35th Annual Oklahoma Book Awards
The finalists have been selected for the 35th Annual Oklahoma Book Awards. Winners in each category will be announced at the ceremony and banquet on Saturday, May 11, 2024. The event will take place at the Oklahoma History Center, located at 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Books are recognized each year for outstanding work in fiction, non-fiction, children and young adult, poetry, and the design, illustration, and photography combined category. To be eligible for consideration, books must be written by an Oklahoman, about the state, or have an Oklahoma theme. This year, the Oklahoma Center for the Book received 179 entries with 28 chosen as finalists.
Join us in celebrating Oklahoma authors and books by attending the awards ceremony and banquet. This is a great opportunity to meet the authors, purchase their books, and get them signed while supporting Oklahoma's literary heritage. Tickets are $75 to $100 per person. A table for eight is available for purchase at a discounted rate of $550. Dinner is provided with each ticket.
Please send the RSVP card to:
Oklahoma Center for the Book
200 NE 18th Street
Oklahoma City, OK 73105
Or email the filled-out Reservation Card to Connie.Armstrong@libraries.ok.gov. Tickets are held at the door.
For more information, call 405-522-3383.
Finalists
This Indian Kid: A Native American Memoir
by Eddie Chuculate
Scholastic Inc.
Benita and the Night Creatures
by Mariana Llanos
Barefoot Books
Gwen Didn’t Care
by Gwendolyn F. Mukes
WF Publications
All Kinds of Special
by Tammi Sauer
Simon & Schuster
Mascot
by Traci Sorell
Charlesbridge Publishing
Dr. Clara Sue Kidwell: Teacher and Mentor
by Celia Stall-Meadows
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma
The Florentine Poet
cover and jacket design by Carl Brune
interior design by William Bernhardt
illustrated by Brian Call
Babylon Books
Someday, Somewhere: Photographs & Poems
photography by David Jennings
Wipf and Stock Publishers
Chikasha Chahta Okla'at Wihat Tanó̲wattook (The Migration Story of the Chickasaw and Choctaw People)
designed by Jackson Davis
illustrated by Lauren John
White Dog Press
Otis W. Leader: The Ideal American Doughboy
designed by Jackson Davis
Chickasaw Press
Gwen Didn’t Care
illustrated by Alex K. Wallace
WF Publications
Tulsa City-County Library: A Legacy of Innovation, Integration, Inspiration 1992-2021
designed by Carl Brune
Babylon Press
Dark Ride
by Lou Berney
HarperCollins
Listen
by Sheldon Russell
Cynren Press
The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club
by Julia Bryan Thomas
Sourcebooks
Heart of the Nile
by Will Thomas
Macmillan Publishers
Stealing
by Margaret Verble
HarperCollins
This Indian Kid: A Native American Memoir
by Eddie Chuculate
Scholastic Inc.
Corn Dance: Inspired First American Cuisine
by Lorretta Barrett Oden with Beth Dooley
University of Oklahoma Press
Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time’s Journey Through Rock & Roll History
by Bill Janovitz
Hachette Book Group
A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma
by Robert J. Miller and Robbie Ethridge
University of Oklahoma Press
Otis W. Leader: The Ideal American Doughboy
by Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer
Chickasaw Press
Urban Homelands: Writing the Native City from Oklahoma
by Lindsey Claire Smith
University of Nebraska Press
Oklahoma Freedmen of the Five Tribes
by Angela Y. Walton-Raji
The History Press
Come Before Winter
by Ken Hada
Turning Plow Press
Sand: At the Mercy of Wind
by Karen Kay Knauss
Peach Tree Press
Tallchief
by Elise Paschen
Magic City Books Press
Vivia: The Legend of Vivia Thomas
by Linda Neal Reising
Kelsay Books
The Oklahoma Center for the Book (OCB) has partnered with the non-profit Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book for more than 30 years to co-sponsor the annual Oklahoma Book Awards. The OCB, located in the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, is affiliated with the National Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.