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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Two Oregon State University faculty members and two books published by the OSU Press have been named by Literary Arts as finalists for the 2011 Oregon Book Awards.

Winners will be announced at the award celebration at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 23, at the Gerding Theater in Portland.

Marjorie Sandor, professor of English and director of OSU's Master in Fine Arts program, has been named a finalist for the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction for her memoir "The Late Interiors: A Life Under Construction" (Arcade Publishing). The New York Times wrote of Sandor's memoir that it is: "The most soulful garden book - also out of Oregon, a testament to more good things emerging from all that rain..."

OSU instructor and Corvallis poet George Estreich was nominated in the same category as Sandor for his memoir, "The Shape of the Eye: Down Syndrome, Family, and the Stories We Inherit" (Southern Methodist University Press). Timothy Shriver, chairman and CEO of the Special Olympics, has said that "The Shape of the Eye" "draws us each into a new view of what it means to be 'human' and what it means to be 'different.'"

Two releases by OSU Press were also recognized. Glenn Anthony May's book, "Sonny Montes and Mexican American Activism in Oregon," is one of the nominees for the Frances Fuller Victor Award for General Nonfiction. In addition, Portland author Brian Doyle's book, "Mink River," was nominated for the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction.

The Oregon Book Awards is a program of Literary Arts, a statewide, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the importance of language.