2026 Oklahoma Book Awards

Winners and finalists of the 37th Annual Oklahoma Book Awards were honored during an evening celebrating the stories, voices, and creativity that continue to enrich Oklahoma’s literary community. The awards recognized outstanding books published in 2025 by Oklahoma authors and creators, as well as works centered on Oklahoma themes, with honors presented across multiple categories for excellence in writing, design, and storytelling.

The awards ceremony and banquet dinner took place May 16, 2026, at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City, bringing together authors, readers, publishers, illustrators, and supporters of Oklahoma literature from across the state.

The Center presented the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing a lifetime of creativity and contribution to literature. This year’s honor was awarded to Carolyn Brown, a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, #1 Amazon, and #1 Washington Post bestselling author.

The Oklahoma Book Awards continue to highlight the depth and diversity of Oklahoma’s literary landscape while connecting readers with stories inspired by the people, history, and spirit of the state.

View the 2026 Oklahoma Book Award winners below.

Special thanks to the sponsors, partners, coordinators, and volunteers whose support helped make this celebration possible.

Route 66: The First 100 Years
Author Jim Ross, Photographer Shellee Graham
Reedy Press

Beautifully illustrated with hundreds of photographs, many of them vintage, this book arranges the visual saga of Route 66 alongside a compelling narrative that celebrates the centennial of the route and pays homage to the lives that were shaped or changed by this wondrous road. Ladies of legend, the influence of Indigenous America, neon-splashed boulevards, tourist traps, motor courts, trading posts, and heroes both remembered and forgotten—all these and more await discovery inside Route 66: the First 100 Years.

The Filling Station
By Vanessa Miller
Thomas Nelson

Sisters Margaret and Evelyn Justice grew up in Tulsa’s Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street. When the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre upends everything they know and brings unspeakable loss, the sisters flee down what will eventually become Route 66 until they stumble upon the Threatt Filling Station, a safe haven in oppressive Jim Crow America. Here, they process their pain, fill up their souls, and find strength as they wrestle with their faith. They realize that they can’t hide out at the filling station when Greenwood needs to be rebuilt. The search for their father and their former life may not give them easy answers, but it can propel them to a place where their voices are stronger... strong enough to build a future that honors the legacy of those who were lost.

Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State
By Caleb Gayle
Riverhead Books

In this paradigm-shattering work of American history, Caleb Gayle recounts the extraordinary tale of Edward McCabe, a Black man who championed the audacious idea to create a state within the Union governed by and for Black people—and the racism, politics, and greed that thwarted him. Gayle brings to vivid life the Black people who believed in McCabe’s dream of a Black state, the white politicians who didn’t, and the larger challenges of confronting the racism and exclusion bedeviling Black people’s attempts to carve a place in America for themselves. Gayle draws from extraordinary research and reporting to reveal an America that almost was.

Blood Wolf Moon
By Elise Paschen
Red Hen Press

In her riveting sixth collection, Elise Paschen explores the storylines of her Osage heritage. The book opens with “Heritage,” a bracelet of crown poems that leads into Paschen’s exploration of family and cultural history through themes such as ancestors, childhood, loss, transformation, and flight. The collection also grapples with a dark period of American history, “The Reign of Terror,” when outsiders murdered members of the Osage Nation for their oil headrights. Editor Esther Belin calls the concluding poems, with their use of Osage language, “significant leaps into literary sovereignty.”

Making of the Killers of the Flower Moon
Authors and Photographers, Shannon Shaw Duty, Benny Polacca, Chelsea T. Hicks, Allison Herrera, Ruby Hansen Murray, Tristan Joseph Espinoza, Cody Hammer, Sherry Stinson, Echo Reed, Louise Red Corn
Osage News

Over two years in the making, this powerful collection features original reporting and photography that documented the film’s presence in Osage Country—from local casting calls and cultural consultation to location shoots and community reflections. Produced entirely by Osage News, the independent media of the Osage Nation, the book offers an authentic, behind-the-scenes look at one of the most significant cultural moments in modern Osage history.

Connie Armstrong recently retired after more than 30 years of service to the State of Oklahoma, including 15 years leading the Oklahoma Center for the Book. During her tenure, she helped expand the Center’s reach, strengthened partnerships with authors, publishers, libraries, and educators, and championed Oklahoma voices across the state and beyond.

A graduate of Redlands Community College, Connie later served as an adjunct History faculty member and advisor for Phi Theta Kappa before working at the Oklahoma History Center and eventually the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. She is especially recognized for leading Oklahoma’s presence at the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., where thousands of books by Oklahoma authors reached readers from across the country. Her passion and dedication have left a lasting impact on Oklahoma’s literary community.

A USA Today, New York Times, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author, Carolyn Brown has published over 60 books throughout her career, making an indelible mark in the romance, western, and women’s fiction genres. Born in Texas, Carolyn grew up and makes her home in southern Oklahoma. Written in a small town of less than three thousand people, her books have been translated into 21 languages—with more than six million copies sold! Multiple titles, such as The Ladies Room and The Family Journal, have been shortlisted for awards.

From her late husband and the love of her life, Charles, to a little sister who read her early writing, she credits her family for support and inspiration. Her grandmother told her that if a person loves what they do, then they are a success—no matter if that job is ditch digging or sitting behind the desk in the oval office. She loves what she does, so she considers herself a success as she goes through the days with quirky characters in her head, telling their stories, one by one. When Carolyn is not writing she likes to travel with her family and plot out new stories.