PORTLAND — Three books by Oregon authors are among the six winners of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association’s 2021 Pacific Northwest Book Awards.
The winning Oregon books are:
“Cemetery Boys,” by Aiden Thomas of Portland. This young adult novel centers on a trans Latinx teenager seeking full acceptance from his family. When he tries to prove himself by exercising the family’s hereditary supernatural powers to summon a spirit, things don’t go as planned. The novel was also a National Book Award finalist.
“Rough House,” by Tina Ontiveros of The Dalles. This moving memoir looks back on a childhood among the Pacific Northwest logging communities of the ’80s and ’90s, spent with a father who was both charming and cruel.
“This is My America,” by Kim Johnson of Eugene. This young adult novel tells the story of a Black teenager seeking justice for her wrongly condemned father in a town with a racist history that comes back to haunt its residents.
