The 2006 Oregon Book Awards, honoring "Oregon writers in genres of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, drama and young readers' literature," were given last Friday. Sponsor Literary Arts promotes all finalists in libraries and bookstores in Oregon; the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour brings finalists to public libraries and independent bookstores around the state.

• The Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry went to Dorianne Laux for Facts About the Moon (Norton).
• The Ken Kesey Award for the Novel was presented to Justin Tussing for The Best People in the World (HarperCollins)
• The H.L. Davis Award for Short Fiction was presented to Gina Ochsner for People I Wanted to Be (Mariner/Houghton Mifflin)
  
• The Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction was presented to Andrew Bernstein for Modern Passings: Death Rites, Politics, and Social Change in Imperial Japan (University of Hawaii Press).
• The Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction was presented to George Aguilar, Sr., for When the River Ran Wild! Indian Traditions on the Mid-Columbia and the Warm Springs Reservation (Oregon Historical Society/University of Washington Press).
• The Eloise Jarvis McGraw Award for Children's Literature was presented to Diane Siebert for Tour America (Chronicle)
  
• The Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Adult Literature went to Graham Salisbury for Eyes of the Emperor (Wendy Lamb Books).
• The Angus L. Bowmer Award for Drama was presented to Richard Moeschl for Arthur's Dreams.

Also Ursula K. Le Guin was presented with the C.E.S. Wood Distinguished Writer Award for her contributions to Oregon literature. Brian Booth and Gwyneth Gamble Booth were honored as the founders of the Oregon Book Awards. Paulann Petersen received the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award for outstanding long-term support of Oregon's literary community. John Monteverde received the Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award for extraordinary support of Oregon's young readers.