‘Til the Clowns Come Home
Passing Oaklawn Cemetery, on our way to Mazzio’s, Michelle made her request: “Mitch, can you take off your hat?”
Mitch Gilliam
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Passing Oaklawn Cemetery, on our way to Mazzio’s, Michelle made her request: “Mitch, can you take off your hat?”
Mitch Gilliam
I hurtled down Interstate 40, late for work, as usual, barely noticing the beautiful spring morning. I was frustrated
Tiffany Doerr Guerzon
Last September in the town of Bartlesville, 15-year-old Blue Haase got a ride to his local school board meeting. During
Molly Bullock
I walked in graveyards, gathering trash and fallen branches. I pulled weeds that obscured the names on old headstones
Gordon Grice
Out off Aspen Avenue, deep in the tree streets of Broken Arrow, a very typical three-bedroom, single-family unit is
This Land
Let’s take a voyage to a not-so-distant land and visit a strange tribe. Or maybe not so strange. In fact, you may
Russell Cobb
I pulled up behind Dr. Randy Wymore’s pickup right as he pulled up in front of Sidney Presley’s house. “Sorry I
Mitch Gilliam
Just outside Bokoshe, Oklahoma is a winding stretch of properties known as “the loop.” The land is heavily wooded
Gene Perry
I wrote this all down to keep myself alive. For six days and five nights, I was a mental patient in total
Jennie Lloyd
“I wonder if Dave Bearden still dislikes me.” —Ted Berrigan, The Sonnets LXXVI David Omer Bearden was born in
Robert Dumont
It’s one of those steam baths of a late August night. Cicadas are revving up their engines in the post oaks and
Russell Cobb
My uncle, Ronald David Roberts, was born in 1945, the oldest son of the late televangelist, Oral Roberts, my
Randy R Potts
"We may be indifferent to the death penalty and not declare ourselves either way so long as we have not seen a
Kelly Kurt
Diamond Dick Roland disappeared. Secreted out the door of the Tulsa County Jail into an awaiting car provided by
Steve Gerkin
I took a moment to see all my friends and Brothers one last time, then I was off to the laundry. My closest Brothers
Jimmy Maxwell
In the years since the interstate era began, the proportion of freight going over the road has steadily increased.
Ginger Strand
Flames rushed skyward from a structure less than a mile away across the sagebrush. At the height of another dry desert
Michael Canyon Meyer
On an oppressively hot evening last May, David Cornsilk addressed a room of so-called “black Indians” at Gilcrease
Marcos Barbery
Editor's Note: Names of victims have been changed. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord
Kiera Feldman
Roberts Liardon loves talking about the sofa he sat on in Heaven. “It was alive,” he tells the congregation at
Sarah Morice Brubaker
It started with just a few tremors. Then a few more. Then it seemed like a swarm, each one following thick and fast on
Ginger Strand
Elbow deep inside the jaws of a stallion, Edye Lucas closes her eyes as her fingers explore a landscape of slivered
Sheilah Bright
On a warm day in December, Woolaroc ranch hands are rounding up the bison for the annual inspection and culling. A
Ginger Strand
They convened in a meeting room in the back of an old Borden’s Cafeteria. A bald man with a soft paunch, looking
Natasha Ball
West of Sand Springs, Oklahoma, on old Highway 51, past the grounds of the razed Hissom asylum, stand two stoplights.
Mitch Gilliam
When I walk into Ray’s Tailor Shop, I immediately notice the ordered disorder of the two-room store. Directly in
Michael Berglund
Yevgeny Yevtushenko teaches English at the University of Tulsa. His poetry has been translated into 72
Jeff Martin
Harold Stevenson is a tiny 84-year-old man wearing a knit shirt with a frayed collar. He lives in a log cabin nestled
Steve Sherman
The Inside Story of the Oklahoman Behind the Biggest Military Intelligence Leak Ever Editor's note: Since it was
Denver Nicks
I went down to Ardmore looking for the last Jews in a town that could—if it were so inclined—lay claim to the title
Russell Cobb
Joey Rigoletto is a spazz. We know this. What a dickhead, we said as he went by, tipped over practically, calling out,
Bayard Godsave
I was twelve years old when it happened, in the 7th grade, attending Victory Christian School on 71st Street in South
Randy R Potts
I'm not much of a Facebook person. Most of the time, I passively scroll through status updates while avoiding doing
Russell Cobb
He stood naked by the roadside with a blanket draped around his hips, feebly reaching out for the glimmering cars as
Michael Mason, Chris Sandel and Lee Roy Chapman
In late May 1940, Woody Guthrie was riding high in New York City. Although Guthrie had already made a name for himself
Richard Higgs
William Clifford Bryson III walked into the viewing room of Oklahoma’s execution chamber clutching his
RJ Young
Sing with me, sing for the year, sing for the laughter and sing for the tears. —Aerosmith, “Dream On” Tommy
Eddie Chuculate
Although Tulsa’s Cain’s Ballroom later became famous for catching future superstars like U2, The Police, and Van
John Wooley & Brett D. Bingham
In Search of Lennon's Lost Letter to Oral Roberts In the early 1970s, Oral Roberts’ evangelical TV program was at
Lindsey Neal
Eighty-one-year-old Chris Rhodes has been eating the same thing in the same restaurant for 71 percent of his eating
This Land
This story was made possible in part by our friends at City of Guthrie. Thank you, City of Guthrie, for supporting
James McGirk
What do you think about when you think about Oklahoma? Imaginary Oklahoma is a new podcast from This Land Press,
This Land
– Illustration by Jane Radstrom. ***Episode 1 of Imaginary Oklahoma features the story Tom Mix by John
This Land
– Illustration by Michelle Duckworth In episode 3 of Imaginary Oklahoma, Matt Bondurant's mystical and
This Land
*** Illustration by Jeremy Luther In this episode of Imaginary Oklahoma, Emily St. John Mandel's "The Violinist"
This Land
At the little weather-beaten station one hot Sunday morning a single passenger alighted from the dirty car pulled by
Cyrus Townsend Brady
I have been trying to tell the story of Kenton, the westernmost town in Oklahoma, since last November, when I
Sheilah Bright
"My ashes, as the phoenix, may bring forth A bird that will revenge upon you all." — William
Gordon Grice
The Riverside Indian School is perched on a hill along the Washita River in the wind-whipped town of Anadarko,
Marcos Barbery
Part of the work put in by John Steinbeck in preparation for writing The Grapes of Wrath was a series of articles
Brian Ted Jones
The seventeen men were terrified, and with good reason. They stood shivering in the November midnight air, their bare
Lee Roy Chapman
The Fourth Cavalry mustered at the gates of Fort Concho in San Angelo, Texas. Led by Colonel Ranald Mackenzie, the
Jay Cyril Mastrud
For a divorced woman getting by as a music teacher in 1921, Patti Adams Shriner achieved an incredibly bold ambition
Scott Pendleton
In 1968, Richard Nixon began calling for an end to the Vietnam War. As a candidate for the presidency in 1968, he gave
James C. Thomas
Little Rock was shell-shocked. It was July of 1960, and in the past year, five bombings had terrorized the city’s
Lee Roy Chapman
“Hang on, I’m gonna go out there and throw up.” Near the end of our first hour-long interview, Joe Exotic, a.k.a.
Holly Wall
Mary Popkess marched into the Sand Springs football stadium under a full head of steam. She made straight for the
Anne Barajas Harp
The young black girl poses in a common, patterned dress by an ordinary side chair. Her shadow creates a ghostly
Steve Gerkin
“You can leave your contraband at the door,” the woman tells me. I’ve filled out and signed several forms and
Joshua Kline
The fall of the first family of televangelism came swiftly. Two Oral Roberts Ministries employees crouched on a desk
Kiera Feldman
Tishomingo was a place I never had to lock my bike and I rode it all over town: to school, to Larry's IGA, to Mill
Eddie Chuculate
This is the third installment of a three-part series about Oklahoma's water wars, starting with the edition of This
Ginger Strand
This is the first installment of a three-part series about Oklahoma's water wars, starting with the edition of This
Ginger Strand
Oklahoma's Water Wars Pit the City Versus the Country, the State Against the Tribes. While the Parties Do Battle in
Ginger Strand
Excerpted from The Great Oklahoma Swindle: Race, Religion, and Lies in America’s Weirdest State by Russel Cobb by
Russell Cobb
Dressed only in his boxers, Wade Watts, a black civil rights activist, reclined on the sofa. He read the morning paper
Steve Gerkin
In 1997, when Clyde Snow agreed to investigate claims from the Tulsa Race Riot, the forensic anthropologist was at the
Kevin O'Connor
The following is a collaboration by Lee Roy Chapman and Joshua Kline. Bad men are drawn to the City of
This Land
The rock formations that spill out from the wooded foothills of the Sans Bois Mountains in southeastern Oklahoma were
Jezy J. Gray
Phyllis Jean Warren was missing for three weeks when she was found strangled in a brush pile 300 yards from her home.
Hunter Howe Cates