Expectations and Submission Guidelines

22^nd Annual Scissortail Festival, April 1 - 3, 2027

Approximately 60-75 authors will be selected to participate in the 2027 program. A selection of a variety of voices, genres and writing styles will be chosen. Due to limited space and the large number of submissions, unfortunately many good authors will not be selected. Acceptance from previous years does not guarantee selection for 2027, and a rejection does not disqualify from future submissions. (Of course, all are welcome to attend and support those selected for the program. We hope you can attend.)

Expectations: The Scissortail Festival is a shared experience, and all involved contribute to the success of the event. In the words of poet Major Jackson, who graced the festival in 2022, authors are expected to be “Citizens” of the festival. Authors selected for the program are expected to be a good citizen by attending sessions of fellow authors, and interacting positively with fellow authors, guests and students – the varied audience members of the festival. In short, Scissortail is a Festival celebrating creative writing, not a platform for individual egos, so put your ego in your back pocket, and come share a positive, generative experience. Thank you for contributing to the festive, inspiring, vibe, uplifting all who attend.

To be considered for a spot on the program, please send work you wish to present, while considering the following guidelines. Please follow exactly.

* Authors will have not more than 20 minutes to present their material – this is the total time at the mic, including any comments you make in addition to the presented material.

* Scissortail is a reading festival. No workshops, how-to, propaganda or pre-arranged panels are acceptable. Reading sessions feature a mixture of authors and genre.

* Fiction and creative nonfiction writers are encouraged to Excerpt their submission to fit into the time restraints. The appeal of a narrative may, in fact, be heightened by presenting a carefully selected excerpt. Speed reading is never effective or enjoyable..

* Due to the number of participants, it is not possible to accommodate scheduling requests.

* Please understand that Ada, Oklahoma is a small town with very limited public transportation and has a limited number of hotel rooms. Ada is a two-hour drive from the Oklahoma City airport, three hours from DFW (in good traffic) and two and half hours from Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Scissortail Festival is unable to provide shuttle service to and from these airports, so please consider these factors before submitting.

* Sessions usually consist of 3 or 4 readers per session. Authors may NOT exceed 20 minutes total time at the mic – including prose, including commentary. Please respect your audience and fellow readers by diligently adhering to time restraints.

Submit by email: 1) complete contact information 2) the title of your program and the work to be considered – please consider the time restraints per reader. 3) a PARAGRAPH-length biographical narrative summarizing publications and significant accomplishments (please write bios in 3rd person)

Deadline for submission is December 15, 2026. The schedule will be announced as early as possible, in January, and certainly by early February at the latest.

Send email submissions to: scissortailfestival@gmail.com. Identify “Scissortail Submission” in the subject line.

Please check your calendar before submitting. Participants are not charged registration fees, nor are authors compensated. Ecuscissortail.blogspot.com is the official location for information, schedules, bios, etc. Please check that site regularly for information and updates.

22nd Annual Scissortail: The Poster

22nd Annual Scissortail: Featured Authors

Kelli Jo Ford is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Her debut novel-in-stories Crooked Hallelujah was longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, The Story Prize, the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, The Dublin Literary Award, and The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. She is the recipient of honors and awards such as The Paris Review’s Plimpton Prize, an NEA Literature Fellowship, a Creative Capital Award, a Dobie Paisano Fellowship, and a Native Arts & Cultures Foundation Fellowship. She teaches writing at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Wayne Miller is the author of six poetry collections, most recently The End of Childhood (Milkweed, 2025) and We the Jury (2021). His awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, as well as the UNT Rilke Prize, two Colorado Book Awards, two Pushcart Prizes, six awards from the Poetry Society of America, and a Fulbright Distinguished Scholarship to the Seamus Heaney Centre in Northern Ireland. He has co-translated three books by the Albanian writer Moikom Zeqo—most recently the prose collection Sellers of Chaos, forthcoming from Unbound Edition Press. He teaches at the University of Colorado Denver, co-directs the Unsung Masters Series, and edits Copper Nickel.

Vu Tran is the author of Dragonfish – a New York Times Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Books of the Year – as well as a forthcoming novel, Your Origins. His criticism and short fiction have appeared in publications like the New York Times, The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Stories, Virginia Quarterly, and McSweeney’s. Born in Vietnam and raised in Oklahoma, Vu received his MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and his PhD from the Black Mountain Institute in Las Vegas, and is also the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and fellowships from the NEA, MacDowell, Yaddo, and Bread Loaf. He teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Chicago, where he is an Associate Professor of Practice in the Arts and Director of Undergraduate Studies.

23rd Annual R. Darryl Fisher Creative Writing Contest

East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma presents

Oklahoma’s Most Prestigious High School Writing Competition

Fiction: 1 "Superior"Award: $300; 4 "Outstanding"Awards @ $150; Five "Excellent" Awards @ $50

Poetry: 1 "Superior"Award: $300; 4 "Outstanding"Awards @ $150; Five "Excellent" Awards @ $50

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, 2027. Email entries must be sent via email by 11:59 p.m. on February 16, 2027. There will be no exceptions.

Awards will be recognized by May 1, 2027. The names of winning writers will be posted on this website. Awards will be mailed to students.

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 peterbattlebiles@gmail.com or mail to Peter Biles at 14577 CR 1569 Ada, OK 74820

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

Winners of the 22nd Annual Daryl Fisher Creative Writing Contest

Poetry winners:

First Prize:
Ryli Wilkinson, “In Realms of Youth,” Marietta HS (Instructor: Mrs. Neble)

Second Prize:
Pablo Benton, “The Battle of Roquefort,” Ada HS (Micah Gordon)

Third Prize:
Lydia Wiley, “Secrecy’s Chokehold,” North Rock Creek HS (Holly Kubiak)
Paul Potts, “I speak with the same tongue,” Dale Senior HS (Allison Robinson)
Anna Arnold, “Grown Too Quick,” Salina HS (Mackenzie Greene)

Honorable Mentions:
Lily Ashley, “What is Stronger Than a Human Heart?” New Lima HS (Mrs. Forman)
Logan Heard, “School,” New Lima HS (Mrs. Forman)
Reece Ellison, “Monotonous Mountain of Molasses,” Latta HS (Mrs. Bryant)
Cyanna Bagent, “stargazing from my bedroom,” Pryor HS
Lacey Moon, “Love and Hate,” Edmond North HS (Tessa Phillips)

Fiction winners:

First Prize:
Orion Riden, “Love in War,” Ada HS (Instructor: Megan Mosier)

Second Prize:
Lydia Wiley, “A Girl, A Gate and a Glimmer,” North Rock Creek HS (Holly Kubiak)

Third Prize:
Phoebe Denison, “Midnight Rain,” Beaver HS (Jinger Looper)
Blake Mueggenborg, “The Art of Skipping,” Edmond North HS (Samantha Choate)
Omia Milton, “The Room Has Eyes,” Byng HS (Joni Moore)

Honorable Mentions:
Fiorella Lucia Montilla Pulgar, “The Hallucination,” Deer Creek HS (Julia Miller)
Reece Ellison, “A World of Placebo,” Latta HS (Hayley Bryant)
Zoey Coffee, “The Host Family,” Deer Creek HS (Julia Miller)
Austin Talkington, “The Tale of Arachnidsman,” Madill HS (Lori Hartin)

21st Annual Scissortail: The Poster

2026: Schedule of Readings

21^st Annual: Scissortail Creative Writing Festival
April 2 - 4, 2026
East Central University
Ada, Oklahoma 

Thursday, April 2

I. 9:30 – 10: 45 Estep Auditorium 

Cody Baggerly: East Central University
Hardly Been Born
Ann Howells: Carrolton, Texas
Travelin Shoes
Paul Austin: Norman, Oklahoma
Two Love Stories: Lost and Found 

II. 11:00 – 12: 10 Estep Auditorium

Tom Murphy: Corpus Christi, Texas
To All the Women
Linda Neal Reising: Poseyville, Indiana
One Hundred Years of Kicks
Walter Moore: Tarleton State University
My Lungs are a Dive Bar & other poems 

III. 11:00 - 12:10 Boswell Chapel

Ron Wallace: Durant, Oklahoma
Somewhere There’s a Horse
Luri Owen: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Along the Way
Alan Gann: Dallas, Texas
Consider the Dirt 

*** Lunch ***