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Edmon Low Library

Episode 8: John Andrews - A Reason to Stay

June 27, 2019

In the final episode of Dear Oklahoma, Season 1, poet John Andrews, author of Colin Is Changing His Name (Sibling Rivalry Press) and a 2018 Oklahoma Book Award finalist, reads a poem he created for our podcast and tells us the reason he stays in Oklahoma.

John, who grew up in Sheridan, Arkansas, chats with Lindsey and Emily about his experiences coming of age as a gay man in the south, explains why a text message breakup makes excellent material for poems, and shares how he reconnected with the man who would become his husband after moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma.

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Lindsey Claire Smith and Emily Blackshear

Dr. Lindsey Claire Smith, Associate Professor of English at Oklahoma State University, directs the Center for Poets and Writers at OSU-Tulsa. The Center is a literary arts outreach program that hosts events with diverse writers, residencies for teaching artists in schools, and writing workshops for the general public. Lindsey is a native Tulsan, a product of Tulsa Public schools, and the daughter of two TPS English teacher parents. Lindsey has extensive expertise in Native American and Indigenous studies, especially Oklahoma literature, and has authored three books and numerous other publications on writers and filmmakers of this region. She serves as Editor of American Indian Quarterly journal.

Dr. Emily Blackshear joined the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at the Oklahoma State University Library in September 2017. She directs the Deep Roots: Oklahoma Authors Oral History Project and serves as an interviewer for other projects including the Inductees of the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame and the Spotlighting Oklahoma series.