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CORVALLIS - The Oregon Book Awards for 2003 will be presented Nov. 13 in Portland, and the nominees include several books with ties to Oregon State University.

Three books published by the OSU Press were nominated for the 17th annual awards, which are presented by Literary Arts, a statewide, non-profit arts organization. Also nominated were Tracy Daugherty, an OSU English professor, and Clemens Starck, a carpenter with the university's facilities services department who is an accomplished poet.

"The Oregon Book Awards have really grown in prestige, so being nominated is quite an honor," said Tom Booth, marketing manager for the OSU Press. Starck will also present a special award during the Nov. 13 evening ceremony, which begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Scottish Rite Center, 1512 S.W. Morrison Street in Portland.

The OSU nominees include:

• "Crater Lake National Park: A History," by Rick Harmon, published by the OSU Press (general non-fiction category). This history of America's seventh national park includes portraits of key individuals who founded and shaped the park over the last 100 years, and an overview of Crater Lake's geography, geology and wildlife.

   

• "Dispatches and Dictators: Ralph Barnes for the Herald Tribune," by Barbara S. Mahoney, published by the OSU Press (general non-fiction category). A portrait of Ralph Barnes, the first U.S. foreign correspondent to die in combat in World War II, and an eyewitness to the rise of Hitler, the reign of Mussolini, and the iron-fisted rule of Stalin.

   

• "A Gathering of Stones: Journeys to the Edges of a Changing World," by Carol Ann Bassett, published by the OSU Press (creative non-fiction category). This intimate look at traditional peoples struggling to survive in the face of rapid change takes readers from the Canadian Arctic, to the Bio-Bio River in Chile, to the American Southwest desert.

   

• "It Takes a Worried Man," by Tracy Daugherty, an OSU professor of English (short fiction category). A chronicle of the rapid disappearance of the old neighborhoods in Houston, Texas.

   

• "China Basin," by Clemens Starck, a carpenter with OSU's facilities services (poetry category). A book of poems that explore work, education, culture and life.

All of the books are available at the OSU Bookstore.