BROADCASTS.com

Today on "State of Wonder," we talk finalists for the Oregon Book Awards in fiction, poetry, graphic literature, and more.

"Strange the Dreamer" with Laini Taylor \u2014 1:42

Laini Taylor possesses an epic imagination. In her best-selling \u201cDaughter of Smoke and Bone\u201d series, she dreamed up a world where a girl who has a monster as a foster parent gets caught up in an epic war with not-so-benevolent angels. And now she is starting a new series with \u201cStrange the Dreamer,\u201d the story of a day-dreaming librarian who journeys to a fabled land living in the shadow of a war it has yet to recover from. The book received Michael L. Printz Honors for Young Adult lit and is a finalist for the YA Oregon Book Award.

"American War" with Omar El Akkad \u2014 11:46

Journalist Omar El Akkad has spent his career covering the Arab Spring in Egypt, military trials at Guantanamo Bay, refugee camps in Afghanistan and the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson, MO. Now he\u2019s poured all of his experiences into his new novel \u201cAmerican War,\u201d a story about a second American civil war over fought over fossil fuels and set in a Louisiana that is underwater from rising sea levels.

"Field Theories" with Samiya Bashir \u2014 19:36

In her newest book, Samiya Bashir has named her poems after scientific principles like \u201cPlancks Constant\u201d and \u201cSynchronous Rotation.\u201d Their verse plumbs the space where theory collides with real life: from the back seat of a taxi cab to jazz clubs, early morning cigarettes, gun violence, and tall tales. Bashir is a creative writing professor at Reed College and a consummate artist who can\u2019t be contained by the page. "Field Theories\u201d is a finalist for the Stafford/Hall Award for Poetry.

"Fetch" With Nicole Georges \u2014 30:45

What do we owe the pets in our lives when they don\u2019t make our lives easy? And what can we gain from taking care of these animal companions despite their foibles? These are some of the questions illustrator and comic book artist Nicole Georges asked when writing her graphic memoir \u201cFetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home.\u201d The book focuses on Georges\u2019 symbiotic relationship with a spirited, neurotic and sometimes fearfully aggressive dog named Beija, and it's a contender for the Oregon Book Award for Graphic Literature.

\u201cIn the Pocket of Small Gods\u201d with Anis Mojgani \u2014 38:34

The poet Anis Mojgani isn\u2019t up for one of Literary Arts' Oregon Book Awards \u2014 at least not this year \u2014 but he is a Literary Arts favorite. He regularly emcees Verselandia, the annual high school poetry slam organized by Literary Arts, and he is himself a two-time National Poetry Slam Champion who tours the country reading and performing.

Mojgani\u2019s work is known for its optimism and joy, but his newest book,\u201cIn the Pockets of Small Gods,\u201d is all about vulnerability, particularly as it relates to grief.