The Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame was established in 1991 to honor Oklahoma writers who have made major contributions to American literature while living and writing in Oklahoma. Initiated by Joye Swain, it was later directed by Teresa Miller, founder and long-time director of The Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers at OSU-Tulsa. Upon her retirement from OSU-Tulsa in 2015, Miller entrusted the Hall of Fame to the Center for Oklahoma Studies and the OSU Library, where its legacy lives on.
The Oklahoma Oral History Research Program is one of the founding units of the Center for Oklahoma Studies, and the OOHRP’s “Deep Roots” project has close affinities with the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame. Both celebrate the state’s authors and their broader contributions to literary culture, and we hope that synergy will enhance both efforts in the years to come.
Inductees to the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame:
2019: Teresa Miller
2014: Joy Harjo
2013: Anna Myers
2011-2012: P.C. Cast
2009-2010: Joyce Carol Thomas
2007-2008: N. Scott Momaday
2005-2006: Jim Lehrer
2003-2004: Rilla Askew
2001-2002: Jay Cronley
2000: Clifton Taulbert
1999: Billie Letts
1998: S.E. Hinton
1997: William Bernhardt, Darcy O’Brien, Rennard Strickland
1995-1996: Robert Conley, Georgina Gentry, Mel Odom, Dian Curtis Regan, Michael Wallis
1994: Deborah Chester, Connie Feddersen, Bessie Holland Heck, Judith Henry Wall
1993: Carolyn G. Hart, George E. Stanley, Robert Trevathan
1992: Jack M. Bickham, Deborah Camp, Jean Hager, Glenn Shirley
1991: C.J. Cherryh, Robert Duncan, Marilyn Harris, Harold Keith, Sara Orwig, Dwight V. Swain
In Memoriam: John Berryman, Angie Debo, Ralph Ellison, John Hope Franklin, R.A. Lafferty, Doug Mariette, Lynn Riggs, Sequoyah, Woody Guthrie