Oct. 20, 2022   Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet) will receive the Tulsa Library Trust’s “Festival of Words Writers Award” March 4, 2023 at 10:30 a.m., in Connor’s Cove at Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd St. This event is free and open to the public.

   Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of nearly 30 horror and sci-fi novels and collections including The Only Good Indians, Don’t Fear the Reaper, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, Mapping the Interior and Mongrels. His new comic-book series Earthdivers, launching in October 2022 by IDW, is set in an apocalyptic near future where four Indigenous survivors embark on a bloody, one-way mission to save the world by traveling back in time to kill Christopher Columbus and prevent the creation of America.

   Jones has received numerous awards and honors including the Ray Bradbury Award from the Los Angeles Times, the Bram Stoker Award, Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the Jesse Jones Award for Best Work of Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction and the Alex Award from American Library Association.

   He is the Ivena Baldwin professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder and a member of the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana. He lives in Boulder, Colo.

   Inaugurated in 2001, the American Indian Festival of Words Writers Award recognizes written contributions of outstanding American Indian authors, poets, journalists, film and stage scriptwriters. It is the first and only award given by a public library to honor an American Indian writer. The award is given in odd-numbered years. Recipients receive a $10,000 cash prize, provided by the Tulsa Library Trust and the Maxine and Jack Zarrow Family Foundation.

   Previous winners include: 2001, Joy Harjo (Muscogee Creek); 2003, Vine DeLoria Jr. (Standing Rock Sioux); 2005, Leslie Marmon-Silko (Laguna Pueblo); 2007, Carter Revard (Osage); 2011, LeAnne Howe (Choctaw); 2013, Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Muscogee Creek); 2015, Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki); 2017, Tim Tingle (Choctaw); 2019, Laura Tohe (Diné, Tsénahabiłnii, Sleepy Rock People clan, and born for the Tódich’inii, Bitter Water clan) and 2021, Tommy Orange (Cheyenne/Arapaho).

   Throughout March, TCCL’s American Indian Resource Center will present programming featuring cultural, educational and informational resources highlighting American Indian culture. Visit, https://www.tulsalibrary.org/research/american-indian-resource-center, for updates on Festival of Words programming.

   For more information on library programming, call the AskUs Hotline, 918-549-7323, or visit the library’s website, www.tulsalibrary.org.

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