Pioneer Library System

Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Book Festival brought the theme “Imagine Oklahoma” out of imaginations and into engaging discussions, presentations, workshops. This 2009 biennial festival, held November 5-7 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, showcased 62 presenters, including many published authors, editors, publishers, historians and scholars, who give 29 different workshops and presentations.

By invitation only, a select group of high school students participated in a special writing workshop at St. Gregory’s University led by University of Oklahoma professional writing professor Mel Odom. Odom’s discussion included information about blog writing, a medium that he feels will not only help new writers get out there, but will also become increasingly important in upcoming years.

The festival for the public began early Friday morning at the Heart of Oklahoma Exposition Center. Norman librarian and blues guitarist Steven Streetman provided music while attendees gathered for the Opening Session.

Mayor Linda Peterson welcomed the audience to Shawnee and spoke proudly about her city. Also present to welcome Red Dirt attendees were Jennifer Kidney, director of literature programs for the Oklahoma Humanities Council; Julia Harmon, the Pioneer Library System’s Pottawatomie County Coordinator, Shawnee Branch Manager, and Red Dirt Book Festival Chair; and Cindy Stevens, of the Pioneer Library System Center for Reader Services.

Stevens introduced featured speaker Ron Stahl, mentioning that while many may know him as co-host of the Integris Discover Oklahoma television series, Stahl is also a very generous supporter of libraries.

In his speech, Stahl said that he grew up hanging around libraries, in part because his mother was a librarian and the library was air-conditioned in the hot Oklahoma summers.

Stahl said that our state is bigger than most would think, with both swamps and mountains. He showed several clips from his Discover Oklahoma show, causing laughs with a feature about a singing Chihuahua a canine celebrity in Broken Bow.

After the Opening Session, attendees chose from a variety of program topics.

One of the programs was “Imagine If We Wrote Our Own History,” presented by author, scholar, and attorney Hannibal Johnson; author and storyteller Tim Tingle; and researcher and author Kelvin L. White.

Each presenter for this session spoke about the truism that history is written by those who win the war, without showing all sides of a story and often ignoring minorities.

White discussed his research into Afro-Mexican communities in the Costa Chica region of Mexico. White said that African presence in Mexico has been “whited out,” but these Mexicans of African descent maintain their culture through the incorporated practices of dance, song (in the form of corridos), oral histories and performance.

Johnson emphasized the need for an un-sanitized perspective of history that does not just tell a story of heroes and villains. Information about Johnson’s book about the Tulsa race riot, Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District, fit this program theme perfectly.

“History is there whether we teach it or not,” Johnson said. “Unless we deal effectively with what’s in our past, we won’t be able to move forward.”

Tim Tingle’s talk centered around his Choctaw family and the stories they told him. Tingle said he believes that fear does not fade in just one generation and that is why it sometimes takes time for true stories to emerge.

During time for audience questions at the end of the presentation, Davis D. Joyce, historian, author and fellow Red Dirt presenter, praised the presenters for addressing this issue because although it seems obvious that history should include all people, it doesn’t.

Another presentation was “Imagine It on the Silver Screen: The Art & Craft of Screenwriting” with screenwriters Diane Glancy, Andrew Horton and Dale Whisman.

In addition to other topics, the presenters discussed independent films and the difficulty of breaking into the film industry and gave tips for aspiring screenwriters.

“Try writing stage plays before writing screenplays,” Whisman suggested. “When you write a stage play you can see your dialogue performed much easier than if you have to wait for a movie to be produced.”

The presenters for “Writing the Perfect Crime” were crime writers, some with experience in forensic toxicology, or criminal investigation and law enforcement.

Former police officer and writer Charles Sasser said that crimes are committed for three reasons: wealth, sex or social implication.

“Crimes are not solved by science,” Sasser said. “They are solved by cops and supported by science.”

Four science-fiction or fantasy writers divulged hints in “Blueprints to Building Fantastic World.” Topics discussed were research methods, the importance of setting, alternative history stories, aliens and magic systems.

Friday’s luncheon event featured journalist and producer Susan Miller’s presentation called “The State of the Arts in Oklahoma.”

Miller currently works as a producer of documentaries for OETA-TV and has earned several awards for the station. In her presentation, Miller showcased several Oklahoma artists who have been featured on her OETA series, Gallery, giving special attention to renown illustrator Mike Wimmer of Norman.

The Exhibit Hall was a busy place on Friday afternoon as the Pioneer Library System hosted a reception for Glenda Carlile who was retiring from her position as Director of the Oklahoma Center for the Book. The hall also housed the Red Dirt bookstore which featured works by visiting authors. Readers were able to purchase books and then meet the writers and get their autographs.

Bestselling and critically acclaimed author Jordan Dane’s program “What Makes a Thriller?” was another one of the afternoon presentations.

From her professional experience, Dane gave different tips for writing thrillers, including the Rule of Three which mandates that a writer should include at least three references to the identity of the killer throughout a novel.

In addition to programs such as “Vampires, Werewolves & Demons – The Sexy Side of Paranormal,” Davis D. Joyce introduced a very influential Oklahoma historian and writer in “Imagine Oklahoma History – Without Danney Goble.”

Joyce not only talked about who Goble was and what his work consisted of, but also why this scholar is so important to the body of Oklahoma history. His discussion of Goble’s report on reparations necessary after the Tulsa race riot prompted one audience member to ask where she could go to read it herself.

Shawnee’s Benedict Street Marketplace hosts an open-mic poetry reading once a month and several Red Dirt authors and poets attended the restaurant Friday night.

The festivities continued at the Citizen Potawatomi Cultural Heritage Center with two performances by the aptly-named band Red Dirt Rangers. Sharing the spotlight with the musicians was KFOR-TV photojournalist Galen Culver, producer of the series “Is This a Great State or What!” Via video segments from his series, Culver introduced the audience to several Oklahomans whom he thought would make interesting and colorful characters in future works by the authors in attendance.

The Red Dirt Book Festival programs on Saturday took place at Oklahoma Baptist University, also located in Shawnee. Tea, coffee and scones were offered in the university’s Raley Chapel for presenters, attendees, volunteers and workers alike on Saturday morning. As these groups got to know one another even more, the mingling grew warmer and friendlier.

Long-time library supporter and former archivist at OBU Tom Terry led a guided tour of Raley Chapel’s stained glass as other programs also began at the university’s Geiger Center.

Three voracious readers and librarians, Judy Day and Jenny Stenis from the Pioneer Library System, and Lisa Wood from the Metropolitan Library System, held two sessions of “Reading Red Dirt,” during which they made short presentations about the books they read by Red Dirt authors.

Audience members received background information about some of the authors which gave insight into their works. Sometimes the librarians related the book to an author’s presentation given the day before, adding a new dimension to the Red Dirt experience. Several participants said that they were sold on some of the books because of “Reading Red Dirt.”

Saturday morning also consisted of two writing workshops, one with Mel Odom and another called “Imagine Your Oklahoma Self: A Memoir Writing Workshop” with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

During “Conversation with an Editor” with executive editor for Silhouette Books Mary-Theresa Hussey, aspiring writers received valuable information about the publishing and editing process. Hussey also discussed the way her company Harlequin works and talked about the burgeoning e-book market.

Keynote speaker for the book festival Billie Letts spoke in the Raley Chapel to an enthusiastic audience. Letts, best known for her book Where the Heart Is which was an Oprah’s book club selection and a major motion picture, was introduced by her friend Molly Levite Griffis.

“When [Pioneer Library System Director] Anne [Masters] called to ask if I would introduce Billie, I couldn’t hang up fast enough – because I had to call and tell Billie,” Griffis said.

Griffis first met Letts when the new author came in to her bookstore asking for marketing help with Where the Heart Is. She went on to share several anecdotes from their adventures together over the years.

Letts got the crowd chuckling immediately.

“Who in the world is she?” Letts asked, looking at Griffis. “I’ve never seen that woman before in my life! Everything she just said was a lie.”

All of Letts’ books have an Oklahoma setting, the reasons for which she brought up in the keynote.

“I write about Oklahoma and Oklahoma characters because I consider it the heartland,” she said. “I’m an ‘Okie’ through and through. I was absolutely lost outside of Oklahoma.”

Letts read from several of her novels, each time telling the audience that she was going to “introduce” them to one of her characters. During the introduction of a minor character named Duncan who has Alzheimer’s disease in The Honk and Holler Opening Soon, Letts became slightly choked up.

The keynote was concluded by a short, but impassioned, plea that if the U.S. military was taken out of Iraq and Afghanistan, scientists could get closer to finding a cure for the disease.

A scholar’s lunch panel discussed “Pitfalls & Opportunities of Writing Oklahoma History” in the Geiger Center after Letts’ speech.

Writer, historian and retired professor David Levy was the moderator of the panel, setting up the discussion length and format. The scholars presented arguments alphabetically.

Douglas D. Hale encouraged listeners to urge young people to research their own families and write about it. Following Hale, Patti Loughlin said that there is a need to research the women of Oklahoma. John Lovett, curator of the Western History Collection at OU’s library, promoted the use of this collection to help writers get started.

On a related, yet different note, B. Byron Price, current director of the University Press, said that more books about 20^th century Oklahoma are needed. Linda Reese agreed, and also pushed for a move from multiculturalism to “interculturalism,” emphasizing connected relationships. Levy gave a harmonizing address, saying that writers of Oklahoma history need to emphasize more about what the state has in common with the region and country, instead of how it is different.

The Red Dirt Book Festival’s public events ended with another allotted time for book sales and author signings.

An appreciation event at the Shawnee Country Club was thrown for Red Dirt volunteers, presenters and Pioneer Library System employees. Attendees enjoyed snacks and drinks while listening to live piano music and chatting about their Red Dirt “Imagine Oklahoma” experience.

The next Red Dirt Book Festival will take place in 2011 with the theme Oklahoma Tapestry.