The Deep Roots: Oklahoma Authors Oral History Project, a project of the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program, at the Oklahoma State University Library, documents the first-person perspectives of authors with Oklahoma ties. The title of the project is based on an N. Scott Momaday quote, when he was honored as an Oklahoma Legend by Oklahoma State University-Tulsa and noted, “I live here in my spiritual life. I have deep roots in this Oklahoma soil. It makes me proud.”
The goal of Deep Roots is to tell the stories of often underrepresented Oklahoma authors and to make those stories easily accessible to scholars, the general public, and to teachers and students across Oklahoma and the world. The project led by Dr. Emily Blackshear interviewed poets, essayists, memoirists, novelists (all genres), short story writers, journalists, and playwrights to highlight what these writers have to say about their lives, their work, their creative processes, and their relationship to Oklahoma itself.
The existing phase of this project took place between 2017 and 2021 thanks in part to funding from the Kerr Foundation, Inc and more than 100 individual donors. It includes interviews with 55 Oklahoma authors who represent various stages of professional contribution, all share a level of achieved peer recognition.
Dear Oklahoma
Dear Oklahoma, a 12 episode podcast brought to you by the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at the OSU Library, the Center for Poets and Writers at OSU-Tulsa, and KOSU radio features writers who engage Oklahoma themes in their works.