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34th Annual Oklahoma Book Awards

The 2023 Book Award program was held on April 22 at the Embassy Suites Medical Center in Oklahoma City. Thirty-six finalists, out of 210 entries in the competition, were on hand to sign books, talk to readers, and visit with fellow authors, poets, illustrators, and book designers. Special honoree of the evening was Sheldon Russell, recipient of the Arrell Gibson Award for Lifetime Achievement. Special thanks to Presenting Sponsor Bob Burke, Hemingway Sponsor RoadRunner Press, the Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book, Full Circle Books, and our program advertisers for helping make the event happen!

Oklahoma Book Awards are given each year in fiction, non-fiction, children / young adult, design / illustration / photography, and poetry categories for works written by an Oklahoman or about Oklahoma. This year, one book was rewarded the Lynn McIntosh Award for Excellence.

2023 Oklahoma Book Award winners (left to right) are Wiley Barnes, David Jennings, Tammi Sauer, Jeannine Bulleigh, Sheldon Russell, Mary B. Gray, Mary Anna Evans, Nikki Shannon Smith, and Gentry Chapman.

2023 Winners

Children

Mary Had a Little Plan
by Tammi Sauer

Sterling Publishing Company

Fashion-forward Mary is known for adding flair everywhere she goes. When she spots an abandoned lot in her neighborhood, Mary is certain that she can use her stylish talent to spruce it up. Soon she is rallying local shops and calling on her friends to pitch in. With Mary leading the way, this group carries out a plan that is the perfect balance of glam and communal pride. A former library media specialist, Sauer is an award-winning author. She won the Oklahoma Book Award in 2010 for Chicken Dance; in 2011 for Mostly Monsterly; and in 2014 for Nugget & Fang.

Young Adult

Lena and the Burning of Greenwood: A Tulsa Race Massacre Survival Story
by Nikki Shannon Smith

Capstone Publishing

In the early 1920s, the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the wealthiest Black community in the United States. But Tulsa is still a segregated city. Twelve-year-old Lena knows this, but she feels safe and sheltered from the racism in her successful, flourishing neighborhood. That all changes when a young Black man from Greenwood is accused of assaulting a white woman. Racial tensions boil over. Mobs of white citizens attack Greenwood, terrorizing Black residents and businesses. It will take all of Lena’s courage to help her family survive one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history. Smith has been an elementary school teacher for more than twenty-five years. She is the author of sixteen published and forthcoming books including the Girls Survive series, the Azaleah Lane chapter book series, and the Brown Baby Parade series. She lives in the Sacramento, California area.

Poopsie Gets Lost
by Hannah E. Harrison
Penguin Random House

Baa, Baa, Tap Sheep
by Kenda Henthorn
Sleeping Bear Press

Do You Hear What I Hear?
by Helen Dunlap Newton
Yorkshire Publishing

Lovebird Lou
by Tammi Sauer
Sterling Publishing Company

Mary Had a Little Plan
by Tammi Sauer
Sterling Publishing Company

Three Strike Summer
by Skyler Schrempp
Simon & Schuster

Lena and the Burning of Greenwood: A Tulsa Race Massacre Survival Story
by Nikki Shannon Smith
Capstone Publishing

Bobby: A Story of Robert F. Kennedy
by Deborah Wiles and Tatyana Fazlalizadeh
Scholastic Press

Illustration

Save-It-Forward-Suppers: A Simple Strategy to Save Time, Money, and Sanity
illustrated by Jeannine Bulleigh

HarperCollins Publishers

There is an abundance of charm in this book of time saving and economical family recipes. Jeannine Bulleigh’s lovely watercolor paintings of food enrich nearly every page. Set on warm, almond-colored paper, these illustrations rest both alongside and amid recipe pages. Across from the chapter heading pages, full-page “Save-It-Forward” diagrams indicate how that week’s dishes might lead to the next meal. Within chapters, the recipe pages are consistently composed of the same components organized in two columns. Headers and kickers for the pages are set in informal display type colored with orange and blue. For each dish, the ingredients list is a short column of semi-bold, sans serif. The second column of serif type typically features an italicized paragraph or two of the author’s personal observations. The anecdotes are followed by cooking instructions, and a note or two. On many pages, sidebars are included, bordered by thin, colored rules and a small watercolor ornament related to the subject. Overall, the designers have created a friendly, inviting mood appropriate to a book aiming to “make your family deliriously happy.” Bulleigh lives in Bartlesville.

Design

Capital City: History of Tishomingo
designed by Gentry Chapman, Skip McKinstry, and Wiley Barnes

Chickasaw Press

Forgoing a dust jacket, the book cover has a fabric half binding, a vintage sepia-toned photograph of the Chickasaw National Capitol Building, and an embossed display typeface. On the spine, the title and author’s name appear to be embroidered onto the green fabric. On the inside, the chapter headings use a font that simulates hand tooling and are elegantly underscored with a thin, capped rule. The main text is consistently set in two columns with very readable 3-inch measures. Dark green text boxes stand out on the pages highlighting specific individuals and incidents that bleed off the fore edge. Photographs are handled with care throughout and are clean, sharp, and appropriately sized. These elements work together to create a refined tone and encourage the reader to explore the history of Tishomingo. McKinstry won the 2012 Oklahoma Book Award in design for the book Ilimpa’chi’ (Let’s Eat!): A Chickasaw Cookbook. Barnes’s nonfiction children’s book C is for Chickasaw, was a 2017 Oklahoma Book Award finalist. Chapman works for the Chickasaw Nation Communications Division.

Photography

The Smallest Hint: Photographs and Poems
photographs by David Jennings

Yorkshire Publishing

David Jennings, a practicing physician from Broken Arrow, has created a handsome book of original photographs and poems. The book features large—nearly full-page—photographs opposite poems set in 14–point type, center aligned, and surrounded by generous white space. The general focus of both the photographs and the poems is the natural world, with rare signs of human presence—an empty tree swing, an overgrown road, a hiker’s legs. Color and black and white photographs of wintry landscapes, derelict structures, and discarded tools suggest the passage of time. Poems complement and enhance the photographs with their narrative, whether a description of the image or an imagined story evoked by the picture. For example, the photograph of a weathered, nineteenth century tombstone for a nine-year-old child is accompanied by a poem that seems to directly address the child.

Memory Keepers: Life Stories of Choctaw People
photography by Judy Allen, Deidre Elrod and Christian Toews; designed by Kevin Wingfield
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

Capital City: History of Tishomingo
designed by Gentry Chapman, Skip McKinstry, and Wiley Barnes
Chickasaw Press

Poopsie Gets Lost
illustrated by Hannah E. Harrison
Penguin Random House

Atherton: A Legacy of Family Values
designed by Laura Hyde
Müllerhaus Legacy

The Smallest Hint: Photographs and Poems
photographs by David Jennings
Yorkshire Publishing

Save-It-Forward-Suppers: A Simple Strategy to Save Time, Money, and Sanity
illustrated by Jeannine Bulleigh
HarperCollins Publishers

Fiction

The Physicists’ Daughter
by Mary Anna Evans

Sourcebooks

Sabotage. That’s the word on factory worker Justine Byrne’s mind as she is repeatedly called to weld machine parts that keep failing with no clear cause. Could someone inside the secretive Carbon Division be deliberately undermining the factory’s war efforts? Raised by her late parents to think logically, she also can’t help wondering just what the oddly shaped carbon gadgets she assembles daily have to do with the boats the factory builds. Justine suspects German spies are at work within the building. Unable to trust anyone, she draws on the legacy of her unconventional upbringing to keep her division running and protect her coworkers, her country, and herself from a war that is suddenly too close to home. Evans is the author of the award-winning Faye Longchamp Archeological Mysteries. Her book Catacombs won the Oklahoma Book Award for fiction in 2020. She lives in Washington, Oklahoma.

Prize for the Fire
by Rilla Askew
University of Oklahoma Press

Red Rain
by Lara Bernhardt
Admission Press

Plot Counterplot
by William Bernhardt
Babylon Books

No Church, No Preacher
by Freda Haack Collier
Ronald V. Collier Publisher

The Physicists’ Daughter
by Mary Anna Evans
Sourcebooks

Hardly Any Shooting Stars Left
by B.K. Froman
Iron Stream Media

For Those Who Are Lost
by Julia Bryan Thomas
Sourcebooks

Fierce Poison: A Barker & Llewelyn Novel
by Will Thomas
St. Martin’s Publishing Group

Non-Fiction

The Land and the Days: A Memoir of Family, Friendship, and Grief
by Tracy Daugherty

University of Oklahoma Press

Daugherty provides dual memoirs in this thought-provoking account of family life, death, grief, creativity, and the meaning of memory. In the first memoir “Cotton County,” he describes the forces that shape us: the “rituals of our regions,” and the family and friends who animate our lives and memories. Combining reminiscence, history, and meditation, Daugherty retraces his childhood in Texas and Oklahoma, where he first encountered the realities of politics, race, and class. In the second memoir “Unearthly Archives,” he expands on the first memoir by providing a meditation on the meaning of grief. He examines his lifelong store of literary readings, as well as the music he loves, to discover the true value of a life dedicated to art. Daugherty is Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing, Emeritus, at Oregon State University. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon.

Raven and the Hummingbird: A Healing Path to Recovery from Multiple Personality Disorder
by Renate F. Caldwell
M & M Publishing

Children of White Thunder: Legacy of a Cheyenne Family 1830-2020
by Dee Cordry
Harry D. Cordry Jr. Publisher

The Land and the Days: A Memoir of Family, Friendship, and Grief
by Tracy Daugherty
University of Oklahoma Press

We Refuse to Forget: A True Story of Black Creeks, American Identity, and Power
by Caleb Gayle
Penguin Random House

A Place to Stand
by Samuel Hall
Reify Press

Gore & Owen: Oklahoma’s First Two U.S. Senators
by Robert Henry and Bob Burke
Oklahoma Hall of Fame Publishing

A Path Lit By Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorpe
by David Maraniss
Simon & Schuster

Throwaway Kids: Reforming Oklahoma’s Juvenile Justice System
by Terry Smith and Bob Burke
Oklahoma Hall of Fame Publishing

I Can See for Miles: Overcoming the Past and Running to My Future
by Hollie Stuart
Marathon Publishing Company

Poetry

Who Do You Think You Are?
by Mary B. Gray

Turning Plow Press

The title of Mary B. Gray’s poetry, “Who Do You Think You Are?” could be read as an accusatory demand for self-identity. Upon reading the collection, the title is in fact an internal question for self-reflection. Each poem tells a story about an African American from history whose story is not widely known. The poems about the life of Bass Reeves, an escaped slave who became the first African American U.S. deputy marshal in 1875, is recounted by himself, his wife Nellie, and his convicted son Benjamin, who Bass brought to justice himself. Gray’s retelling of these lives in verse form is nothing short of magical. She weaves an intricate tapestry of communal identity for African Americans while also allowing the reader an opportunity to ask, “Who have I been told I am?” Poetry may not often be categorized as a thriller or page-turner, but Gray’s book is undoubtedly just that as you travel across centuries witnessing these walks of life often not covered in history class. Gray’s final lines offer an opportunity for the reader to define for themselves who they would like to be. Gray lives in Oklahoma City.

Who Do You Think You Are?
by Mary B. Gray
Turning Plow Press

Level Land: Poems For and About the I35 Corridor
co-edited by Crag Hill and Todd Fuller
Lamar University Literary Press

Cream Lines: Words Risen to Poetry
by Karen Kay Knauss
Peach Tree Press

The Collected Poems of Josie Craig Berry
edited and introduction by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish
Mongrel Empire Press

The Family Book of Martyrs
by Benjamin Myers
Lamar University Literary Press

Lynn McIntosh Award for Excellence

The Collected Poems of Josie Craig Berry
edited and introduction by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

Mongrel Empire Press

The writings of Josie Craig Berry, a well-known Oklahoma City school teacher, are without a doubt a significant literary recovery, so says the collection editor, Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, in the introduction. With fifteen years of research into twentieth century Oklahoma poetry, Mish’s statement is anything but an exaggeration. The book provides poem after poem showcasing the mastery of language and biting sarcasm Berry infused within her poems. A reoccurring theme in Berry’s work is her honest and brutal depiction of life as an African American woman in an era when phrases such as civil rights were decades from common use. Other topics range from a one-sided conservation with Robert Frost to the deep sorrow of losing a child. Her poems offer a frank depiction of what the world looked like through multiple era-defining events such as World War I and II and the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy. Despite the harrowing times she lived through, her words offer hope and love in the prayerful poems, “The Winds of Chance,” and “Prayer for 1975.” Thanks to the recovery work of Mish, Berry’s work as a poet and an educator lives on through this collection. Mish lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement

Check back later for more interviews with the 2023 Book Award Winners.


The Oklahoma Center for the Book (OCB) has partnered with the non-profit Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book for more than 30 years to co-sponsor the annual Oklahoma Book Awards.

The OCB, located in the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, is affiliated with the National Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. 


Last Modified on Dec 29, 2023