Oklahoma Book Awards !!!!

I can’t believe I beat Young Bill to the post about the Oklahoma Book Awards.

This year the Oklahoma Book Awards sponsored by the Oklahoma Center for the Book, and the Friends of the Center, was held at the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and Jim Thorpe Museum. This was a great venue to celebrate Oklahoma’s thriving literary community and give awards to outstanding works in five categories. Master of Ceremonies, Jari Askins welcomed eager finalists, readers, Friends and family. Good company, good food and good conversation was the agenda for Saturday evening.

So let’s get on with it…. And The winners are:  

Poetry: Benjamin Myers for Elegy for Trains.  Published by Village Books Press, Cheyenne, OK.  “Myers poetry is intimately connected to the landscape of Oklahoma, while honoring the spiritual that connects all things.”

Design /Illustration: Carol Haralson for Building One Fire. Published by the Cherokee Nation, Tahlequah, OK. “Haralson taps this book’s inspiration–the Four Directions concept of the Keetoowahs of the Cherokees–to graphically present 200 artworks, which speak to what it means to be Cherokee.”

In Children/Young Adult the judges decided to award in both categories: 

 Young Adult: M. J. Alexander  for Portrait of a Generation–The Children of Oklahoma: Sons and Daughters of the Red Earth. Southwestern Publishing , Oklahoma City, OK. “From Boise City to Broken Bow, Alexander chronicles the faces and words of more than 230 young Oklahomans in this ‘ode to the land and its people, the sons and daughters of the red earth.’ ”

Children: Tammi Sauer for Mostly Monsterly. Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.  “Bernadette is mostly monsterly, but she’s also a sweetie. She likes to pick flowers, pet kittens, and bake goodies. This is a big, big problem because monsters just don’t do those kinds of things, and her monster friends are good at reminding her of this. Our little Bernadette must find a way to be true to herself and still be part of her monster crew!” 

Non-Fiction winner is: S. C. Gwynne for Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. Published by Scribner, New York, NY.  “Gwynne’s New York Times best seller spans two great stories of the continent: the rise and fall of the Comanches, the powerful Indain tribe that delayed America’s expansion west; and the epic saga of pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches. ”

And the winner in Fiction: David Gerard for  God’s Acres. Pen Ultimate Press, St. Louis, MO. ” Gerard draws on his real-life experiences to tell this story of a family whose dreams of rural living outside St. Joseph, Missouri, turn to grief. Told from the perspective of six-year old Bud, each chapter is prefaced by a psalm and the voice of an adult Bud, closing the circle on a complex tale of family relationships. ”

The evening ended with a well justified tribute to Rilla Askew, recipient of the 2011 Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award. She is truly an Oklahoma literary treasure.

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