Oklahoma Center for the Book. 2007 Oklahoma Book Award Program.

              Oklahoma Book Awards A Celebration of Oklahoma Books and Authors
Welcome to the
18th Annual
Oklahoma
Book Awards
Ceremony
A Celebration of Oklahoma Books and Authors
2007 • Oklahoma Book Awards
Welcome.............................................................................................................................................M.J. Van Deventer
President, Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book
Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma.............................................................................................................Susan McVey
Director, Oklahoma Department of Libraries
Greetings from the Library of Congress.....................................................................Maurvene Williams
Center for the Book in the Library of Congress
Now Showing at a Theater Near You.............................................................................Molly Levite Griffis
Two-time Oklahoma Book Award winner
Master of Ceremonies...............................................................................the Honorable M. Susan Savage
Oklahoma Secretary of State
Ralph Ellison Award Presentation..................................................................................... Patricia Loughlin
Honoring Muriel L. Wright Assistant Professor of History, University of Central Oklahoma and
recipient of the 2006 Directors Award for Hidden Treasures of the American West
Accepted by Bob Blackburn
Director, Oklahoma History Center
Poetry Award Presentation.....................................................................................................Richard Rouillard
Professor of English, Oklahoma City Community College
Design/Illustration Award Presentation........................................................................................Kay Boies
Executive Director, Oklahoma Library Association
Non-Fiction Award Presentation........................................................................................................Bob Burke
2006 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient
Children/Young Adult Award Presentation....................................................... Una Belle Townsend
2004 Oklahoma Book Award winner
Fiction Award Presentation...........................................................................................................Diane Seebass
Fiction editor, Nimrod International Journal
Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award.....................................................Thomas Bennett, Jr.
Honoring Clifton H. Taulbert Chairman and CEO, ONB Bank and Trust, Tulsa
Announcements.....................................................................................................................................Glenda Carlile
Executive Director, Oklahoma Center for the Book
Music by Edgar Cruz
The book sale and signing continues after dinner. Best of Books contributes all proceeds to the Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book.
Please enjoy visiting with the book award medalists and finalists.
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U N I V E R S I T Y O F O K L A H O M A P R E S S
Mr. Ambassador
Warrior for Peace
By Edward J. Perkins with Connie Cronley
Mr. Ambassador is the memoir of Career Foreign Service
Officer Edward J. Perkins, the first black United States
ambassador to South Africa. In 1986, President Ronald
Reagan gave him the unparalleled assignment: dismantle
apartheid without violence. This is the story of how one
man turned the page of history.
$39.95 Cloth · 978-0-8061-3767-4 · 576 pages
Historical Atlas of Oklahoma
Fourth Edition
By Charles Robert Goins and Danney Goble
The Historical Atlas of Oklahoma has been an indis-pensable
reference for longer than four decades.
Issued on the eve of the Oklahoma Centennial, this
fourth edition of the atlas is much more than an updat-ed
version. Oklahoma authors Goins and Goble are
joined by seventeen contributing scholars and other
professionals to present 119 topics. To explore each,
one or more maps with explanatory legends, tables,
and graphs are paired with an interpretive essay.
$39.95 Cloth · 978-0-8061-3482-6 · 320 pages
Black Silk Handkerchief
A Hom-Astubby Mystery
By D. L. Birchfield
In this fast-paced novel by D.L. Birchfield, a hard-luck
Oklahoma Choctaw lawyer, Hom-Astubby, finds himself
at the center of the biggest manhunt in Colorado history
as he plays detective in a baffling murder. Hunted by
Colorado’s most powerful cop, Hom-Astubby must race
the clock to solve the murder and keep himself from
being arrested as the perpetrator. The first in a series
of mysteries featuring this appealing character, Black Silk
Handkerchief is sure to keep readers on their toes.
$26.95 Cloth · 978-0-8061-3751-3 · 368 pages
Dreams to Dust
A Tale of the Oklahoma Land Rush
By Sheldon Russell
Winner of the Langum Prize for Historical Literature,
Dreams to Dust is a tale of high aspirations and broken
dreams during the birth of a state. Russell takes readers
back to the early days of Oklahoma Territory – a some-times
dangerous place filled with nefarious dealings, where
violence lurks behind even casual encounters – to tell the
story of frontier men and women gambling everything to
find their fortune on the windswept southern plains.
$26.95 Cloth · 978-0-8061-3721-6 · 296 pages
Muriel L. Wright
Recipient of the 2007 Ralph Ellison Award
It is fitting that Muriel Wright be recognized in the year of Oklahoma’s Centennial. She has been
acclaimed as both making and preserving the history of our state. She wrote or co-authored 12
books on Oklahoma, and from 1955 to 1973, she served as editor of The Chronicles of Oklahoma,
a journal published by the Oklahoma Historical Society, shaping it into a well-regarded publica-tion.
She described her identity as thoroughly American: one-fourth Choctaw and from distinguished
colonial ancestry. She traced her genealogy to descendents aboard the Mayflower in 1620. Wright
was born in Lehigh, Choctaw Nation, in 1889. Her grandfather was Allen Wright, chief of the
Choctaw Nation from 1866 until 1870, and the man credited with coining the name “Oklahoma”
from two Choctaw words translated as “Red People.”
Among Muriel Wright’s literary achievements is the four-volume work Oklahoma, a History of the
State and its People (1929) written with Joseph Thoburn. This was and still is the most comprehen-sive
study of the state’s history and biography. Three of her other books: The Story of Oklahoma,
Our Oklahoma, and The Oklahoma History were adopted by the state textbook commission for
the public schools. She also wrote A Guide to the Indian Tribes of Oklahoma and, with historian
LeRoy Fischer, Civil War Sites in Oklahoma.
Upon her retirement in 1973, George Shirk, board president of the Oklahoma Historical Society,
said, “The thought of the gap that would have been left in Oklahoma history, had it not been for
her work, makes me shudder.”
Her awards and honors include: Oklahoma Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame of Famous American Indians,
Oklahoma Historical Society Historians Hall of Fame, the University of Oklahoma Distinguished
Service Citation, and an Honorary Doctorate from Oklahoma City University. She was also named
Oklahoma City Woman of the Year in 1951. In 1971, Wright was named Outstanding Indian Woman
of the Twentieth Century by the North American Indian Women’s Association.
The Ralph Ellison Award
From time to time, the Ralph Ellison Award, honoring a deceased Oklahoma writer, is presented.
The award is named after the first recipient, Ralph Ellison, author of the ground-breaking novel
Invisible Man. A list of Ellison Award recipients is listed on the Previous Winners page of this
program.
2007 Oklahoma Book Award Finalists
Poetry
Cosmic Rainbow: New and Collected Poems—Mary McAnally
Partisan Press, Norfolk, VA
McAnally is an activist, artist, pilgrim and poet. In living her life and creating her art, she is
inspired by her Christian faith, her travels, and the struggles for social justice. The spectrum
of Cosmic Rainbow includes popular works from her past; poetry on the dispossessed of
the world; and poems occasioned by her return to Oklahoma and her spiritual awakening.
McAnally has degrees from four institutions, and has held jobs ranging from Dairy Queen clerk
to YWCA director to prison chaplain. Her poems have appeared in scores of literary journals.
She is the proud mother of two children, grandmother of four, and person of six dogs.
The Fork-In-The-Road Indian Poetry Store—Phillip Carroll Morgan
Salt Publishing, Cambridge, United Kingdom
This is Morgan’s first collection of poetry, and it’s an award-winner—recipient of the First
Book Award for Poetry presented by the Native Writers Circle of the Americas. He divides his
collection up into four parts, one each for the four cardinal directions of the Medicine Wheel—
East, North, West, and South—that follow a path from birth to wisdom. Morgan is an enrolled
Choctaw/Chickasaw bilingual poet who lives with his artist wife, Kate, on his family’s original
allotment. He has worked as a newspaper editor, business executive, building tradesman,
guitar player and rancher. He is currently a PhD student in Native Literature at the University of
Oklahoma.
Travels Through Enchanted Woods—Carl Sennhenn
Village Books Press, Cheyenne, OK
Baltimore native Sennhenn has called Oklahoma home since 1951, and he “feels called to
honor… the Severn and the Chesapeake of Maryland as well as the prairie and vast horizons
of Oklahoma.” This third collection by Sennhenn explores life, loss, and what can be restored
through language, through enchantment. He teaches English and Humanities at Rose State
College in Midwest City, and has presented readings and workshops nationally and statewide.
In 2001, he was appointed to a two-year term as Oklahoma Poet Laureate.
Native Son: American Poems from the Heart of Oklahoma—Ron Wallace
TJMF Publishing, Clarksville, IN
What it means to be an Oklahoman, the grace and magic of particular moments in our lives,
and tributes to friends and inspirations are the themes of this first collection from Wallace. In
his foreword to the collection, Choctaw Chief Gregory Pyle says Wallace “records the histories
in the old way of father to son to grandson, and in so doing speaks for the universal nature
of Oklahomans.” Born and raised in Durant, Ron Wallace currently teaches English classes at
Colbert High School. He has spent 28 years teaching and coaching in public schools. He plans
on making writing the next phase of his career.
Design and Illustration
OKC: Second Time Around—Design by Carl Brune—Full Circle Press, Oklahoma City, OK
Brune weaves more than 250 photos with historic plans and modern graphics to help tell the
story of a downtown lost and reborn. He received the 2002 Oklahoma Book Award in Design
for the Philbrook Museum of Art’s Woven Worlds: Basketry from the Clark Field Collection. The
Enid native makes his home in Tulsa where he provides freelance graphic design services for
publications, businesses and museums.
Crossing Bok Chitto—Illustrations by Jeanne Rorex Bridges
Cinco Puntos Press, El Paso, TX
Rorex Bridges is an award-winning artist of Cherokee ancestry. She still lives on the land in
eastern Oklahoma where she was raised. Here she paints and runs her successful art business
with her husband James. She has become nationally known, winning many awards in Indian
art shows. For several years, she has incorporated paintings depicting the shared history of
Southeastern Indians and African Americans with her Native American work, making Crossing
Bok Chitto a perfect fit for her first book illustration.
Chickasaw: Unconquerable and Unconquered—Photography by David Fitzgerald
Chickasaw Press, Ada, OK
This is the first book published by the new Chickasaw Press, and fittingly it tells the story of
the tribe from Removal to present day. Its publication in 2006 marks the 150th anniversary
of the Chickasaw constitution. David Fitzgerald’s striking photography captures the land and
the people of this great nation. Fitzgerald has been named Oklahoma Photographer of the
Year three times. He’s also an Oklahoma Book Award winner for his photographic work, Bison:
Monarch of the Plains. His other books include Ozarks, Cherokee, Oklahoma Crossroads, and the
new Oklahoma 3.
The Gold Miner’s Daughter—Illustrations by Jon Goodell
Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta, GA
Gracie Pearl is on a mission to save her and her father’s home from the clutches of mean old
Mr. Bigglebottom. During her adventure, she comes across a blond girl being chased by three
bears, three little pigs tied to a railroad track, and a longhaired lass locked in a rickety tower.
Jon Goodell has illustrated numerous children’s books, including The Alley Cat’s Meow and
Merry Christmas, Merry Crow. He received the 2006 Oklahoma Book Award for his illustrations in
Mother, Mother, I Want Another.
You Know We Belong to the Land: The Centennial History of Oklahoma
Design by Skip McKinstry—Oklahoma Heritage Association, Oklahoma City, OK
Historians Paul Lambert and Bob Blackburn tell the story of Oklahoma through the lives
of 33 fascinating individuals. Designer McKinstry worked with the authors to incorporate
biographies, sidebars and photographs to create this official Centennial omnibus. Skip
McKinstry works by day as a marketing planner for a Fortune 50 health care technology
company. By night he selectively pursues a 20-year calling to graphic design through freelance
corporate identity, advertising, writing and book design projects. This is his fifth book project
with Bob Blackburn, his second with Paul Lambert, and his first with the OHA.
Non-Fiction
Indian Yell: The Heart of an American Insurgency—Michael Blake
Northland Publishing, Flagstaff, AZ
One hundred fifty years ago, a young America fought a determined insurgent force of Indian
warriors struggling to protect their way of life. How the country handled this “Indian Problem”
became the defining factor in shaping how Indians live in America today. Blake weaves the
factors involving twelve significant conflicts—from 1854 to 1890—into a narrative illuminating
the undercurrents of hostilities between nations during America’s westward expansion. Blake
is author of the novel Dances with Wolves, which was turned into an Academy Award-winning
film. Indian Yell is his first work of non-fiction, and reflects more than 30 years of research.
Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, Fourth Edition—Charles Robert Goins and
Danney Goble—University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK
This isn’t just an update to a legendary reference source—it’s a complete recreation. The
authors are joined by seventeen contributing scholars (including natural and physical
scientists) and other professionals to present 119 topics. To explore each, one or more maps
with explanatory legends, tables, and graphs are paired with an interpretive essay. The result
is a work that is more valuable than ever to students of the state. Goins is Professor Emeritus in
the College of Architecture of the University of Oklahoma. Goble, an OU Professor of Letters,
received the Oklahoma Book Award for non-fiction in 1991 for Little Giant, the story of Carl
Albert.
Mr. Ambassador: Warrior for Peace—Edward J. Perkins with Connie Cronley
University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK
“Apartheid South Africa was on fire around me.” So begins the memoir of Career Foreign
Service Officer Edward J. Perkins, the first black American ambassador to South Africa. Perkins
story takes him from the cotton farms of Louisiana to the white elite Foreign Service where
he would make history. Now retired as a U.S. Ambassador, he serves as Executive Director of
the International Programs Center at the University of Oklahoma. Tulsa writer Connie Cronley
has worked in newspaper, television, advertising and public relations. Her public radio
commentaries are heard on KWGS, NPR 89.5.
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town—John Grisham
Doubleday/Random House Inc. New York, NY
This is John Grisham’s first foray into nonfiction, and it sheds a frightening spotlight on the
shaky justice system we would all like to believe in. The protagonist is Ada’s hometown hero,
baseball prodigy Ron Williamson. After six-years in the big leagues, Williamson returns home
a broken man, the victim of a bad arm and bad habits. Due to several brushes with the law, he
becomes the town’s suspect after a ghastly murder. The book tracks the trail of injustices that
the suspect and his family endure while consistently proclaiming complete innocence.
Children of the Dust: An Okie Family Story—Betty Grant Henshaw
Texas Tech University Press, Lubbock, TX
“As I look back over the path my family has traveled—our journey from Oklahoma on Route
66; our life in the labor camp; the awful thirst in the overwhelming heat of the fields; our
tired, aching bodies—I have come to look upon that path as a sort of Holy Ground, and I
have carried a deep longing to write my memories down.” Betty Grant Henshaw’s memoir is a
classic Okie story. Like many such stories, it is ultimately one of triumph. The author, now in her
seventies, lives in Medford, Oregon
White Man’s Paper Trail: Grand Councils and Treaty-Making on the Central
Plains—Stan Hoig—University Press of Colorado, Boulder, CO
Hoig presents a poignant history of the U.S. government’s attempts to negotiate treaties with
the tribes of the Central Plains in the nineteenth century. The author’s research shows how
treaty-making, negotiated by peace commissioners and once the most promising method
for resolving conflicts without military involvement, degenerated into a deeply flawed
system sullied by political deceptions and broken promises. Hoig is professor emeritus at the
University of Central Oklahoma, and the author of 20 books. He is an Oklahoma Book Award
winner in the children/young adult category for A Capitol for the Nation.
Thomas Moran’s West: Chromolithography, High Art, and Popular Taste
Joni L. Kinsey—University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Both a visual feast and an authoritative treatise, this book sheds new light on how artistic
portrayals of the West contributed to our national identify. Joni L. Kinsey is associate professor
of art history at the University of Iowa and author of Thomas Moran and the Surveying of the
American West. Kinsey was raised in Tulsa, home of the Gilcrease Museum, which holds the
largest collection of works by Moran.
OKC: Second Time Around—Steve Lackmeyer and Jack Money
Full Circle Press, Oklahoma City, OK
In writing this work, Lackmeyer and Money have made the transition from deadline journalists
to thoughtful chroniclers of a city’s commitment to recreate itself. The narrative pulls together
the almost serendipitous combination of circumstances that resulted in today’s growing,
vibrant, downtown Oklahoma City. Money is assistant city editor at The Oklahoman, while
Lackmeyer writes a weekly column, “Main Street,” for the paper’s business section. These
award-winning journalists have followed Oklahoma City’s rebirth pangs since they were lads.
From the Blue Devils to Red Dirt: The Colors of Oklahoma Music—John Wooley
published by Hawk Publishing Group, Tulsa, OK
Commissioned by the Oklahoma Arts Institute, this is a sweeping history of the major musical
trends and genres that have come out of Oklahoma to the world. Wooley has been writing
about Oklahoma music for more than a quarter of a century, and he is the only writer inducted
into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. He is a journalist, novelist, scriptwriter, historian, and
… you got it! … a musician. Wooley’s novel Dark Within was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book
Award.
Children/Young Adult
Chuck’s Truck—Peggy Perry Anderson
Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books, Boston, MA
When too many barnyard friends climb in to go to town, Chuck’s truck breaks down—but
handyman Hugh knows just what to do! Anderson has written and illustrated several picture
books for children, including those featuring the indomitable Joe the frog. Her book We Go
in a Circle was a 2005 Oklahoma Book Award finalist. She is a full-time elementary school art
teacher and mother of three living in Owasso, Oklahoma.
Golden—Jennifer Lee Barnes—Random House Children’s Books, New York, NY
At Emory High School, there are two kinds of people: those who matter… and those who
don’t. When Lissy James moves from California to Oklahoma, she finds herself in the middle
of a teenage nightmare: a social scene to rival a Hollywood movie. It soon becomes apparent
there is something more evil than the A-crowd lurking in the classrooms. A native Oklahoman,
Barnes is a graduate of Yale University. She wrote Golden at the age of nineteen. Her second
novel is due out this year.
Trash—Sharon Darrow—Candlewick Press, Cambridge, MA
Boy and Sissy are accustomed to feeling like trash: their mother discarded them—never even
bothered to name them—and a foul wind blows them from one foster home to the next. In
this unique narrative of poems, Boy and Sissy tell the world who they really are. Darrow is the
author of picture books, young adult novels, creative non-fiction and poetry. She is on the
faculty of the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College. She received the Oklahoma Book
Award for children/young adult in 2004 for The Painters of Lexieville.
Paradise on the Prairie—Molly Levite Griffis—Eakin Press, Austin, Texas
Griffis’s tribute to the Centennial is a blend of historical facts and fiction. New York orphan
Johnny Pickett is put on a train and brought to the wilds of the Twin Territories. As Johnny
struggles to find a home, Oklahoma and Indian Territories struggle to become a state. A two-time
Oklahoma Book Award winner, Griffis is the author of eight books. She has taught school
in every level from third grade through college, has owned and operated a bookstore, and is a
favorite speaker at schools across the state. She lives in Norman.
H is for Honor: A Military Family Alphabet—Devin Scillian
Published by Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea, MI
This picture book pays respect to the United States Military from A (for American Armed
Forces) to Z (for Zulu, a word used in radio communication). Author, musician and Emmy
award-winning broadcast journalist, Scillian is the son of a career military officer. He grew
up all over the world but considers Oklahoma home. Formerly an anchor for KFOR-TV in
Oklahoma City, he now anchors the news for WDIV-TV in Detroit. His book, S is for Sooner: An
American Alphabet was a 2004 finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award in the children/young
adult category.
Knights of the Hill Country—Tim Tharp
Random House Children’s Books, New York, NY
Welcome to Kennisaw, Oklahoma, where Friday night football ranks next to God and
country and sometimes comes in first. The Kennisaw Knights are going for their fifth-straight
undefeated season and if they win they will be legends. This is the story of a boy who must
decide for himself the true meaning of sportsmanship and loyalty. Tharp grew up in Midwest
City, home of the Bombers. He teaches in the Humanities Department at Rose State College.
His first novel, Falling Dark, was awarded the Milkweed National Fiction Prize and was a finalist
in the fiction category for the Oklahoma Book Awards.
Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom—Tim Tingle
Cinco Puntos Press, El Paso, Tx
A river called Bok Chitto cuts through Mississippi. In the days before the War Between the
States, the river formed a boundary between the Choctaw lands and the plantations. If a slave
escaped from the plantations and made his way across Bok Chitto, he was free. Tim Tingle is
a popular presenter at storytelling and folklore festivals across America. He is especially well
known for his stories about his native Choctaws. Tim was a finalist for the Oklahoma Book
Award in 2004 for Walking the Choctaw Road, and the book was the second title selected for
Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma.
Fiction
Black Silk Handkerchief—D. L. Birchfield—University of Oklahoma Press
In this fast-paced novel, a hard-luck Oklahoma Choctaw lawyer decides that doing things on
Indian time just isn’t compatible with practicing law. He tries his luck as a photographer and
finds himself at the center of the biggest manhunt in Colorado’s history. Birchfield, a member
of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, won the Western Spur Award for his novel Field of Honor.
He is a professor of Native American Studies at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
Everlasting—Carol Johnson—Hawk Publishing Group, Tulsa
Forced into marriage to a man twenty years her senior, Vada Priddy finds herself at odds with
her new husband, his children, and the hardscrabble existence she has to endure. In spite of
the adversities, she manages to forge a decent life, and she grows into a strong Oklahoma
woman. This warmhearted novel gives readers the inspirational experience of mid-twentieth
century Everywoman and her daily struggles. Johnson teaches writing at Tulsa Community
College and lives in Mounds. This is her first novel.
Magic Time—Doug Marlette
Sara Crichton Books/Farrar, Staraus and Giroux, New York, NY
In this page-turner, a 1991 visit to his Mississippi hometown forces a New York City newspaper
columnist to re-examine events of the Freedom Summer of 1964. The story moves between
New York City, the New South of the early 1990s and Mississippi’s civil rights revolution of
1964. Marlette is a Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist and is on the staff of the Tulsa
World. The Southeast Booksellers Association gave his first novel, The Bridge, its 2002 Book
Award for Fiction.
The Piano Man—Marcia Preston—Mira Books, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada
Looking for meaning in the tragic death of her teenage son, Claire O’Neal seeks out the person
who received her son’s heart. When she finds the heart recipient, she discovers a cynical,
chain-smoking, divorced man with no will to live. Claire is driven with a purpose that borders
on obsession to help the aimless young man. As two lost, lonely people find hope, they learn
that life’s most beautiful music comes from the heart. Preston is the winner of the 2004 Mary
Higgins Clark Award for Suspense Fiction and the Oklahoma Book Award in fiction for Song of
the Bones. She lives in Edmond.
Dreams to Dust: A Tale of the Oklahoma Land Rush—Sheldon Russell
University of Oklahoma Press
Readers of Russell’s latest work return to the early days of Oklahoma Territory where frontier
men and women gamble everything to find their future. In recounting the rise and fall of the
jerrybuilt city of Guthrie, the author immerses us in the lives of his characters, whose ambitions
echo the taming of the frontier. Russell grew up on a cattle ranch in the Gloss Mountains of
northwestern Oklahoma. He resides in historic Guthrie, where he and wife Nancy, a sculptor,
own and operate the Double Starr Studio and Gallery.
The Limehouse Text—Will Thomas—Touchstone Books/Simon & Schuster, New York, NY
British detective team Cyrus Barker and his Welsh assistant Thomas Llewelyn join up again to
take readers through the gritty streets of turn-of-the-century London in this exciting mystery.
This time, the adventure centers on an ancient Chinese book on martial arts. Some parties
are willing to kill in order to gain its secrets. Will Thomas’s first book, Some Danger Involved,
received the Oklahoma Book Award in 2005. A scholar of the Victorian era, Thomas and his
wife, Julie, live in Tulsa, where he works as a librarian.
Congratulations
Clifton Taulbert
from the
Oklahoma Heritage Association
2007 Arrell Gibson Lifetime
Achievement Award Recipient
www.oklahomaheritage.com
Skip McKinstry
Design Finalist
You Know We Belong to the Land:
The Centennial History of Oklahoma
Oklahoma Heritage Association
THE LEADER IN PUBLISHING OKLAHOMA’S HISTORY
www.oklahomaheritage.com
Congratulations
The Tulsa Library Trust salutes
Clifton Taulbert
Arrell Gibson Lifetime Acheivement Award honoree
and all of tonight’s finalists and honorees.
Clifton H. Taulbert
Recipient of the 2007 Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award
Clifton Taulbert is probably best known for his memoir Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored,
about his experience of growing up in the racially charged Mississippi Delta during the civil rights
movement. In his picture of tiny Glen Allen, Mississippi, Taulbert focuses more on the bonds of
family and community—“the front porch people”—rather than the growing conflict between
black and white. The work is also a love song to the family that nourished him and protected
him from a world of hatred and segregation. Publishers Weekly described the book as a “funny,
sweet, touching memoir.” Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored was made into a popular
motion picture.
A second memoir, The Last Train North, continues his experiences after high school, when he left
Mississippi and traveled to St. Louis for “the good life.” This book was nominated for a Pulitzer
Prize. Rounding out the trilogy is Watching our Crops Come In, which covers Taulbert’s time in the
United States Air Force, and a revealing return trip to his Mississippi home town.
Other non-fiction books include, Eight Habits of the Heart, The Journey Home: A Father’s Gift to His
Son, and Eight Habits of the Heart for Educators.
Taulbert has also written three children’s books: Little Cliff and the Porch People, Little Cliff’s First
Day of School, and Little Cliff and the Cold Place.
He also is the founder and director of the Building Community Institute located in Tulsa. A popular
lecturer and motivator, he speaks throughout the world on the need to create an environment
branded by respect, affirmation, and inclusion.
The Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award
The Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award is presented each year to recognize a body
of work. This award was named for the Norman, Oklahoma, historian who served as the first
president of the Oklahoma Center for the Book.
Fiction
1990 • Robert Love Taylor, The Lost Sister
1991 • Linda Hogan, Mean Spirit
1992 • Robert L. Duncan, The Serpent's Mark
1993 • Rilla Askew, Strange Business
1994 • Eve Sandstrom, Down Home Heifer Heist
1995 • William Bernhardt, Perfect Justice
1996 • Billie Letts, Where the Heart Is
1997 • Stewart O’Nan, The Names of the Dead
1998 • Rilla Askew, The Mercy Seat
1999 • Billie Letts, The Honk and Holler Opening Soon
2000 • William Bernhardt, Dark Justice
2001 • Carolyn Hart, Sugarplum Dead
2002 • Douglas Kelley, The Captain’s Wife
2003 • Diane Glancy, The Mask Maker: A Novel
2004 • M.K. Preston, Song of the Bones
2005 • Will Thomas, Some Danger Involved
2006 • David Kent, The Black Jack Conspiracy
Non-Fiction
1990 • Leonard Leff, Hitchcock & Selznick
1991 • Carl Albert and Danney Goble, Little Giant
1992 • David Morgan, Robert England, and
George Humphreys, Oklahoma Politics & Policies:
Governing the Sooner State
1993 • Henry Bellmon and Pat Bellmon, The Life and Times of
Henry Bellmon; and Daniel Boorstin, The Creators
1994 • J. Brent Clark, 3rd Down and Forever
1995 • Dennis McAuliffe Jr., The Deaths of Sybil Bolton
1996 • William Paul Winchester, A Very Small Farm
1997 • Annick Smith, Big Bluestem: A Journey Into the Tall Grass
1998 • John Hope Franklin and John Whittington Franklin,
Editors; My Life and an Era: The Autobiography of Buck
Colbert Franklin
1999 • Bob Burke, From Oklahoma to Eternity: The Life of Wiley
Post and the Winnie Mae
2000 • Michael Wallis, The Real Wild West: The 101 Ranch and
the Creation of the American West
2001 • David LaVere, Contrary Neighbors: Southern Plains and
Removed Indians in Indian Territory
2002 • Lydia L. Wyckoff, Editor; Woven Worlds: Basketry from
the Clark Field Collection
2003 • Michael A. Mares, A Desert Calling:
Life in a Forbidding Landscape
2004 • Eric R. Pianka and Laurie J. Vitt,
Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity
2005 • Ed Cray, Ramblin’ Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie
2006 • Timothy Egan, The Worst Hard Time
Children/Young Adult
1990 • Helen Roney Sattler, Tyrannosaurus Rex and It’s Kin
1991 • Stan Hoig, A Capital for the Nation
1992 • Jess and Bonnie Speer, Hillback to Boggy
1993 • Anna Myers, Red Dirt Jessie
1994 • Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith, Cherokee Summer
1995 • Russell G. Davis and Brent Ashabranner,
The Choctaw Code
1996 • Anna Myers, Graveyard Girl
1997 • Barbara Snow Gilbert, Stone Water
1998 • S. L. Rottman, Hero
1999 • Barbara Snow Gilbert, Broken Chords
2000 • Harold Keith, Brief Garland: Ponytails,
Basketball, and Nothing But Net
2001 • Joyce Carol Thomas, Hush Songs
2002 • Molly Levite Griffis, The Rachel Resistance
2003 • Darleen Bailey Beard, The Babbs Switch Story
2004 • Children—Una Belle Townsend, Grady’s in the Silo
Young Adult—Sharon Darrow, The Painters of Lexieville
2005 • Children—Joyce Carol Thomas, The Gospel Cinderella
Young Adult—Molly Levite Griffis, Simon Says
2006 • Anna Myers, Assassin
Poetry
1990 • William Kistler, The Elizabeth Sequence
1992 • Carol Hamilton, Once the Dust
1993 • Jim Barnes, The Sawdust War
1994 • Carter Revard, An Eagle Nation
1995 • Joy Harjo, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
1996 • Francine Ringold, The Trouble with Voices
1997 • Renata Treitel, translation of
Rosita Copioli’s The Blazing Lights of the Sun
1998 • Betty Shipley, Somebody Say Amen
1999 • Mark Cox, Thirty-Seven Years from the Stone
2000 • N. Scott Momaday, In the Bear’s House
2001 • Carolyne Wright, Seasons of Mangoes and Brainfire
2002 • Ivy Dempsey, The Scent of Water: New and Selected Poems
2003 • Joy Harjo, How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems
2004 • Laura Apol, Crossing the Ladder of Sun
2005 • Francine Ringold, Still Dancing
2006 • Leanne Howe, Evidence of Red
Previous Design/Illustration
1990 • David E. Hunt, The Lithographs of Charles Banks Wilson
1991 • Carol Haralson, Cleora's Kitchens
1992 • Joe Williams, Woolaroc
1993 • Design—Carol Haralson,
Will Rogers: Courtship and Correspondence
Illustration—Kandy Radzinski,
The Twelve Cats of Christmas
1994 • Deloss McGraw, Fish Story
1995 • Mike Wimmer, All the Places to Love
1996 • Kim Doner, Green Snake Ceremony
1997 • Carol Haralson and Harvey Payne,
Big Bluestem: A Journey into the Tall Grass
1998 • Carol Haralson, Visions and Voices: Native American
Painting from the Philbrook Museum of Art
1999 • David Fitzgerald, Bison: Monarch of the Plains
2000 • Carol Haralson, Glory Days of Summer: The History of
Baseball in Oklahoma
2001 • Lane Smith, The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip
2002 • Carl Brune,
Woven Worlds: Basketry from the Clark Field Collection
2003 • Murv Jacob, The Great Ball Game of the Birds and Animals
2004 • Design—Scott Horton and Jim Argo, Family Album: A
Centennial Pictorial of the Oklahoma Publishing Company
Illustration—Kandy Radzinski, S is for Sooner
2005 • Carol Haralson,
A History of the Oklahoma Governor’s Mansion
2006 • Design—Carol Haralson,
Home: Native People in the Southwest
Illustration—Jon Goodell,
Mother, Mother, I Want Another
Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award
1990 • Daniel Boorstin—Librarian of Congress Emeritus—native of Tulsa
1991 • Tony Hillerman—award winning mystery writer—native of Sacred Heart
1992 • Savoie Lottinville—Director of the University of Oklahoma Press for 30 years
1993 • Harold Keith—Newbery Award winning children's author—Norman
1994 • N. Scott Momaday—Pulitzer Prize winning Kiowa author—native of Lawton
1995 • R.A. Lafferty—Hugo Award winning author—Tulsa
1996 • John Hope Franklin—historian—native of Rentiesville
1997 • S.E. Hinton—author of young adult novels—Tulsa
1998 • Jack Bickham—novelist, teacher and journalist—Norman
1999 • Michael Wallis—historian and biographer—Tulsa
2000 • Bill Wallace—writer of novels for young people—Chickasha
2001 • Joyce Carol Thomas—children and adult fiction author, and playwright—native of Ponca City
2002 • World Literature Today—The University of Oklahoma, Norman
2003 • Joy Harjo—poet and member of the Muscogee Nation—native of Tulsa
2004 • Carolyn Hart—award winning mystery writer—Oklahoma City
2005 • C.J. Cherryh—Hugo Award winning author—Oklahoma City
2006 • Bob Burke—Oklahoma historian—Oklahoma City
Ralph Ellison Award
1995 • Ralph Ellison
National Book Award winner—Oklahoma City
1997 • Angie Debo
“First Lady of Oklahoma History”—Marshall
1999 • Melvin Tolson
poet, journalist, and dramatist—Langston
2000 • Jim Thompson—novelist and screenwriter—Anadarko
2002 • John Berryman
poet, biographer, and editor—McAlester
2004 • Lynn Riggs—playwright and screenwriter—Claremore
2005 • Woody Guthrie
author, illustrator, and songwriter—Okemah
2006 • John Joseph Mathews
Osage novelist and historian—Pawhuska
Winners
Read About It
Congratulates all of the
2007 Oklahoma Book
Award Finalists
Tune into Read About It
on your Cox Cable local channel
The Oklahoma Center for the Book
wishes to thank the judges
for the 2007 competition
Keith Allen
Mary Ann Blochowiak
Kay Boies
Adrienne Butler
Terry Collins
Julie Dill
Bettie Estes-Rickner
Kathryn Fanning
Dee Fisher
Gerald Hibbs
Carol Davis Koss
Sharon Martin
Louisa McCune-Elmore
Raymond D. Munkres
Kitty Pittman
Byron Price
Richard Rouillard
Diane Seebass
Kristin Sorocco
Laurie Sundborg
William R. Struby
Leah Taylor
Una Belle Townsend
Maria Verez
Revere Young
The Center acknowledges the generous
contributions
of the following organizations
and individuals
Barnes and Noble
Best of Books, Edmond
Center for the Book in the Library of Congress
The Chickasaw Nation
Full Circle Books
Rodger Harris, Research Division
of the Oklahoma Historical Society
Fred Marvel, Photographer
Metropolitan Library System
Oklahoma Department of Libraries
Oklahoma Heritage Association
Pioneer Library System
Tulsa Library Trust
University of Oklahoma Press
Special thanks to...
Sue Stees, Ceremony Chair, and
committee members M.J. Van Deventer, Kitty Pittman,
Diane Seebass, and B.J. Williams
Public Information Office—Oklahoma Department of Libraries:
Glenda Carlile, Connie Armstrong,
Michael O’Hasson, Bill Petrie,
Bill Struby, and Bill Young
Project Highlights
The Oklahoma Center for the Book (OCB) in the Oklahoma Department of Libraries and its Friends
support group have participated in several events in the last year. Many exciting events are an-ticipated
in the coming months.
Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma—The Center is proud to be a sponsor of this statewide reading
and discussion program. Rilla Askew is looking forward to meeting readers across Oklahoma,
and discussing her book Fire in Beulah throughout 2007. As a Centennial project, this will be the
final year for Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Author Database—At long last, Oklahoma author information is being collected in a
database and is available for use by libraries, schools and individuals. Log on to www.crossroads.
odl.state.ok.us, and click “collections” and “authors” to see this work-in-progress.
Authors in Libraries—The Center has been awarded a grant by Inasmuch Foundation to send
book award finalists to libraries in rural communities during the Centennial year.
Letters About Literature is a contest co-sponsored with the Center for the Book in the Library
of Congress and Target Corporation where students write a letter to an author, living or dead,
telling how a book has influenced his or her life.
Kids Caught Reading is an annual event that the Center has been pleased to participate in for
several years. Friends of the Center will again give $25 prizes to ten students from across the state
who are “caught reading” in their spare time.
For the last five years the Center has participated in the National Book Festival in Washington,
D.C. Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book president M. J. Van Deventer and OCB execu-tive
director Glenda Carlile were fortunate to attend the festival last fall, promoting our state
and the its authors.
The Friends of the Center for the Book provided funds to sponsor a speaker at the 2006 Oklahoma
Library Association annual conference and plan to participate again in 2007.
The Oklahoma Center for the Book is pleased to participate in the Red Dirt Book Festival in
Shawnee from November 2–3, 2007, and in the Oklahoma Centennial Book Festival to be held
at Oklahoma City University on May 19, 2007.
Information is available for membership to the Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book—
please call 405–522–3575.
The Staff of Full
Circle Bookstore
congratulates Steve
Lackmeyer and Jack
Money, authors
of OKC Second
Time Around: A
Renaissance Story,
on their selection as
finalists in the Non-
Fiction category; and
designer Carl Brune
on his selection as a
finalist in the Design/
Illustration category.
$39.95, hardcover with jacket
Bookstore
Connie Armstrong—Norman
Kirk Bjornsgaard—Norman
Bettye Black—Langston
Bob Burke—Oklahoma City
Glenda Carlile—Oklahoma City
David Clark—Norman
Betty Crow—Altus
Louix Escobar-Matute—Tulsa
Bettie Estes-Rickner—Mustang
Wayne Hanway—McAlester
Julie Hovis—Edmond
Karen Klinka—Oklahoma City
Susan McVey—Oklahoma City
Raymond D. Munkres—Midwest City
Karen Neurohr—Stillwater
Kitty Pittman—Oklahoma City
Marcia Preston—Edmond
Judy Randle—Tulsa
Diane Seebass—Tulsa
Kristin Sorocco—Oklahoma City
Sue Stees—Tulsa
Laurie Sundborg—Tulsa
Jane Taylor—Edmond
William R. Young—Oklahoma City
Friends of the Center
The Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book is a non-profit, 501–c-3 organization.
The Friends is a cultural and educational corporation to advance and promote the role
of the book and reading in Oklahoma. The Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book
supports and further enhances the programs and projects of the Oklahoma Center for
the Book in the Oklahoma Department of Libraries and the Center for the Book in the
Library of Congress. A volunteer board of directors from across the state governs the
Friends.
President­—
M.J. Van Deventer—Oklahoma City
Vice-President— Lynn McIntosh—Ardmore
Secretary—Gini Moore Campbell—Oklahoma City
Treasurer—Gerald Hibbs—Oklahoma City
Immediate Past-President­—
B.J. Williams—Oklahoma City
www.odl.state.ok.us/ocb
405–522–3575
200 NE 18 Street
Oklahoma City
OK 73105–3298
The 2007 Oklahoma Book Awards are sponsored by the
Oklahoma Center for the Book and the Friends of the
Oklahoma Center for the Book.
The 2007 Oklahoma Book
Awards are sponsored by
the Oklahoma Center for
the Book and the Friends
of the Oklahoma Center
for the Book.
www.odl.state.ok.us/ocb
405-522-3575
200 NE 18 Street
Oklahoma City
OK 73105-3298