Announcing the 2022 Oklahoma Book Award Winners!

Non-fiction Winner

At War with Corruption: A Biography of Bill Price, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma

By Michael J. Hightower

2 Cities Press

Hightower explores the life and career of Bill Price, U.S. Attorney and Republican candidate for high office, who spearheaded prosecutions in the most pervasive public corruption spectacle in Oklahoma and American history: the County Commissioner scandal. The author argues Price’s career in law and politics serves as a portal into corruption in Oklahoma. Hightower’s book includes such scandals as land swindles; theft of Native American property and the Osage murders; The 1964–65 Oklahoma Supreme Court; Oklahoma State Treasurer Leo Winters; Governor David Hall’s extortion trial; drug syndicates; and the Penn Square Bank insiders. Moreover, Price shatters the myth that Oklahomans are tolerant of, and susceptible to, corruption. Hightower’s book 1889: The Boomer Movement, the Land Run, and Early Oklahoma City was a 2018 Oklahoma Book Award non-fiction finalist. He splits his time between Oklahoma City, and Charlottesville, Virginia.

Design Winner

Recovering Ancient Spiro: Native American Art, Ritual, and Cosmic Renewal

Designed by Eric Singleton and Julie Allred

National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum

The arresting outer cover presents a cropped, off-center closeup of a flint clay effigy depicting a brooking man. Underneath the dust jacket, a textured cover board has been lightly embossed with a gold line drawing and title.  All pages have text set in a large line length or measure close to the binding leaving a lavish amount of white space along the outer edge of pages. Even with the meticulous handling of text, the highlight of the book is the numerous, handsomely photographed Spiro artifacts. In addition, two-page spreads are scattered through the book featuring artworks by “descendants of the Mississippian people.” These vividly colored sections offer an unexpected and refreshing contrast to the antiquities while providing an important continuity of Native American art of the past and present. Singleton was a contributor to the 2010 Non-fiction Oklahoma Book Award winning anthology Thomas Gilcrease. He is curator of ethnology at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Allred is a book designer in Oxford, North Carolina.

Illustration Winner

Funny Fani’

Illustrated by Josh (Lokosh) Hinson and designed by Corey Fetters

White Dog Press

Funny Fani’ is a thoughtfully-designed children’s book with fun, appealing typefaces, and bold coloring. Creative choices are shared throughout by the author, illustrator, and book designer. Just one example cited by judges is the glossary with its facts about animals and their relationship to Chickasaw traditions. Hinson, the illustrator, draws dozens of animals with a sweet balance between whimsy and realism. The title protagonist stands out as an amiable cartoon squirrel with oversized features—big black eyes and a wide grin revealing a solitary pair of incisors. Each page is full of activity and multiple characters, ensuring the reader a fun adventure as they learn about Chickasaw words and culture. Fetters is graphic design manager for the Chickasaw Nation in Ada, Oklahoma, and is a two-time Oklahoma Book Award winner. Hinson creates art within the Chickasaw Nation. This is his second time as a finalist.

Fiction Winner

Blood on the Mother Road

By Mary Coley

Moonglow Books

Small-town journalist Claire Northcutt travels old Route 66 to Persimmon, Oklahoma, where she intends to research the Mother Road. Soon she senses a cover-up in the small town, as she perceives Persimmon is plagued with either toxic pollution, meth production, or both. Holt Braden, an undercover DEA agent and Claire’s boyfriend, also is in town. He has been assigned to protect Renee Trammel, who is in the Witness Protection Program awaiting to testify against a brutal Texas drug ring. Both Claire and Renee’s lives intersect when they provoke the wrath of criminals, intent on evil pursuits. Can the two women, with Holt’s assistance, prevent a looming disaster in this small community? This is Coley’s eighth mystery-suspense novel. She received the Tony Hillerman Award at the New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards. She has twice been named an Oklahoma Book Award fiction finalist. She splits her time writing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Tulsa.

Children's Book Winner

Run, Little Chaski! An Inka Trail Adventure

By Mariana Llanos

Barefoot Books

Little Chaski must me strong, swift, sharp, and most of all, he must not be late! It is his first day delivering royal messages, and he wants to be a good messenger. His first mission is to deliver a message from the queen to the king before sundown. Will Little Chaski accomplish his assignment before the sun goes down? In this delightful story, the reader will discover the messenger system used by the Inka. The book includes notes on the Inka Trail, the Inka Empire, Quechua language and more. Llanos is a Peruvian-born writer of children’s literature. In 2017 she was selected as the Best Latino Artist by the Hispanic Arts Council of Oklahoma. That same year, she also was awarded the Global Citizen Award in Arts by the World Experiences Foundation for her contribution to multicultural literature, and the Human Rights Award given by the United Nations Association of Oklahoma City. Her books include Luca’s Bridge and Eunice and Kate. Llanos lives in Oklahoma City.

Young Adult Book Winner

Living Ghosts & Mischievous Monsters: Chilling American Indian Stories

By Dan SaSuWeh Jones

Scholastic Press

Jones has put together thirty-two short stories, from tales passed down for generations to accounts that could have happened yesterday. These chilling stories are collected from the thriving tradition of ghost stories in American Indian cultures across North America. Prepare for stories of witches and walking dolls, hungry skeletons, La Llorona and Deer Women, as well as other supernatural beings ready to thrill and scare you to the bone. Former chair of the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, Jones is an artist, producer, writer, and filmmaker who has produced work for Sesame Street, NBC, TBS, and other national and international networks. His poetry book entitled Blood of Our Earth was published in 2005. He lives in Kaw City, Oklahoma.

Poetry Winner

Contour Feathers

By Ken Hada

Turning Plow Press

In these sensitive times, and in this unique place where so many of us find ourselves—unnerved, fearful, and aware we are not at peace—Hada’s ninth poetry collection arrives like a salve to remind us there is good and beauty in the natural world that surrounds us. Often composed on his back deck in rural Pottawatomie County, the poems let us into the poet’s world to inspire our own joy and appreciation of the wonders that are—wonders that reside both inside and outside of us. Hada is a professor at East Central University in Ada, where he directs the annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival. He was awarded the Oklahoma Center for the Book’s Glenda Carlile Distinguished Service Award for his creation and stewardship of that festival.

Lynn McIntosh Award for Excellence

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre:

A Photographic History

By Karlos K. Hill

University of Oklahoma Press

This richly illustrated volume, featuring more than 175 photographs, along with oral testimonies, shines a new spotlight on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre from the vantage point of its victims and survivors. Hill presents a range of photographs (some are published here for the first time) taken before, during, and after the massacre, mostly by white photographers. Comparing these photographs to those taken elsewhere in the United States of lynchings, the author makes a powerful case for terming the 1921 outbreak not a riot, but a massacre. Despite all the violence and destruction, Black Tulsans rebuilt the Greenwood district brick by brick. This photographic history offers a perspective largely missing from other accounts. Hill is the author of Beyond the Rope: The Impact of Lynching on Black Culture and Memory and The Murder of Emmett Till: A Graphic History. He lives in Norman, Oklahoma.

Lynn McIntosh Award for Excellence: The Center for the Book's Director's Award has been renamed to posthumously honor Lynn Ann McIntosh, librarian and leader extraordinaire, and unparalelled supporter of the Oklahoma Center for the Book. Download the Book Award program to read our tribute to Lynn.