When Miriam Gershow learned she was nominated for an Oregon Book Award, she was nearly done teaching one of her first advanced fiction classes of the winter term. Given how early it was into the term, she didn’t know her students very well yet, and they didn’t quite know her, yet they got to share a special moment recognizing Gershow’s work.
“My publisher sent me a congratulatory text. I was confused at first, but then I checked my email and saw the nomination in the class with everyone,” Gershow said. “I was so excited, and they were all very cute.”
Gershow is an English professor at the University of Oregon and has been nominated as one of five finalists for the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction for her book “Survival Tips: Stories.”
Literary Arts presents the Oregon Book Awards annually, and the ceremony is held at the end of April. Each of the seven awards they present has three out-of-state judges to determine the winner.
Chris Feliciano Arnold is one of the judges who determines the Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction, a category for which another UO professor, Courtney Thorsson, was nominated. Arnold is a professor of creative writing at Saint Mary’s College of California.
As Arnold explained, the judging process is straightforward; each judge is sent an initial box of books, reads each book and then sends their notes to the other judges. They then receive a second box of books, which the other judges have selected, to repeat the process. Finally, the judges join in conversation to make the final decision.
As a writer and professor, Arnold knows how difficult it is to get published, and doesn’t understate that when it comes to judging for the competition. “We come to the process with a sense of fundamental generosity toward books that are being nominated,” Arnold said earnestly.
“Survival Tips: Stories” is a collection of 10 short stories written over 25 years. Gershow wrote some of the stories as an MFA student between her first and second year, while others were written the year before the book came out.
“It’s a really interesting amalgam,” Gershow said. “I joked to people at the time that my publisher couldn’t tell the difference between stories I wrote 25 years ago and the ones I wrote last year, which is either good or bad.”
Each story follows characters through various hardships and illustrates the way humans ultimately make meaning out of our mistakes. Gershow, like her characters, went through her fair share of struggles when it came to publishing her book.
“I think the hardest part was not in the writing but what to do with myself in those long years of not getting published, keeping the faith in the writing process and the newer stories,” Gershow said. Her first book was published in 2009. “Survival Tips,” her second publication, came out 15 years later.
Several months after Gershow sold “Survival Tips: Stories,” she sold her next novel, titled “Closer.” That publication, along with the Oregon Book Awards nomination, has been inspiring and reassured her doubts about her career.
In addition to being an Oregon Book Awards Finalist, she was also an Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medalist and won the PenCraft Awards Best Book for Fiction -Short Stories/Anthologies, both in 2024.
Arnold explained how important these awards are — not only for the author, but for the craft itself. “When you’re giving a book the honor of receiving a prize, you have an opportunity to elevate the visibility of that book,” Arnold said. “You’re letting this book have that much more of a chance of finding a readership and building some buzz.”
Grateful for the nomination, Gershow is enjoying the ride and not taking a moment for granted — connecting with her readers, appreciating her publisher and learning from the other nominees.
“The awards are such a cherry on top and so validating, especially in a business where you can be told no for a decade and a half,” Gershow said. “It’s so validating to remember, like, ‘oh yeah, I am good at this.’ My life would be just as rich without getting awards, but they’re so nice.”
When Gershow did the book tour for “Survival Tips” last year, she called it the “all joy, no neurosis tour,” as a reminder to absorb every bit of joy from the experience and not to worry about how her book was doing.
It’s a theme she’s carried into the journey of the Oregon Book Award nomination: Gershow is honored and happy to be there, although a win would be the cherry on top.
The Oregon Book Award winners will be announced on April 28.
