awards

Pizza Research Institute now has another award to hang next to their handful of Best of Eugene certificates: The delicious pies and slices have led the tiny, tempting-smelling joint to be selected as one of the country's Top 10 Vegan-Friendly Pizzerias. They're sitting nicely in the middle of the pack at number five; the press release from PETA says:

The Pizza Research Institute is a much hipper place than its name implies. However, with all the one-of-a-kind pizzas they offer, you would think that there really were a staff of scientists in the kitchen. Health-conscious diners will find on the menu such items as the Chef's Choice, which redefines “veggie lover;” the "3P" with pears, potatoes, and pineapples; and toppings as far-out as corn on the cob.

Congrats, you guys! Funny, now I think I'm hungry for pizza...

Eugene Weekly won a handful of awards in the Society of Professional Journalists’ various contests (both regional and statewide) for material written in 2007. See a full list of the winners here. (Yeah, we know it says “SPJ Contest Rules, 2007” at the top … just ignore that.)

And here are the links to the award-winning stories:

3rd Place for “Coverage”
"A Bright, Wonderful Future"
by Aaron Ragan-Fore

Honorable Mention for “Food and Consumer Issues”
“Have It Your Eco-Way: Travel Nicaragua Before It’s the Next Costa Rica”
By Chuck Adams

Honorable Mention for “Arts and Criticism”
“Money, Bullets, Blood”
By Jason Blair

2nd Place for “Environmental Reporting”
"Timber vs. Tourism”
By Camilla Mortensen

Honorable Mention for “Environmental Reporting”
“Looming Sprawl”
By Alan Pittman

2nd Place for “Criticism”
"Torch Songs"
By Jason Blair

3rd Place for “Criticism”
"Germany's Family Jewels"
By Suzi Steffen

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association announced the winners of their 2008 awards today; six titles were chosen from the almost 200 nominees:

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie of Seattle, WA (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Alexie's book has already won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and looks like at least an honor book, if not the winner, for the American Library Association's Printz Award. Suzi Steffen reviewed Alexie's novel in our Winter Reading issue.

• Returning To Earth
by Jim Harrison, who spends part of his year in Paradise Valley, Montana (Grove Press)

• Tree of Smoke
by Denis Johnson of Northern Idaho (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Hey, I didn't know Denis Johnson was a Northwest writer! That's pretty cool. For Chuck Adams' take on Johnson's National Book Award-winning novel, see our Winter Reading issue.

• Dancing With Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer's
by Lauren Kessler of Eugene, OR (Viking)
UO professor Kessler's book was reviewed by Lois Wadsworth when it came out in May.

• The God of Animals
by Aryn Kyle of Missoula, MT (Scribner)

• Bad Monkeys
by Matt Ruff of Seattle, WA (HarperCollins)
Now where did my copy of this one go?

Maybe it's a little American-centric of me, but I wish, oh, I wish that when they announce the Booker Prize longlist, they'd, say, tell me which books are published in the U.S., so I don't have to go hunting through the interwebs to try to find them.

How many of these have YOU heard of? And no, having heard of the McEwan doesn't count. You ought to have heard of that one.

Darkmans by Nicola Barker (likely the British ed.; no info)
Self Help by Edward Docx (a "notify me" button at Powell's)
The Gift Of Rain by Tan Twan Eng (likely the British ed.; no info)
The Gathering by Anne Enright
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Hey, I have this one!)
Gifted by Nikita Lalwani
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn (No results at Powell's or Amazon)
Consolation by Michael Redhill
Animal’s People by Indra Sinha (No results at Powell's or Amazon)
Winnie & Wolf by A.N.Wilson

Of course, the books' inclusion on this list means they'll probably get picked up by U.S. publishers — or, if they've already been bought but not released yet, they'll get hurried up on their way to the shelves. Good times.