FAITH PHILLIPS, Locust Grove, is a best-selling author, publisher, and television producer. Her work includes fiction and non-fiction books, rock & roll reviews, and a variety of print and online essays. Raised by feral hillbillies in the foothills of the Ozark mountains, she created the sub-genre “Okie Noir”. This form of storytelling expresses the grief, survival, transformation, and rebirth of people living in the Cherokee Nation.
We descend from migrants, troubadours, outlaws, and survivors of attempted genocide. We remain to tell our own stories, often with a dose of humor to soften the blows.
More about Faith and her books can be found at her website Read Books by Faith.
ERYNN CRITTENDEN, Tahlequah, is a professional poet, copywriter and content creator. She has a degree in creative writing with a minor in media studies. She enjoys playing video games, drinking strong coffee and spending time with her loved ones.
Erynn will have on sale her dark poetry collection By the Bones, which is guaranteed to keep the Halloween spirit alive all year.
For more information about Erynn, go to her website LadyErynn.com.
NATALIE FERRINGTON is the author of Dogs Don’t Wear Socks! After spending most of her life with her nose stuck in a book, she decided it was time to write her very own. She lives in Tulsa with her husband and their three children, along with her two pups, Mena and Millie.
Visit natalieferrington.com where you can find blog posts on book suggestions and craft activities to go along with Dogs Don’t Wear Socks! and her new book Dogs Don’t Like Sisters.
DAVID JENNINGS, Broken Arrow, is a local physician of rehabilitation medicine at the VA Medical Center. Before entering medicine, he studied English and earned a BA from the University of Arkansas. He began writing verse, paired with original photographs, a few years ago and continues to enjoy doing so now–most often between the hours of 4:30 and 7:00 AM before leaving for work.
“The Smallest Hint” is David’s first book. It is a collection of original photographs paired with poetry. David’s work has been published in many poetry journals in the past, including The Lyric, Byline, Anathema Review and others. You can read more about David at his website.
AMANDA JOHNSON, Grove, was an English and creative writing teacher and is now an author/illustrator. She works for a local bank and enjoys traveling, hiking, kayaking and spending time with friends and family. She has written several children’s, including “ABC Birthday at the Zoo,” “Candles on a Cake,” “Little Wolf” and others. She has also written young adult books, such as “Camp Green Forest” and “I am Invisible,” which she will have for sale at the book fair. Find more information about Amanda and her books at her Amazon Author Page.
BETTY/RUMOR PERKINS, Locust Grove, is a retired English teacher and journalist who worked for decades at Locust Grove High School and the Pryor Daily Times. While advising both the yearbook and newspaper at LGHS, the publications won countless awards every year, and the newspaper was viewed as the best high school one in the state. With her daughters under the pen name Rumor Perkins, she published two books of mixed writing (stories, memoir, poetry), Myopic Memories: Girls Who Wear Glasses and Are We There Yet? Girls on the Road.
BILL MCCLOUD, Pryor, is a poetry editor for the Right Hand Pointing on-line literary journal and is the poetry reviewer for Vietnam Veterans of America. His poems have appeared in Oklahoma Today and the Oklahoma English Journal.
“What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam?” (University of Oklahoma Press) Veterans, journalists, government officials, Gold Star mothers and others attempt to answer the title question, in this book which was a Finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award.
“The Smell of the Light” (Balkan Press) consists of 117 poems, in chronological order, taking the reader along with McCloud on his tour of duty during the Vietnam War. The book reached #1 on The Oklahoman’s “Oklahoma Bestsellers List” and was awarded the $500 prize and Poetry of Modern Conflict Award by the Sangria Summit Society.
BRIAN CONWAY has been an avid fishkeeper since he was 9 years old. He was asked to research all the ins and outs of fishkeeping before he got permission to have fish tanks. There was a lot of information to find but he discovered that existing books were either too complicated or too simple. In 2018, when he was 10, Brian decided to write the book he could not find when he was starting out with his hobby. His book, Fishkeeping For Kids, published in 2022 when Brian was just 13 years old, fills that gap and provides clear and easy-to-understand information with full-color illustrations.
After Brian wrote the book he said, “This is the book I wish I could have read!” Brian, along with his younger sister, is homeschooled and he has chosen to pursue a profession in marine biology. He and his family have recently set up a small homestead in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, complete with horses, chickens, bees, a pond and fish. He plans to write additional books for fish enthusiasts.
JOHN KETCHER, JR., Pryor, is a Cherokee Nation citizen, a United States Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant (retired), and a retired minister. He is a graduate of National University in San Diego, CA, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Behavioral Science. He is also a graduate of Saint Paul’s School of Theology with a Master of Divinity. John started writing in 2019 and has published four books and currently working on his fifth book.
John will have these books for sale: Weird Stuff: Paranormal Adventures in Rural Oklahoma, More Weird Stuff: Seven Short Adventures, Lights in the Sky, and Mood Cradle.
JO-ANN E. JENNINGS, Tulsa, wrote her first story in third grade and was hooked. Her travels around the Mid-and Southwest have led to teaching high school and junior college; years as a community newspaper editor, writer and photographer; serving as a children’s pastor; and hospital public relations and marketing. Jo remains ever active and academically up-to-date, most recently serving as as hospital chaplain at a cancer facility.
You can see her books on her Amazon Author Page.
SHAUN PERKINS is the founder/director of the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry. She has published a variety of books and writes regularly for her email list, the Territory Tellers, a local newspaper The Paper and more. She co-hosts the museum’s podcast Wacky Poem Life.
Shaun will have several poetry books for sale, particularly her series The Book With. These are detective stories in verse, inspired by Erle Stanley Gardener’s Perry Mason novels, and by the love of books and the things that people write inside their books.
More information about her is at POEM LIFE and The Book With.
Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry 