Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction
Frances Fuller Victor (1826-1902) spent 35 years traveling throughout Oregon, interviewing pioneers and writing the history of the Northwest. Her works include The River of the West, Early Indian Wars of Oregon and All Over Oregon and Washington.
Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction
Sarah Winnemucca (1844-1891) left her native Nevada when the federal government relocated the Paiute to a reservation in Malheur, Oregon. The daughter of a Paiute tribal leader, she became an official interpreter to the U.S. military and an outspoken supporter of Native American rights in Washington, D.C. Her influential book, Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, remains a significant historical and political account.
Award Winners and Finalists: Literary Nonfiction
Note: Winners indicated in boldface type.
2013
General Nonfiction
Nicholas Buccola of McMinnville, The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass: In Pursuit of American Liberty (NYU Press)
Kerry Cohen of Portland, Dirty Little Secrets: Breaking the Silence on Teenage Girls and Promiscuity (Sourcebooks)
Scott Farris of Portland, Almost President (Lyons Press)
Steven Green of Salem, The Bible, the School, and the Constitution (Oxford University Press)
Kent Hartman of Portland, The Wrecking Crew (St. Martin’s Press)
Creative Nonfiction
Kerry Cohen of Portland, Seeing Ezra (Seal Press)
Storm Large of Portland, Crazy Enough (Free Press)
Aria Minu-Sepehr of Corvallis, We Heard the Heavens Then (Free Press)
Cheryl Strayed of Portland, Wild (Knopf)
Ceiridwen Terrill of Portland, Part Wild (Scribner)
2012
General Nonfiction
Glenn Anthony May of Eugene, Sonny Montes and Mexican American Activism in Oregon (Oregon State University Press)
Kenneth J. Ruoff of Portland, Imperial Japan At Its Zenith: The Wartime Celebration of the Empire’s 2600th Anniversary (Cornell University Press)
Roger J. Porter of Portland, Bureau of Missing Persons: Writing the Secret Lives of Fathers (Cornell University Press)
Creative Nonfiction
George Estreich of Corvallis, The Shape of the Eye: Down Syndrome, Family, and the Stories We Inherit (Southern Methodist University Press)
Jennifer Lauck of Portland, Found (Seal Press)
Sarahlee Lawrence of Portland, River House (Tin House Books)
Marjorie Sandor of Corvallis, The Late Interiors (Arcade Publishing)
Lidia Yuknavitch of Portland, The Chronology of Water (Hawthorne Books)
2011
General Nonfiction
Paul Collins of Portland, The Book of William (Bloomsbury)
Tom Krattenmaker, Onward Christian Athletes (Bowman & Littlefield)
Barry Sanders of Portland, Unsuspecting Souls (Counterpoint Press)
Barry Sanders of Portland, The Green Zone (AK Press)
Paul VanDevelder of Corvallis, Savages and Scoundrels (Yale University Press)
Creative Nonfiction
Carol Ann Bassett of Eugene, Galapagos at the Crossroads (National Geographic)
Tom Bissel of Portland, Extra Lives (Pantheon Books)
John Daniel of Elmira, The Far Corner (Counterpoint Press)
Lisa Ohlen Harris of Newberg, Through the Veil (Canonpress)
Kathleen Dean Moore of Corvallis, Wild Comfort (Trumpeter Books)
2009/2010
General Nonfiction
Tracy Daugherty of Corvallis, Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme (St. Martin’s Press)
Bonnie Henderson of Eugene, Strand: An Odyssey of Pacific Ocean Debris (OSU Press)
John Laursen of Portland, Wild Beauty (OSU Press)
Donna Matrazzo of Portland, Wild Things: Adventures of a Grassroots Environmentalist (IUniverse)
Jeffrey St. Clair of Oregon City, Born Under a Bad Sky: Notes from the Dark Side of the Earth (AK Press)
Creative Nonfiction
Bibi Gaston of The Dalles, The Loveliest Woman in America: A Tragic Actress, Her Lost Diaries, and Her Granddaughter’s Search for Home (William Morrow)
Debra Gwartney of Finn Rock, Live Through This: A Mother’s Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
John Kroger of Salem, Convictions: A Prosecutor’s Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves (Farrar, Strauss, Giroux)
Floyd Skloot of Portland, The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer’s Life (University of Nebraska Press)
2008
General Nonfiction
Steven W. Bender of Portland, One Night in America: Robert Kennedy, Cesar Chavez, and the Dream of Dignity (Paradigm Publishers)
Neil W. Browne of Bend, The World in Which We Occur: John Dewey, Pragmatist Ecology, and American Ecological Writing in the Twentieth Century (University of Alabama Press)
Pamela Smith Hill of Portland, Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer’s Life (South Dakota State Historical Society)
Kimberly Jensen of Monmouth, Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War (University of Illinois Press)
Darius Rejali of Portland, Torture and Democracy (Princeton University Press)
Creative Nonfiction
Beren deMotier of Portland, The Brides of March: Memoir of a Same-Sex Marriage (iUniverse, Inc)
Jill Kelly of Portland, Sober Truths: The Making of an Honest Woman (iUniverse, Inc.)
Lauren Kessler of Eugene, Dancing with Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s (Viking Adult)
Christopher Van Tilburg of Hood River, Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature (St. Martin’s Press)
2007
General Nonfiction
Rene Denfeld of Portland, All God’s Children: Inside the Dark and Violent World of Street Families (PublicAffairs)
Garrett Epps of Eugene, Democracy Reborn: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equal Rights in Post-Civil War America (Henry Holt)
John Bellamy Foster of Eugene, Naked Imperialism: The U.S. Pursuit of Global Dominance (Monthly Review Press)
Ben Saunders of Eugene, Desiring Donne: Poetry, Sexuality, Interpretation (Harvard University Press)
Kristian Williams of Portland, American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination (South End Press)
Creative Nonfiction
Jeff Lee Manthos of Corvallis,Steel Beach: My Life As A Naval Aircrewman 1972—1976 (Inkwater Press)
Lee Montgomery of Portland,The Things Between Us (Free Press)
Joel Preston Smith of Portland,Night of a Thousand Stars and Other Portraits of Iraq (Nazraeli Press)
2006
General Nonfiction
Edwin L. Battistella, Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others? (Oxford University Press)
Andrew Bernstein, Modern Passings: Death Rites, Politics, and Social Change in Imperial Japan (University of Hawaii Press)
Judy Blankenship, Cañar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador (University of Texas Press)
William G. Robbins, Oregon: This Storied Land (Oregon Historical Society Press)
Dick Weissman, Which Side Are You On? An Inside History of the Folk Music Revival in America (Continuum)
Creative Nonfiction
George Aguilar, When the River Ran Wild! Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and the Warm Springs Reservation (University of Washington Press)
Brian Doyle, The Grail: A Year Ambling & Shambling Through an Oregon Vineyard in Pursuit of the Best Pinot Noir in the World (Oregon State University Press)
Kristin Kaye, Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World (Thunder’s Mouth Press)
2005
General Nonfiction
Gillian Klucas of Portland, Leadville (Island Press)
James C. Mohr of Eugene, Plague and Fire (Oxford University Press)
William G. Robbins of Corvallis, Landscapes of Conflict (University of Washington Press)
Bob Welch of Eugene, American Nightingale (Atria Books)
Creative Nonfiction
Diana Abu-Jaber of Portland, The Language of Baklava (Pantheon Books)
Maura Conlon-McIvor of Portland, FBI girl (Warner Books)
Charles D’Ambrosio of Portland, Orphans (Clear Cut Press)
Brian Doyle of Lake Oswego, Spirited Men (Cowley Publications)
Kathleen Dean Moore of Corvallis, The Pine Island Paradox (Milkweed Editions)
2004
General Nonfiction
Ellen Morris Bishop of Enterprise, In Search of Ancient Oregon
Lauren Kessler of Eugene, Clever Girl
Elinor Langer of Portland, A Hundred Little Hitlers
Jewel Lansing of Portland, Portland
Jeffrey St. Clair of Oregon City, Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me
Creative Nonfiction
Brian Doyle of Portland, Leaping
Ariel Gore of Portland, Atlas of the Human Heart
Bette Lynch Husted of Pendleton, Above the Clearwater
Karen Karbo of Portland, The Stuff of Life
2003
General Nonfiction
Rick Harmon of Portland, Crater Lake National Park
Barbara S. Mahoney of Wilsonville, Dispatches and Dictators
Kim Stafford of Portland, The Muses Among Us
Creative Nonfiction
Carol Ann Bassett of Eugene, A Gathering of Stones
Chris Chester of Portland, Providence of a Sparrow
Gabrielle Glaser of Portland, The Nose
Floyd Skloot of Amity, In The Shadow Of Memory
Kim Stafford of Portland, Early Morning
(two winners)
2002
K.P. Burke of Salem, Proof through the Night
Paul Collins of Portland, Banvard’s Folly
Alfred Habegger of Enterprise, My Wars Are Laid Away in Books
Karen Karbo of Portland, Generation Ex
Jennifer Lauck of Portland, Still Waters
2001
Larry Colton of Portland, Counting Coup
Chanrithy Him of Eugene, When Broken Glass Floats
Lauren Kessler of Eugene, The Happy Bottom Riding Club
Jennifer Lauck of Portland, Blackbird
2000
Judith Barrington of Portland, Lifesaving
Andrew X. Pham of Portland, Catfish and Mandala
Marjorie Sandor of Corvallis, The Night Gardener
1999
William Ashworth of Ashland, The Left Hand of Eden
Diana Coogle of Applegate, Fire from the Dragon’s Tongue
Barbara Drake of Yamhill, Peace at Heart
Barry Lopez of Finn Rock, About This Life
Jeff Taylor of Independence, Tools of the Earth
1998
Lars Nordström of Beavercreek, Making It Home
Richard Peck of Portland, A Morbid Fascination
William G. Robbins of Corvallis, Landscapes of Promise
Quintard Taylor of Eugene, In Search of the Racial Frontier
1997
John Daniel of Elmira, Looking After
Floyd Skloot of Amity, The Night-Side
1996
Susan Butruille, Women’s Voices from the Western Frontier
Thomas Hager, Force of Nature
Robert Leo Heilman, Overstory Zero
Garrett Hongo, Volcano
Kathleen Dean Moore, Riverwalking
1995
Robin Cody, Voyage of a Summer Sun
James Grabill, Through the Green Fire
Marcy Houle, The Prairie Keepers
Alvin M. Josephy, 500 Nations
Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community
1994
Chris Anderson, Edge Effects
Lauren Kessler, Stubborn Twig
Rick Steber, Oregon Trail
Theodore Stern, Chiefs and Chief Traders
Linda Tamura, The Hood River Issei
1993
Larry Colton, Goat Brothers
John Daniel, The Trail Home
David A. Johnson, Founding the Far West
Jonathan Nicholas, On the Oregon Trail
1992
Richard M. Brown, No Duty to Retreat
Richard Kraus, Brushes with Power
Terence OíDonnell, Arrow in the Earth
Sallie Tisdale, Stepping Westward
1991
Peter Byrne, Tula Hatti
Robert Grudin, The Grace of Great Things
Marcy Cottrell Houle, Wings for My Flight
Mary Ann Humphrey, My Country, My Right to Serve (two winners)
Kim Stafford, Entering the Grove (commendation)
1990
Robin Carey, Baja Journey
William Merritt, Where the Rivers Ran Backward
1989
Shannon Applegate, Skookum
Luther S. Cressman, A Golden Journey
Ursula Le Guin, Dancing on the Edge of the World
William L. Sullivan, Listening for Coyote
1988
Jack Estes, A Field of Innocence
Barry Lopez, Crossing Open Ground
Edward Malin, Totem Poles
Sam McKinney, Reach of Tide, Ring of History
Cynthia Stowell, Faces of a Reservation
1987
Ken Kesey, Demon Box
Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams
Kim Stafford, Having Everything Right