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2009 Oklahoma Book Award Winners
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2009 Winners (back row, left to right) Eric
H. Anderson and Nathan Brown •
(front) Anna Myers, Karen Hayes-Thumann, Kandy Radzinski
and Carolyn Wall • (not pictured) Linda Peavy and Ursula
Smith |
Poetry
Two Tables Over—Nathan Brown—Village Books Press,
Cheyenne, OK
Brown describes himself as "a poet, musician, photographer
or problem … depending on who's talking." He's
also a traveler, a teacher, and that shrewd observer two tables over
at a local Norman coffee house. His revelations about what he sees
transform both the poet and his readers. Brown's books Suffer the
Little Voices and Not
Exactly Job received the honor of finalist for the Poetry Award in
previous years.
Design and Illustration
Design
Winner—Placing Memory: A Photographic Exploration
of Japanese American Internment—Photography by Todd Stewart,
Design by
Eric H. Anderson and Karen Hayes-Thumann—University
of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK
The quality and starkness of Stewart's photographs
of former Japanese Internment campsites as they appear today, are juxtaposed
with warm World War II era photos of the camps filled with activity.
The contrast is striking—where there was life (and internment),
now there is abandonment (and freedom). Anderson and Hayes-Thumann's
design is spare, uncluttered and intimate. Photographer Stewart and
graphic designers Anderson and Hayes-Thumann are all on the faculty
of the University of Oklahoma's School of Art and Art History.
Illustration
Winner—What Dogs Want for Christmas—Illustrations
by Kandy
Radzinski—Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea, MI
Here it is—Radzinski's
canine response to last year's Oklahoma Book Award winner, What
Cats Want for Christmas. These puppies ask Santa for everything from "mittens
made of Persian kittens" to a "loving home with someone
to hold me and call me their own." The unique character of the
different dogs shine through thanks to the artist's craftsmanship.
The three-time book award winner lives in Tulsa with her husband Mark
and son Ian.
Non-Fiction
Full-Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School, Basketball
Champions of the World—Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith—University
of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK
In this account of Montana's Fort
Shaw Indian School girls' basketball teams, Peavy and Smith provide
a detailed account of how ten young women, representing seven Indian
nations, became world champions while bringing attention to this new
American sport. The authors use the story of the girls' basketball
team as a springboard to talk about tribes and tribal histories, while
exploring both the positive and negative aspects of Indian boarding
schools. Peavy is a former instructor of Oklahoma Baptist University
in Shawnee.
Children/Young Adult
Spy—Anna Myers—Walker & Company, New York,
NY
As
a country fights for its freedom, Jonah Hawkins must make a choice
as to where his loyalties lie. His promise to his dying father that
he would remain loyal to the king isn't easy to keep after he
meets his new teacher Master Nathan Hale, especially after he hears
Hale utter the famous words, "I only regret I have but one life
to lose for my country." Myers has written over a dozen books
and received three Oklahoma Book Award medals. She lives in Chandler
and is president of the Oklahoma Society of Children's Book Writers
and Illustrators.
Fiction
Sweeping up Glass—Carolyn D. Wall—Poisoned Pen Press, Scottsdale,
AZ
1938 is the coldest winter ever recorded in Aurora, Kentucky, but poverty
has the greatest grip. On a strip of icy mountain, Olivia Harker raises
her grandson, runs a declining grocery store, and tolerates her crazy mother.
When Olivia sets out to discover who is killing the wolves on her land,
she discovers something much more sinister than a simple poaching scheme.
This debut novel has received glowing reviews, and Wall's writing
is being compared to that of Harper Lee and Flannery O'Conner. Wall
lives in Oklahoma City, has completed her second novel, and is working
on the third. Poisoned Pen Press has sold out of the book, but a new edition
by Random House will be available in the fall.
Robert J. Conley, one of Oklahoma's most prolific authors, was
born in Cushing in 1940. His first novel, Back to Malachi, was published
in 1986. Since that time he has had more than seventy books published,
both fiction and non-fiction. His poems and short stories have been published
in numerous periodicals and anthologies over the years, including some
in Germany, France, Belgium, New Zealand and Yugoslavia. His poems have
been published in English, Cherokee, and Macedonian.
Conley is known for his accurate depiction of the old West, focusing
on the history, tradition, and folklore of the Cherokee people. A member
of the Western Writers of America, he has won Spur Awards for two of
his novels, Nickajack and The Dark Island, and for his
short story "Yellow Bird: An Imaginary Autobiography." The
Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers named him Wordcrafter
of the Year in 1997. That same year, he was also inducted into the Oklahoma
Professional Writers Hall of Fame. In 2007, his book Cherokee
Medicine Man was part of
the annual literary six-pack for the Oklahoma Reads Oklahoma statewide
centennial literary celebration.
He is an enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians
in Oklahoma. Conley has been assistant programs manager for the Cherokee
Nation of Oklahoma, director of Indian Studies at Bacone College, associate
professor of English at Morningside College, coordinator of Indian Culture
at Eastern Montana College, and instructor of English at Southwest Missouri
State University and at Northern Illinois University. He is the new Sequoyah
Distinguished Professor in Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University.
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To see complete list of 2009 Oklahoma Book Award Finalists go
here.
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The Oklahoma Center for the Book, sponsor of the Oklahoma Book Award
competition, is a nonprofit, 501-c-3 organization located in the Oklahoma
Department of Libraries. Established in 1986 as an outreach program of
the Library of Congress, the Oklahoma Center was the fourth such state
center formed.
The mission of the Oklahoma Center for the Book is
to promote the
work of Oklahoma authors,
to promote the
literary heritage of the state, and
to encourage reading
for pleasure by Oklahomans of all ages.
For further information about the Oklahoma Center for the Book or the
Oklahoma Book Award program, contact Connie Armstrong, 200 NE 18th Street,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 73105; or call 1-800-522-8116 toll free, statewide.
In the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, call 522-3383.
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