Follow10 Things to Love about the 2014 Oregon Book Awards (Southern Oregonian edition)
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Seeing Ashlanders Vince and Patty Wixon surrounded by their six children and a gaggle of grandkids to accept the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award in Portland.
Master of Ceremonies Luis Alberto Urrea turning a tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin into a fabulist opportunity.
Jelly Helm sitting next to me at the Armory saying, “There’s a lot to be proud of, being part of this community.”
Awards sponsors Literary Arts fortifying finalists with free drink tickets.
Presenting the Readers’ Choice Award, Jeff Baker of the Oregonian saying, “This settles the question of whether people who log on to OregonLive can read. They just can’t spell.”
Bumping into my new Ashland friends Anjie Seewer Reynolds, winner of the 2014 Edna L. Holmes Fellowship in Young Readers Literature, and Mick Reynolds, and talking about 7th graders.
Taking 5 minutes out to watch SOU Media Movement’s new Out of Control music video for the Oregon Opportunity Movement and saying to myself, “Whoa, our students can write (and rap, and film, and edit… #sparkthechange #OROM2014)!”
Ursula K. Le Guin accepting the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction: “I came to Oregon by luck, which has lasted 55 years.”
Presenting the Literary Legacy Award, Oregon Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen waving the ticket stubs (Admission: $3) from a 1986 reading at Southern Oregon State College by poet Denise Levertov—a Wixons production.
Now that a couple of southern Oregonians have won the Literary Legacy Award, the Wixons say we no longer need to secede.
Among other things, Robert Arellano is a recipient of a 2014 Literary Arts Fellowship.
PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Arellano
