Literary Arts announced the 2026 Oregon Book Awards winners in a ceremony at Portland Center Stage at The Armory on April 20. Kimberly King Parsons, a National Book Award nominee and 2025 Oregon Book Award winner, hosted the event.
“So much of writing is solitary—years of trusting something before anyone else does,” said King Parsons in a statement issued by Literary Arts. “Literary Arts changes that. It creates a space where the work gets celebrated and writers get to hear: We’re with you.”
This year’s winners, winnowed down by a panel of out-of-state judges from a stack of 35 finalists announced in February, are:
- Ling Ling Huang, Portland, took home the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction for Immaculate Conception: A Novel;
- Jennifer Perrine, Portland, won the Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry for Beautiful Outlaw;
- Onetime Willamette Week contributor Leah Sottile, Portland, won the Frances Fuller Victor Award for general nonfiction for Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets, and the Fever Dream of the American New Age;
- Judith Barrington, Portland, won the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction for Virginia’s Apple: Collected Memoirs;
- Rosanne Parry, Portland, took home the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Literature for A Wolf Called Fire;
- Michelle Sumovich, Portland, won the Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children’s Literature for I Have Three Cats…;
- Former WW screen editor David F. Walker took home the Award for Graphic Literature for Big Jim and the White Boy.
Literary Arts also issued the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award to Willamette Writers “in recognition of outstanding, long-term support of Oregon’s literary community.”
“The Oregon Book Awards is an important moment to stop and recognize the astonishing breadth of talent found right here in Oregon,” Literary Arts executive director Andrew Proctor said in the release. “In today’s divisive climate, in which algorithms drive a relentless news cycle, writers are more vital than ever in helping us slow down to truly understand the past, who we are now and who we might become. It is so important to come together to champion our local storytellers, who share their lived experiences, hopes and dreams, and to build community among writers and readers. We are honored to celebrate this diverse community of writers—to embrace debut authors, as well as some of Oregon’s most celebrated names.”
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