Lidia Yuknavitch at the 2012 CSWS Northwest Women Writers Symposium / photo by Robert Hill Long.

Congratulations are due UO graduate Lidia Yuknavitch, who helped inaugurate the CSWS Northwest Women Writers Symposium in May 2012 as a featured author at MemoirFest. Lidia, who earned her PhD in English at the University of Oregon, is the winner of two Oregon Book Awards, announced on April 11, 2016.

KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION Lidia Yuknavitch of Portland The Small Backs of Children (HarperCollins)

READERS CHOICE AWARD Lidia Yuknavitch of Portland The Small Backs of Children (HarperCollins)

2016 Oregon Book Award winners ELOISE JARVIS MCGRAW AWARD FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE Barbara Kerley of  Portland With a Friend by Your Side (National Geographic Society)

LESLIE BRADSHAW AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE Brian Doyle of Lake Oswego Martin Marten (St. Martin's Press)

FRANCES FULLER VICTOR AWARD FOR GENERAL NONFICTION David Biespiel of Portland A Long High Whistle (Antilever Press)

SARAH WINNEMUCCA AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION Kate Carroll de Gutes of Portland Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear (Ovenbird Books)

AWARD FOR GRAPHIC LITERATURE Ariel Cohn and Aron Nels Steinke of  Portland The Zoo Box (First Second Books)

STAFFORD/HALL AWARD FOR POETRY Carl Adamshick of Portland Saint Friend (McSweeney's)

KEN KESEY AWARD FOR FICTION Lidia Yuknavitch of Portland The Small Backs of Children (HarperCollins)

READERS CHOICE AWARD Lidia Yuknavitch of Portland The Small Backs of Children (HarperCollins)

SPECIAL AWARDS:

STEWART H. HOLBROOK LITERARY LEGACY AWARD Doug Spangle of Portland

WALT MOREY YOUNG READERS LITERARY LEGACY AWARD Curtis Kiefer of Philomath