21st Annual Scissortail: The Poster

22nd Annual R. Darryl Fisher Creative Writing Contest

East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma presents

Oklahoma’s Most Prestigious High School Writing Competition

Fiction: 1st Place: $250; 2nd place $150; Three 3rd places $100

Poetry: 1st Place: $250; 2nd place $150; Three 3rd places $100
Five Honorable Mention Certificates

Guidelines:

* All Oklahoma high school students (9th - 12th grade) are eligible.

* Poetry (up to 100 lines) or Short Fiction (up to 6,000 words) is acceptable.

* Limit 5 poems and 1 short fiction piece per student.

* All entries must be the original work of the student.

* Absolutely, any use of AI, computer-generated “work” is unacceptable!

* All entries must be neatly typed; please double-space fiction entries.

* Entries will not be returned, so keep your originals.

* No identifying marks should be on the manuscript itself, except for the title.

* Provide cover page with contact information: 1) Student’s name; 2) High School and Teacher’s name 3) Classification (senior, junior, etc.) 4) Phone number, Email and student’s mailing address. (Work submitted without a mailing address for each student will not be judged)

DEADLINE: Conventional mail must be postmarked on or before Monday, February 16, 2026. Email entries must be sent via email by 11:59 p.m. on February 16, 2026. There will be no exceptions.

Recognition: The names of winning writers will be posted online on this website. Awards will be mailed to students as gift cards.

Poetry Submissions: send work electronically as attached files to jgrasso@ecok.edu or mail to Dr. Joshua Grasso, East Central University, Dept. of English & Languages, 1100 E. 14th St., Ada, OK 74820

Fiction Submissions: send work electronically as attached files to mwalling@ecok.edu or mail to Dr. Mark Walling, East Central University, Dept. of English and Languages, 1100 E. 14th St., Ada, OK 74820

Contest Information: Dr. Joshua Grasso (580-235-3197); Dr. Mark Walling (580-559-5440). Scissortail Creative Writing Festival Information: Dr. Ken Hada (580-559-5557)

20th Annual Scissortail: The Poster

20th Annual Scissortail: Featured Authors

Ken Hada, cofounder of the Scissortail Festival, and director for 20 years, is honored to have been selected by his ECU colleagues to read at the 2025 festival. Ken is the author of twelve collections of poetry, including his latest: Visions for the Night and Come Before Winter, from Turning Plow Press. His previous collection, Contour Feathers (Turning Plow Press, 2021) received the Oklahoma Book Award. Other works of his have been awarded by The Western Writers of America, The National Western Heritage Museum, South Central Modern Language Association and The Oklahoma Center for the Book, and featured on "The Writer's Almanac." In addition to his poetry, Ken remains active in scholarship, writing and publishing regularly on regional writing, literary ecology and multicultural literatures. The “Ken Hada Collection” is held at the Western History Collection Library at the University of Oklahoma.

Julie Hensley is the author of the chapbook, The Language of Horses (Finishing Line Press), and the books, VIABLE: Poems (Five Oaks Press 2015) and LANDFALL: A Ring of Stories (Ohio State University Press 2016). An Associate Professor at Eastern Kentucky University and core faculty member in the Bluegrass Writers Studio Low-Res MFA Program, she lives in Richmond with her husband, the writer R Dean Johnson, and their two children.

ire’ne lara silva, the 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate, is the author of five poetry collections, furia, Blood Sugar Canto, CUICACALLI/House of Song, FirstPoems, and the eaters of flowers, two chapbooks, Enduring Azucares and Hibiscus Tacos, and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán.ire’ne is the recipient of a 2021 Tasajillo Writers Grant, a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, and was the Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s 2013 Gift of Freedom Award. Most recently, ire’ne was awarded the 2021 Texas Institute of Letters Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction. ire’ne is currently a Writer at Large for Texas Highways Magazine and is working on a second collection of short stories titled, the light of your body. Her first comic book, VENDAVAL, will be released by the Chispa Imprint of Scout Comics in April 2024. http://www.irenelarasilva.wordpress.com

2025: Schedule of Readings

20^th Annual: Scissortail Creative Writing Festival
April 3 - 5, 2025
East Central University
Ada, Oklahoma 

Thursday, April 3

I. 9:30 – 10: 45 Estep Auditorium 

Woodstok Farley: Mingus Texas
The Killing of the Poet Laureate of Corpus Christi: A Nod to Edgar Allan Poe
Julie Chappell: Lake Keystone, Oklahoma
Watermarks
David Meischen: Albuquerque, NM
Caliche Road Poems

2025: Scissortail Biographies

Sly Alley is a writer of poetry and short-fiction whose debut collection of poems titled Strong Medicine (Village Books Press, 2016) won the 2017 Oklahoma Book Award for poetry. He writes on a vintage Royal typewriter in a fortified shack in Tecumseh, Oklahoma.

Rilla Askew is the author of five novels, a book of stories, and a collection of creative nonfiction. She’s received the American Book Award, Western Heritage Award, Oklahoma Book Award, and Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her essays, poems, and short fiction have appeared in Nimrod, Tin House, World Literature Today, AGNI, and elsewhere. Askew’s novel  Prize for the Fire, about Early Modern English writer Anne Askew, was a finalist for the 2023 Oklahoma Book Award. Her newest collection of stories, The Hungry & The Haunted, is published by Belle Point Press.

Winners of the 21st Annual Daryl Fisher Creative Writing Contest

Poetry Winners:

First Prize: Ava Blakley, “Written Syncopation for the Organic Lover.” Edmond Santa Fe High School (Instructor: Stephanie Bray)
Second Prize: Anna Arnold, “Laughter spills like wine” Salina Public Schools (Mackenzie Greene)
Third Prize: Rebecca Olivero, “To Dare.” Edmond Memorial High School (Kelly Bristow)

Honorable Mentions:
Aaliyah Coffman, “Shout out to.” North Rock Creek High School (Holly Kubiak)
Victoria Gogol, “Symphony of Shadows.” Bishop Kelley High School (Trevor Parks)
Brooke Miller, “A Prayer.” Life Ready Center (Maureen DuRant)
Paul Potts, “Frutiger Aero.” Dale Senior High School (Allison Robinson)
Rebekah Raglow, “With the Tide.” Edmond Memorial High School (Kelly Bristow)
Ava Reno, “Suffocating in Hope.” Kingston High School (Mrs. Minor)
Savannah Romanson, “Downpour.” Edmond Memorial High School (Kelly Bristow)
Abbey Whaley, “Anger.” Stonewall High School (Sheryl Fortner)
Amina Whiteside, "Toy slot machines." Lawton High School (Maureen DuRant)
Lydia Wiley, “Have you ever seen the sun?” North Rock Creek High School (Nicki Gray)

Fiction Winners:

First Prize: Lydia Wiley. “A Boy, a Badger, and a Bear.” North Rock Creek (Nicki Gray)
Second Prize: Ava Blakley. “The Diner by the Sea.” Edmond Santa Fe (Stephanie Bray)
Third Prize: Reece Ellison. “Timothy and the Grouch.” Latta (Tamra Byrd)

Honorable Mentions:
Hailey Edwards, “The Last Message.” Latta (Hayley Bryant)
Aimee Rogers, “When the Lights Turn Off.” Dale (Allison Robinson)
Phoebe Denison, “My Eighth Grade Experience.” Beaver (Krystal Scott)
Victoria Gogol, “The Ghost of Layla.” Tulsa Bishop Kelley (Trevor Parks)
Hazel Morton, “How the Fox Got Its Name.” Kingston (Brett Hayes)
Andrew Henderson, “The Pen in His Pocket.” Edmond Memorial (Kelly Bristow)
Ellis Brown, “Letters of the Library.” Edmond Memorial (Kelly Bristow)
Caden Mignosa, “Farewell, Bene.” Edmond Memorial (Kelly Bristow)
Gabriel Schmult and Lakota Huffine, “Whispers of Blood: The Silent Hunt.” Wanette (Noah Inscore)
Hannah West, “Journal 268.” North Rock Creek (Grace Kliewer)