Nathan Brown and Jim Chastain are friends and colleagues, both on the finalist list for the Oklahoma Book Awards. Way to go you two! 

 This is Nathan’s finalist book. I picked a poem from another of his books, because it’s about the Okie heat and I want my friend to read it who is always gripping about our lovely summers.

Burn

          Oklahoma in July
          is a marshmallow
          in a bonfire;  

        a branding iron
          on the face; 

         a toad in the slow-
          ly heated pot;    

      where Fahrenheit
          screams until its eyes
          turn red–       

   until the blood
          rises in its mercurial veins.

          …from the book Ashes Over the Southwest

 BAM’s blog highlights Dorothy Alexander reading her poetry and her book is also an Oklahoma Book Award finalist, Lessons From An Oklahoma Girlhood, Village Books Press. 

Village Books Press is a small Oklahoma press dedicated to providing a voice and venue for Oklahoma poets, artist and writers. My understanding is Dorothy Alexander runs this publishing house in Cheyenne, Oklahoma.

So if you don’t think Poetry when you think Oklahoma you better start…..