Kelly Williams Brown, winner of the Up and Coming Award in 2014, accepts her award. Photo by Malcolm Manness.
The following are decided by the Willamette Writers Board and awarded at the Willamette Writers Conference:
The Up and Coming Award (est. 2014) is Willamette Writers’ newest award. It recognizes emerging writers who, in their initial work, have already demonstrated mastery in their craft. This award was established partly in the hopes of acknowledging talented authors at every stage of their career:
2014 Kelly Williams Brown
2015 Fonda Lee
2016 Heidi Schulz
The Distinguished Northwest Writer Award (est. 1988) recognizes noteworthy Northwest authors who have distinguished him or her self with exceptional literary or other writing:
1988 Walt Morey
1989 Dayton Hyde
1990 Ursula K. LeGuin
1994 Craig Lesley
1995 Jean Auel
1996 MK Wren
1997 Ken Kesey
1998 Terence O’Donnell
1999 Ursula Hegi
2000 Molly Gloss
2001 Tom Robbins
2002 Whitney Otto
2003 Susan Fletcher and Sherman Alexie
2004 Diana Abu-Jaber
2005 Jane Kirkpatrick
2006 Chuck Palahniuk
2007 Mike Rich
2008 Virginia Euwer Wolff
2009 Phil Margolin
2010 Karen Karbo
2011 Gus Van Sant
2012 David Guterson
2013 Paulann Petersen
2014 Jess Walter
2015 Brian Doyle
2016 Anthony Doerr
The Lifetime Achievement Award (est. 1989) honors a writer or person in the publishing industry who has demonstrated exceptional achievement in his or her work during a life-time.
1989 Katharine McCanna
1990 Don James
1991 William E. Stafford
1996 Ellis Lucia
1998 Eloise McGraw
1999 Peg Bracken
2000 Beverly Cleary
2001 Damon Knight and Kate Wilhelm
2002 Ursula K. LeGuin
2004 MK Wren
2005 Steve Perry
2006 Lawson Fusao Inada
2007 Ann Rule
2008 Margie Boule
2009 Irene Radford
2010 Roland Smith
2011 Barry Lopez
2012 Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch
2013 William F. Nolan
2014 Ivan Doig
2015 Tom Robbins
2016 Tom Spanbauer
Ivan Doig, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award 2014, thanks his fans. Photo by Malcolm Manness.
The Humanitarian Award (est. 1996) honors a person and/or organization in the writing or publishing fields who have demonstrated exceptional philanthropy in their work.
1996 Dr. Jean Louise Brindamour (Strawberry Hill Press)
1998 Michael Henderson (past board member; peace activist)
1999 Dennis Stovall and Linny Stoval (Blue Heron Publishing)
2000 Rich Wandschneider (Fishtrap founder)
2003 Marlene Howard (Oregon Writers Colony founder)
2004 Jerry Isom (Books for Kids)
2005 WrAP – Write Around Portland
2006 Soapstone
2007 Larry Colton (Community of Writers)
2008 Peter Sears (Oregon Literacy Coalition; Friends of William Stafford)
2009 Kohel Haver (NW Lawyers & Artists)
2010 Linda Christensen (Oregon Writing Project)
2011 Bruce Livingston (PlayWrite)
2012 Mary Margaret Maitland (Willamette Writers and more)
2013 Cynthia Whitcomb (Willamette Writers and more)
Winners are not shown in all years. In some instances, no award was given. In others, we have not been able to find records of awards for those years. If you have information about a missing year, please contact our Awards Chair at awards[at]willamettewriters[dot]com. Thank you!