Literary Arts received over 500 applications for the 13 fellowships to be awarded for 2022.Â
Judges from out-of-state spent several months evaluating the applications, using literary excellence as the primary criteria, to select 11 writers and two publishers to receive the fellowships.
Two Oregon Literary Career Fellowships were awarded, each worth $10,000, to Carl Adamshick (poetry) and Dane Liu (young readers), both of Portland.
Adamshick’s books include Curses and Wishes, Saint Friend and Receipt. He received the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets for the first and an Oregon Book Award for the other two.
Liu’s debut children’s book, Friends Are Friends, Forever, is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, an Indie Next Pick and a Best Book of the Year (BCBB). She advocates inclusive children’s literature to build connections, spark empathy and inspire social change.
Literary Arts awarded fellowships of $3,500 each to nine writers, to help them initiate, develop or complete literary projects, and two publishers.
Fiction
Tony Ardizzone’s books include The Whale Chaser, In the Garden of Papa Santuzzu and The Arab’s Ox: Stories of Morocco. In Bruno’s Shadow, set in Rome and Croatia, is scheduled for Spring 2023 publication by Guernica Editions.
Creativity consultant and writing coach Clemintine Guirado has published short stories in Best New American Voices, Rainbow Curve, Comet Magazine and 580 Split.
Laura Herbst writes about girls and women who overcome troubled families, tyrannical figures and oppressive thinking. Her work has appeared in The Sun, The Timberline Review, North Carolina Literary Review and elsewhere.
Jamie McPartland, writer and editor, has had her essays, short fiction and articles featured in publications such as Guernica Magazine, Washington Square Review, Litro and the Rogue Valley Messenger.
Nonfiction
Chinese American author Jessica Yen’s work explores the intersection of memory, family, culture, language and history. Her work has appeared in Fourth Genre, Oregon Humanities and Best American Travel Writing, among others, and she is currently working on a memoir.
Poetry
Rebecca Bornstein has had her work appear in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, The Baltimore Review, jmww, The Boiler, The Journal and elsewhere. Her first poetry collection is currently in the works.
Genevieve DeGuzman writes in the borderlands of the literary and speculative with her work found in Iron Horse Literary Review, Uncanny Magazine and others. Nominated for the Best New Poets of 2020 and 2021 anthologies, she was winner of the Atticus Review 2020 poetry contest.
Young Readers
Jenn Reese’s A Game of Fox & Squirrels was an NPR Best Book of 2020, a finalist for the Andre Norton Book Award and Oregon Spirit Book Award. Every Bird a Prince is coming out later this year.
Drama
Melissa Fonzino writes screenplays and is working on her first novel. In 2020 she advanced to the second round of consideration for the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab and her feature film script, And They Lived…, is currently under option.
Publishers
Airlie Press is a nonprofit publisher run by writers, dedicated to cultivating and sustaining fine contemporary poetry and to promoting poets from the Pacific Northwest.
They produce two or three full-length columns annually. All funds earned through book sales, subscription orders and contributions are used for the creating of new books of poetry.
Two Plum Press produces slim columns of literary works, both contemporary and classic. Titles include works of poetry, essays, fiction, philosophy, visual art, travel and food writing.
They operate similarly to an independent record label, where the artists are tied to one another through their friendships, common location, history and collaborations.
Recipients will be honored at the 2022 Oregon Book Awards ceremony Monday, April 25, 7:30 pm along with the winners and finalists of the 2022 Oregon Book Awards. The event takes place at Portland Center Stage at The Armory and tickets can be purchased at literary-arts.org.