2012 Scissortail: Author Biographies

Click on the links below for:
Thursday's readers (April 5)
Friday's readers (April 6);
Saturday's readers (April 7);

2012 Scissortail: Author Biographies (Saturday's Readers)

Photo by Jason Poudrier

Rilla Askew divides her time between New York and Oklahoma. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in a variety of journals and anthologies, including World Literature Today, Nimrod, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. Askew’s first novel, The Mercy Seat, was a PEN/Faulkner finalist and received the Oklahoma Book Award in 1998. Her novel about the Tulsa Race Riot, Fire in Beulah, received the American Book Award in 2001 and was selected for Oklahoma's One Book One State program, in 2007. Her most recent novel, Harpsong, received the Western Heritage Award, the Oklahoma Book Award, the Violet Crown Award, and the Willa Cather Award from Women Writing the West. Askew received a 2009 Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is currently serving as Artist in Residence in the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Nathan Brown is a musician, photographer, and award-winning poet from Norman, Oklahoma. He holds a PhD in Creative and Professional Writing from the University of Oklahoma and teaches there as well. Mostly he travels now, though, performing readings and concerts as well as speaking and leading workshops in high schools, universities, and community organizations on creativity, creative writing, and the need for readers to not give up on poetry. Nathan has published seven books: Letters to the One-Armed Poet: A Memoir of Friendship, Loss, and Butternut Squash Ravioli (2011), My Sideways Heart (2010), Two Tables Over (2008)—Winner of the 2009 Oklahoma Book Award, Not Exactly Job (2007)—a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award, Ashes Over the Southwest (2005), Suffer the Little Voices (2005)—a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award, and Hobson’s Choice (2002). His poem, “Little Jerusalems,” was recently nominated for the Pushcart Prize. And in 2010, he released an album of all-original songs, Gypsy Moon. Nathan’s work has appeared in: World Literature Today; Concho River Review; Blue Rock Review; Descant; Texas Poetry Calendar; Sugar Mule; Di-verse-city (anthology of the Austin International Poetry Festival); Wichita Falls Literature and Art Review; “Walt’s Corner” of The Long-Islander newspaper (a column started by Whitman in 1838); Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas; Oklahoma Today Magazine; Oklahoma Humanities Magazine; Blood and Thunder; Blueberry Rain and Chocolate Snow; Windhover; Byline Magazine; Blue Hole: Magazine of the Georgetown Poetry Festival; Christian Ethics Today; Crosstimbers; and Poetrybay.com… as well as in five anthologies: Travelin’ Music: A Poetic Tribute to Woody Guthrie (Village Books Press, Cheyenne), Two Southwests (VAC, Chicago), Ain’t Nobody That Can Sing Like Me: New Oklahoma Writing (Mongrel Empire Press, Albuquerque), Wingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry (Dos Gatos Press, Austin), New Poetry Appreciation (Yunnan University Press, Kunming, China).

2012 Scissortail: Author Biographies (Friday's Readers)

Ken Hada, Alan Berecka, Melissa Morphew, Carol Hamilton

Phil Poulter, of TSTC Waco, has aptly described Alan Berecka’s poetry as that of a time worn child or a wise assed mystic. Berecka makes a living as a librarian at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi. He has published poems in many journals and webzines including The Texas Review, The American Literary Review, Ruminate and the Christian Century. He has published two collections of poems, The Comic Flaw (NeoNuma Arts, 2009) and Remembering the Body (Mongrel Empire Press, 2011). To learn more about the poet and his work, please visit www.alanberecka.com .

Joey Brown writes poetry, fiction, and essays. Her work has appeared in a number of literary journals, most recently Edge, bordertown, San Pedro River Review, The Dos Passos Review, Quiddity, Compass Rose, and The Chaffin Journal. Her poetry collection Oklahomaography was published by Mongrel Empire Press in 2010. She teaches creative, professional, and technical writing courses at Missouri Southern State University, where she directs the writing internship program.

2012 Scissortail: Author Biographies (Thursday's Readers)

Dorothy Alexander is a publisher, storyteller, and author of four collections of poetry: The Dust Bowl Revisited, Borrowed Dust, Rough Drafts, and Lessons From an Oklahoma Girlhood, a collection of art and poetry. She also writes non-fiction stories and essays, has edited two collections of oral history about her home community in western Oklahoma, and is the facilitator of the poetry readings at the annual Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma. Publication of her memoir about the illness and death of her son is scheduled for late 2012. In a previous life, she was an attorney and municipal judge for thirty-seven years.

2012 Scissortail: Schedule of Readings

Scissortail Creative Writing Festival
7th Annual: April 5 – 7, 2012
East Central University – Ada, Oklahoma

Thursday, April 5

I. 9:30 – 10: 45 Estep Auditorium

Jennifer Kidney, Norman, Oklahoma
Road Work Ahead
Rayshell Clapper, Seminole State College
Letter from an Oklahoma Prison
Timothy Bradford, Tulsa University
Nomads with Samsonite

II. 11:00 – 12: 15 Estep Auditorium

Larry Thomas, Alpine, Texas
The Red, Candle-lit Darkness
Dorothy Alexander, Oklahoma City
The Fractured Land: An Elegy
Jonathan Stalling, University of Oklahoma
Yingelishi

*** Lunch ***

Scissortail Hotel Rooms: 2013

The Holiday Inn Express has been designated as the official festival hotel. A special rate of $80/night + tax is available to you and your guests attending festival. Please identify the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival with the hosts when you make arrangements.

For reservations call Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites of Ada at 580-310-9200 or email holidayinnexpressada@cableone.net. (If there is any confusion, ask for Kelli).

You are advised to make hotel arrangements early. Ada has a shortage of quality rooms, and you never know when a rodeo will come to town. April is a busy month, and there will likely be competition for the rooms.

All the best

Ken

The Third Annual Page One Literary Art Gallery

(From October 2009 issue of Frieze.)

Submissions are now being accepted for the ThirdAnnual Page One Literary Art Gallery, which will be open for viewing on one night only: Friday, April 6th, 2012, from 7:30 p.m. to 10 p. m. at the Ada Arts and Heritage Center at 400 S. Rennie Street in Ada, Oklahoma. 

Submissions:

· are welcomed from any writers--emerging or emerged--who would like to get in on the Scissortail vibe;

· may be in any creative writing genre (poetry, flash fiction, graphic fiction, excerpt from a longer work, etc.);

· must not be previously published;

· must be limited to one submission per author;

· must include author’s name, school affiliation (if any) and status (student, teacher, etc., if applicable) on a separate sheet;

· may be submitted via e-mail (as a Word attachment), snail mail (see addresses below) or dropped off in the door box in at ECU in the Horace Mann Building, room 316A;

· must be submitted by 1 p.m. on Friday, March 30th;

· will be displayed at the Ada Arts and Heritage Center and may also be displayed on this website and at ecuenglishtalk;

· must be limited to a single page. Submissions that run longer than a page may be displayed in full on ecu’s englishtalk website, but when determining awards, judges will only consider the first page of the entry and only the first page of the entry will be displayed at the Ada Arts and Heritage Center.

"Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I " (1805-2807) by Jacques-Louis David

The authors of outstanding submissions:

· will be identified by our panel of faculty judges;

· will be awarded with gift certificates designated for the purchase of books (authors scheduled to appear in the Scissortail reading program will not be in the running for these awards);

· must be in attendance at the Scissortail Wrap when the awards are distributed, one hour after the conclusion of the reading presented by Scissortail's featured speaker on Friday, April 6th, 2012 at the Ada Arts and Heritage Center;

· send your submissions to: sbenton@ecok.edu (subject line: Page One Literary Art Gallery) or mail to Steve Benton at 1100 E. 14^th Street, PMB B-7, East Central University, Ada, Oklahoma 74820-6999.

This event enjoys the sponsorship and support of Literati (ECU’s English Student Club), Originals (ECU’s student-run creative writing journal), ECU’s Sigma Tau Delta chapter(International English Honor Society), and the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival. We look forward to seeing you soon!