Newsroom

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Three Oregon State University faculty members have been named by Literary Arts as finalists for the 2011 Oregon Book Awards. Winners will be announced at the award celebration at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 25, at the Gerding Theater in Portland.

Kathleen Dean Moore, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at OSU, has been named a finalist for the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction for "Wild Comfort" (Trumpeter Books), a meditation on grief, gladness, and the healing power of the natural world.

David Biespiel, an instructor of English at OSU, is a finalist for the Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry for "The Book of Men and Women" (University of Washington Press). Biespiel's book is said to capture "Portland culture, neighborhoods, politics" in poetry that is about the frailties and gratitude of love and desire.

Jennifer Richter, a Corvallis resident who will be Visiting Poet spring term at OSU, was nominated in the same category for her book of poetry, "Threshold" (Southern Illinois University Press). Her book is a series of poems that explore the many facets of the term "threshold." Richter was also awarded the C.Hamilton Bailey Fellowship, a grant of $2,500.

The Oregon Book Awards is a program of Literary Arts, a statewide, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the importance of language.