The 2016 Oklahoma Book Awards were held this weekend in Oklahoma City, reports News OK.
Winners included Bike on, Bear! by Cynthea Liu for Best Children’s Book and The Mercy of the Sky by Holly Bailey for Best Nonfiction Book. The Long And Faraway Gone by Lou Berney won the Fiction award, and Places I Was Dreaming by Loren Graham took home the Poetry prize.
The Young Adult Award went to The Boy Who Carried Bricks by Alton Carter of Stillwater, which recounts the story of Carters rough childhood “in a straightforward style that both inspires and enlightens.”
The 2016 Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award to the award-winning Cherokee author, poet and playwright Diane Glancy. "The beginning of my writing is in Oklahoma," Glancy, who now splits her time living in Kansas and Texas, said. "The land of Oklahoma informed my work. I carry the stories of the land with me."
Waynoka author Sheldon Russell was the master of ceremonies. His novel, Dreams to Dust: A Tale of the Oklahoma Land Rush, won the fiction prize in 2007. Sponsored by the Friends of the Oklahoma Center for the Book, the 27th annual awards banquet was held at the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and Jim Thorpe Museum.