2016 Oklahoma Book Award Finalists
Children/Young Adult
Shine—William Bernhardt—Babylon Books
The Boy Who Carried Bricks—Alton Carter—The RoadRunner Press
Ghostlight—Sonia Gensler—Alfred A. Knopf
Bernice Gets Carried Away—Hannah E. Harrison—Penguin Books
Bike on, Bear!—Cynthea Liu—Simon & Schuster
The Apple Tree—Sandy Tharp-Thee—The RoadRunner Press
Design/Illustration/Photography
Bernice Gets Carried Away—illustrated by Hannah E. Harrison—Penguin Books
Chokma’si: The Beauty of the Chickasaw Nation—book design by Corey Fetters and photography by Branden Hart—Chickasaw Press
Making Friends Was My Business—book design by Laura Hyde—Müllerhaus Legacy
Winter’s Hawk: Red-tails on the Southern Plains—cover design by Anthony Roberts, interior design by Julie Rushing, and photography by Jim Lish—University of Oklahoma Press
ilittibaaimpa’: Let’s Eat Together! A Chickasaw Cookbook—book and cover design by Corey Fetters, and photography by Sanford Mauldin—Chickasaw Press
Fiction
The Long And Faraway Gone—Lou Berney—HarperCollins
The Game Master—William Bernhardt—Babylon Books
Cherokee Ice—John T. Biggs—Pen-L Publishing
All Men Fear Me—Donis Casey—Poisoned Pen Press
Ant Dens—Mary Coley—Wheatmark
The Art of Crash Landing—Melissa DeCarlo—HarperCollins
Two Days in Caracas—Luana Ehrlich—Luana Ehrlich, publisher
Isolation—Mary Anna Evans—Poisoned Pen Press
Town Hall—Clay Hutto—Harbinger Press
A Flying Affair—Carla Stewart—Hatchette Book Group
Non-fiction
The Mercy of the Sky—Holly Bailey—Viking/Penguin Random House
Te Ata: Chickasaw Storyteller, American Treasure—Richard Green—Chickasaw Press
Wenonah’s Story: A Memoir of a Chickasaw Family—Robin Gunning—Chickasaw Press
Joe: The Slave Who Became an Alamo Legend—Ron Joseph Jackson Jr. and Lee Spencer White—University of Oklahoma Press
The University of Oklahoma: A History, Volume II, 1917-1950—David W. Levy—University of Oklahoma Press
The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run: Father Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma—Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda—Our Sunday Visitor Publishing
The Cherokee Diaspora: An Indigenous History of Migration, Resettlement, and Identity—Gregory D. Smithers—Yale University Press
Picturing Migrants: The Grapes of Wrath and New Deal Documentary Photography—James R. Swensen—University of Oklahoma Press
Poetry
The Art of Digression: A Fragmented Memoir—Dorothy Alexander—Village Books Press
To Sing Hallucinated: First Thoughts on Last Words—Nathan Brown—Mezcalita Press
String Theory—Jenny Yang Cropp—Mongrel Empire Press
The Glory Gets—Honorée Fanonne Jeffers—Wesleyan University Press
Places I Was Dreaming—Loren Graham—CavanKerry Press
Love’s Labors—Brent Newsom—CavanKerry Press
Deep Calls to Deep—Audrey Streetman—Audrey Streetman, publisher
The Oklahoma Center for the Book, sponsor of the Oklahoma Book Award competition, is a non-profit, 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. It is governed by a volunteer board of directors from across the state.
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 more information about the Oklahoma Center for the Book or the Oklahoma Book Award program, contact Connie Armstrong, 200 N.E. 18th Street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 73105; or call 1-800-522-8116 toll free, statewide; in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, call 522-3383.