Former Homer News managing editor and reporter Chris Bernard, now living in Portland, Ore., has been nominated for the 2014 Oregon Book Award for his nonfiction book, “Chasing Alaska.” Published by Lyons Press, “Chasing Alaska” looks at Bernard’s Alaska experience in the context of a distant relative, Joe Bernard, who explored and settled in Alaska 100 years before Chris Bernard’s arrival in the state. Other nominees in the nonfiction category are William J. Bernstein for “Masters of the Word,” Paul Collins for “Duel with the Devil,” R. Gregory Nokes for “Breaking Chains” and Martin N. Raitiere for “The Complicity of Friends.” Winners will be named at the Oregon Book Awards Ceremony at the Gerding Theater at the Armory in Portland on March 17.