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Rilla Askew

リラ・アスクュー

Rilla Askew

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1951-01-01 （Poteau, Oklahoma, U.S.）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Poteau, Oklahoma - birthplace → Bartlesville, Oklahoma - grew up → New York City, New York - studied and worked → Norman, Oklahoma - current base (teaching)

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Short story writer, Essayist, University professor
Active Years
1989-
Affiliations
Syracuse University (MFA program faculty), Brooklyn College (faculty), University of Arkansas (faculty), University of Massachusetts Amherst (faculty), University of Oklahoma (creative writing teacher)
Influenced By
William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison (referenced in context)

Education

University of Tulsa
Theatre Performance (BFA) / Theatre
Degree: BFA
Period: ～1980
Year of Graduation: 1980
Country: United States
Studied theatre performance; moved to New York after graduation to study acting.
Brooklyn College
Creative Writing (MFA) / Creative Writing
Degree: MFA
Period: ～1989
Year of Graduation: 1989
Country: United States
Studied creative writing; gained foundation for writing fiction and essays.

Awards

American Book Award
2002
Work: Fire in Beulah
Organization: Before Columbus Foundation
Result: Winner
Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award
2002
Work: Fire in Beulah
Organization: Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights
Result: Winner
WILLA Award
2008
Work: Harpsong
Organization: Women Writing the West
Result: Winner
Violet Crown Award
2008
Work: Harpsong
Organization: Writers' League of Texas
Result: Winner
Western Heritage Award
2008
Work: Harpsong
Organization: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
Result: Winner
Western Heritage Award
1998
Work: The Mercy Seat
Organization: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
Result: Winner
Oklahoma Book Award
1993
Work: Strange Business
Organization: Oklahoma Center for the Book
Result: Winner
Oklahoma Book Award
1998
Work: The Mercy Seat
Organization: Oklahoma Center for the Book
Result: Winner
Oklahoma Book Award
2008
Work: Harpsong
Organization: Oklahoma Center for the Book
Result: Winner
PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
1998
Work: The Mercy Seat
Organization: PEN/Faulkner Foundation
Result: Finalist
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers
1992
Work: Strange Business
Organization: Barnes & Noble
Result: Winner
Arts and Letters Award
2009
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Letters
Result: Recipient
Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award
2011
Organization: Oklahoma Center for the Book
Result: Recipient
Spur Award
2014
Work: Kind of Kin
Organization: Western Writers of America
Result: Finalist
Dublin IMPAC Prize
2014
Work: Kind of Kin
Organization: International Dublin Literary Award
Result: Longlisted
PEN/America Diamonstein-Spielvogel Art of the Essay Award
2018
Work: Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place
Organization: PEN America
Result: Semifinalist
Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame
2003
Organization: Oklahoma Center for the Book / Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame
Result: Inducted
Oklahoma Book Award
2014
Work: Kind of Kin
Organization: Oklahoma Center for the Book
Result: Finalist
Oklahoma Book Award
2023
Work: Prize for the Fire
Organization: Oklahoma Center for the Book
Result: Finalist

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Strange Business

1992 Short story collection / Fiction

Early short story collection featuring tales often set in Oklahoma, focusing on outsiders and local life.

sense of placeoutsiderslocal communities

The Mercy Seat

1998 Novel / Historical family drama

Follows rival brothers and expands a family drama into a community-wide saga, engaging with Oklahoma history and religion.

familyreligionregional history

Fire in Beulah

2001 Novel / Historical fiction

Historical novel addressing the Tulsa Race Massacre, confronting suppressed memories and issues of race and power.

racememory of violencejustice

Harpsong

2007 Novel / Historical fiction

Set in 1930s Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl, it follows dispossessed, homeless people and their struggles.

Great Depressionmigrancysurvival and solidarity

Kind of Kin

2013 Novel

Set in the fictional town of Cedar, it explores state immigration laws, race, religion, and class tensions in a community.

immigrationrace and religionlocal politics

Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place

2017 Essay collection / Nonfiction

A collection of creative nonfiction that reckons with truths obscured by collective memory and American cultural trauma.

memoryreconciliationAmerican identity

Prize for the Fire

2022 Novel / Historical fiction

Follows 16th-century Protestant martyr Anne Askew and explores historical imagination around women's voices and bodily autonomy.

women's voicesreligious persecutionhistorical imagination

The Hungry & The Haunted

2024 Short story collection

A forthcoming collection of stories (2024) exploring place, memory, and haunting losses.

lossmemorysense of place

Bibliography

  • The Hungry & The Haunted (Belle Point Press, forthcoming 2024)
  • Prize for the Fire (University of Oklahoma Press, 2022)
  • Most American: Notes from a Wounded Place (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017)
  • Kind of Kin (Ecco Press, 2013)
  • Harpsong (University of Oklahoma Press, 2007)
  • Fire in Beulah (Viking/Penguin, 2001)
  • The Mercy Seat (Viking/Penguin, 1998)
  • Strange Business (Viking/Penguin, 1992)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Epic, regionally rooted narrative styleDialog- and rhythm-rich prose informed by dramatic training
Recurring Motifs
place (Oklahoma)outsidersreligion and faithfamily historyrace and memory

Legacy

Rilla Askew is acclaimed for her epic, Oklahoma-rooted narratives that excavate regional history and suppressed memory, making significant contributions to contemporary American literature. She has received multiple state and national honors and is regarded as a leading Oklahoma writer.

Archives

  • Oklahoma Historical Society (holds related materials)

Quotes

  • "a love song to the American voice and the American perspective...about the love that is involved—with all the accompanying stark failings and supreme acts of kindness—in being fully human."
    Source: Mary Green (review of Harpsong) (2007)

Trivia

  • Born in Poteau and raised in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
  • Originally trained in theatre; acting background influences her prose.
  • Married to actor Paul Austin.
  • Holds an MFA from Brooklyn College.