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Most of the winners of the Oregon Book Awards are under wraps until next week’s ceremony, but Literary Arts has announced two of them. Laura Moulton, founder of Street Books, and Jelani Memory, founder of A Kids Co., will receive special awards that go out to organizations with social justice missions.
Moulton and Memory will accept their awards at Literary Arts’ Oregon Book Awards ceremony on Monday, April 28, at Portland Center Stage at the Armory. The event will hosted by writer Omar El Akkad, author of the recent political memoir One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. The full list of finalists in the categories of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, young readers and drama is available here.
Moulton’s Street Books will receive the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award that recognizes “outstanding, long-term support of Oregon’s literary community,” according to Literary Arts. Street Books is a mobile street library founded in 2011 that serves people who live outside or at the margins in Portland. Moulton says she researched the award’s namesake, Stewart H. Holbrook, and was inspired to learn that the social critic and historian often championed the underdog.
“Holbrook was a legendary figure in the Pacific Northwest who helped put Oregon on the map with his journalism, teaching and affinity for all things ‘lowbrow,’” Moulton says. “An award in his name offers a legacy to live up to, and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”
Memory’s A Kids Co., will receive the Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award recognizes “extraordinary support of Oregon’s young readers.” He’s famous for his A Kids Book About… series, which has filled in that sentence with topics such as autism, consent, adoption, trauma and more, since Memory’s 2018 debut book A Kids Book About Racism.
“As a kid who struggled to read who then not only fell in love with books, but making them, it’s truly an honor to receive the Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award,” Memory says. “It’s been my joy to create a book series that challenged and empowered kids with stories they truly deserve.”
GO: Literary Arts’ Oregon Book Awards at Portland Center Stage at the Armory, 128 NW 11th Ave. 503-227-2583, literary-arts.org/event/2025-oregon-book-awards/. 7:30-9 pm Monday, April 28. $15-$65.
