster)\n\n**AWARD FOR GRAPHIC LITERATURE**\n\nBreena Bard, _Wildfire_ (Little, Brown Ink)\n\nSteven Christian, _Welcome To Iltopia: An Eyelnd Feevr Augmented Reality Experience_ (Iltopia Studios)\n\nRowan Kingsbury, _Avery and the Fairy Circle_ (Flying Eye Books)\n\nAron Nels Steinke _Speechles_ s (Graphix/Scholastic)\n\nDavid F. Walker, _Big Jim and the White Boy_ (Ten Speed Graphic)",
  "title": "Literary Arts Announces 2026 Oregon Book Award Finalists"
}