Since 2005, East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma has hosted the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival on the first weekend in April.
The three-day festival typically hosts feature presentations from more than 50 regional, published and emerging authors.
Over the years, at least 12 state poet laureates, 3 national poet laureates, at least 10 National Book Award winners/runnersup from various organizations, at least 6 National Western Heritage Award winners, and at least two Pulitzer prize winners have presented at the Festival.
The Scissortail Creative Writing Festival also features Oklahoma’s most prestigious high school creative writing competition. The annual Darryl Fisher Creative Writing Contest, which began in 2004, is open to all state high school students submitting poetry or short works of fiction.
All sessions are free and open to the public.
19th Annual: Scissortail Creative Writing Festival
April 4 - 6, 2024
East Central University
Ada, Oklahoma
Friday, April 5
X. 9:00 – 9:50 Estep Auditorium
Ben Myers: Oklahoma Baptist University
Historical Markers
Rubeena Anjum: Dallas, Texas
Venoms and Antidotes
XI. 9:00 - 9:50 Regents Room
Angela Hooper: Oklahoma City, OK
Where the Sky is a Wall
Nathan Brown: Wimberly, Texas
The Broken Summer: Birth of a Vagabond
XII. 10:00 – 10:50 Estep Auditorium
Julie Chappell: Lake Keystone, Oklahoma
VulgatePsalm 39:3.5
Chase Dearinger: Pittsburg State University
This New Dark
XIII. 10:00 – 10:50 Regents Room
Andrew Geyer: U. South Carolina - Aiken
The Rainbow is Salty and Smells of the Sea
Joey Brown: Missouri Southern State U.
The Inconveniences of Love
XIV. 10:00 – 10:50 Boswell Chapel
Woodstok Farley: Tarleton State University
Falling Into My Nightmare
Audrey Kallenberger, Tulsa, Oklahoma
The Year of Our Lady of Surrender
XV. 11:00 – 12:10 Estep Auditorium
John Morris: Cameron University
Bodies Littering the Floor & other poems
Jessica Huntley: Krebs, Oklahoma
Palms Out
Quinn Carver Johnson: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Before it Sets In, & other poems
XVI. 11:00 – 12:10 Regents Room
Ron Wallace: Durant, Oklahoma
Life is a Disappearing Act
Yvonne Carpenter: Arapaho, Oklahoma
Bringing in the Sheaves
Stanton Yeakley: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Below the Bible Belt
XVII. 11:00 -12:10 Boswell Chapel
David Meischen: Albuquerque, New Mexico
What a Body can Bear: Nopalito, Texas Stories
Claire Collins: Tulsa, Oklahoma
What Freedom is This?
Jim Roberts: Paris, Texas
Of Fathers & Gods
*** Lunch ***
XVIII. 2:10 – 3:20 Estep Auditorium
David Bublitz: Cameron University
Combat Pay
Nell Johnson: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
What is Now Mine
Alan Gann: Dallas, Texas
I am not an Avocado
XIX. 2:10 -3:20 Regents Room
Heather Levy: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
from Hurt for Me
Cody Baggerly: East Central University
Somewhere Between
Remi Recchia: Stillwater, Oklahoma
Stardust
XX. 3:35 – 4:45 Estep Auditorium
Rob Roensch: Oklahoma City University
from In the Morning, the City is the Prairie
Cullen Whisenhunt: Eastern OK State College
Until Air Itself is Tinted
Rilla Askew: University of Oklahoma
They Tell it Wrong – poems
XXI. 7:00 – 8:30 pm Estep Auditorium
Featuring: Steve Yarbrough
Recognition of Undergraduate Writers
(Reception for Authors & Guests at: Ross-Osborn Family Foundation Event Center)