Howell makes the top 16

They used to call them the Governor’s Writers Awards. But they’re now known as the Washington State Book Awards . Some 16 books, nonfiction, fiction and poetry have been named finalists for the 2005 awards. Among them you’ll find the name Christopher Howell , whose book “Light’s Ladder: Poems” is being championed by Tod Marshall , a professor of English at Gonzaga University and a poet in his own right .

Here’s what Marshall, one of the WSBA judges, has to say about Howell’s book: “Chris Howell’s Light’s Ladder presents the reader with poetry that is both accessible and challenging. The book is accessible because the intense emotional contexts of the poems are explored so as always to involve the reader in the experiential worlds of the writing; whether writing a long narrative poem – and the book has one of my recent favorite poems of this order, ‘King of the Butterflies’ – or a shorter lyric, Howell combines lived details with figurative effects in a manner that invites the reader into the works. The book is challenging because Howell’s metaphoric leaps are ambitious (yet always rewarding).”

Howell is set to read from his collection of poems at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at GU’s Jundt Auditorium .