The recepients of the 2007 Oregon Literary Fellowships have been announced and Portland’s own William S. Gregory is the recipient of this year Walt Morey Fellowship for Drama.

Out-of-state judges selected 10 writers and two publishers to receive grants of $2,500 each. A reception in February 2008 will honor this year’s recipients.

William Gregory (”Sam” to his friends) is a longtime member of PCS’s PlayGroup. His famed esprit and the unexpected humanity of the humor in his plays has resulted in the epithet “Portland’s answer to Oscar Wilde.” Recently, you may have caught Sam’s contribution to PlayGroup’s incredible Frenching the Bones Halloween performance event.

Sam is also the creative mind behind, in recent years, Gift of the Gods (Classic Greek Theatre), Child of Pleasure (CoHo Productions), Edward II (adapted from Marlowe for Triangle Productions) and Fuente Ovejuna (adapted from Lope de Vega for Miracle Theatre Group).

As a party trick, Sam (in collaboration with maestro Rick Lewis) can write a fully realized original musical number in under 20 minutes. He showed off this talent at Portland Center Stage’s annual Commission! Commission! event two years running.