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Two local writers win book awards By Bill Varble of the Mail Tribune Two Southern Oregon writers have won 1999 Oregon Book Awards. Dori Appel's "The Lunatic Within" took the Angus L. Bowmer Award for Drama, and William Ashworth's "The Left Hand of Eden" won the Frances Fuller Victor Award for Literary Nonfiction. Ashworth and Appel live in Ashland. Ashworth won over well-known Barry Lopez, a former winner who was a finalist for "About This Life." Appel had two plays under consideration (the other was "Mother, Tree, Cat") for an award. She won over Bryan Marvis, of Oceanside, who was nominated for her plays, "Dream True" and "The Loner." The Oregon Book Awards are considered the state's foremost writing awards. They are presented annually to judges' picks in several literary categories. Lee Gutkind, the nonfiction judge, praised Ashworth's book for its "plain-spoken, clear, inspired prose." "I was blown away," Ashworth said Friday. "I expected Barry Lopez to win." Published by Oregon State University Press, the book stakes out unusual ground in the debate over wilderness and forest practices: that of an environmentalist who advocates abandoning wilderness preservation. Ashworth says the rise of wilderness areas changed logging into a political matter. "You started getting these long roads with clearcuts at the end," he says. "What we call legislation by chainsaw." The book also argues that careful use does a better job than preservation. Appel, who was out of town Friday, won an Oregon Book Award last year for her drama, "Freud's Girls." Ehud Havazelet won the H.L. Davis Award for fiction for the short story collection, "Like Never Before." He teaches at the University of Oregon. Pimone Triplett, of Eugene, won the Hazel Hall Award for Poetry for "Ruining the Picture," which got the nod over Clemens Starck, of Dallas, Kim Stafford, of Portland, and another Southern Oregon resident, casey kwang, of Talent. Pamela Smith Hill, of Portland, won the Leslie Bradshaw Award for Young Readers for "A Voice From the Border," a historical tale. Springfield novelist Ken Kesey was honored for his body of work, which includes relatively recent fiction such as "Sailor's Song'' in addition to the classic novels "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Sometimes a Great Notion." Kesey was given the C.E.S. Wood Retrospective Award. Two other Oregonians won special awards. Claudia Jones won for an innovative program she developed with the Wallowa County Library to deliver children's books to day-care centers and Head Start classes. Peter Sears, a founder of the Oregon Literary Coalition and the Friends of William Stafford, won the for contributions to Oregon's literary life. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA