The Imaginary Oklahoma Podcast
What do you think about when you think about Oklahoma? Imaginary Oklahoma is a new podcast from This Land Press, ...
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Tish
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
The Imaginary Oklahoma Podcast Episode 7: The Violinist
*** Illustration by Jeremy Luther In this episode of Imaginary Oklahoma, Emily St. John Mandel's "The Violinist" ...
This Land
The Imaginary Oklahoma Podcast Episode 6: Of All Places
Illustration by Derrick Dent In this episode, writer Lori Ostlund presents a tale about what people think about a ...
This Land
The Imaginary Oklahoma Podcast Episode 5: Drinking Games
– Illustration by William Godwin In this episode of Imaginary Oklahoma, Carolyn Parkhurst's story ...
This Land
The Imaginary Oklahoma Podcast Episode 4: Rest Stop
- Photo by Shane Brown In this episode of Imaginary Oklahoma, Liz Blood reads Caitlin Horrocks’ story of a ...
This Land
The Imaginary Oklahoma Podcast Episode 3: Stillwater
– Illustration by Michelle Duckworth In episode 3 of Imaginary Oklahoma, Matt Bondurant's mystical and ...
This Land
The Imaginary Oklahoma Podcast Episode 2: Tigers of the Oklahoma Pool Halls
– Photograph by Richard Ortega *** Episode 2 of Imaginary Oklahoma features the lovely ...
This Land
The Imaginary Oklahoma Podcast Episode 1: Tom Mix
– Illustration by Jane Radstrom. ***Episode 1 of Imaginary Oklahoma features the story Tom Mix by John ...
This Land
Tulsa’s Forgotten Creek Heritage
Excerpted from The Great Oklahoma Swindle: Race, Religion, and Lies in America’s Weirdest State by Russel Cobb by ...
Russell Cobb
Arbuckle Rift
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers combine ...
Nancy Mauro
Yellow Weather
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers combine ...
Christine Schutt
Tears
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers combine ...
Padgett Powell
Exultemus
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers combine ...
Edith Pearlman
Sharks
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers ...
Jennifer DuBois
Papercrane
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers combine ...
Nic Brown
Quapaw, OK, 5/11
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers combine ...
Joshua Cohen
Linguistics
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers ...
Chandler Burr
Doll
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers combine ...
Anna Solomon
Driver’s Ed
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers ...
Joe Meno
Hunger
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers ...
Lauren Groff
The Violinist
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers ...
Emily St. John Mandel
Find Your Oklahoma
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers ...
Rachel Kushner
Right Behind The Rain
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers ...
Jess Row
The Promise of Labor
Imaginary Oklahoma is an ongoing project in which some of today’s most important and influential writers ...
Stephen Dau
This Land Radio: Group Fitness by Roxanne Gay
This story was produced in partnership with The Oxford American. More at ...
This Land
This Land Radio: Bob Wills Is A Hollering Fool
Folklorist Guy Logsdon tells us about Bob Wills, the Texas cotton picker who came to Tulsa and became the ...
This Land
This Land Radio: La Donna’s World
LaDonna Osborn spent her childhood traveling around the world with her evangelical parents, T.L. and Daisy. ...
This Land
This Land Radio: My Baby Left Me
We stopped by the Harmonica Summit at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and met Brian "Hash Brown" Calloway who ...
This Land
This Land Radio: David Sedaris on Aging
In 2013, writer and humorist David Sedaris released a book of essays called "Let's Explore Diabetes with ...
This Land
This Land Radio: Private Manning Speaks
Private First Class Bradley Manning is currently our nation's most notorious whistleblower--the man many ...
This Land
This Land Radio: Bobby Wants to Get In Touch
Bobby Berryhill served with the Oklahoma National Guard for 16 months in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s lived on ...
This Land
Brave New Park
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
Outlaw Canon
On first glance, much about Bobby BlueJacket: The Tribe, The Joint, The Tulsa Underworld is suspect: the absurd length ...
Joshua Kline
BlueJacket, Inside Out
Part 4, Section 1 — Bobby BlueJacket and Bobby Wilson strolled across the Stone Brothers Buick jeep lot under lines ...
Michael P. Daley
This Land Presents: Dead Sea Choir – “Nemesis”
Dead Sea Choir performs " Nemesis" at Church Studios in Tulsa, ...
Stuart Hetherwood
This Land Presents: Wink Burcham – “Town in Oklahoma”
Wink Burcham performs " Town in Oklahoma " at Church Studios in Tulsa, ...
Stuart Hetherwood
This Land Films Presents: Far Western Official Trailer
Amid the ashes of post-WWII Japan, the bittersweet sounds of American traditional country music drifted through the ...
Stuart Hetherwood
Public Secrets: Sex Pistols
Public Secrets delves into the infamous Sex Pistols show at the Cain's ...
This Land
An important message from This Land Press
Dear readers, At This Land Press, we’ve decided to take a timeout from our magazine as the wild world of media finds ...
Vincent LoVoi
The Ballad of Sis Cunningham
In late May 1940, Woody Guthrie was riding high in New York City. Although Guthrie had already made a name for himself ...
Richard Higgs
Agnes Taylor
Agnes Taylor’s family album is full of hardscrabble farmers, war heroes, and football champions—she’s a ...
Jeremy Charles
Hope
In the woods, in the deep hole I dug, beneath the power cable and the roots of box elder trees, down among the ...
Gordon Grice
The Siren and the Savior
ORANGE, Mass. (WJAR) — Pоlісе have identified thе drіvеr whо was killed іn a fаtаl ассіdеnt ...
Tim Berry
For This Time, At Least
As darkness descends, this time in-between, when stars are not yet lit, the moon lingering far away, I ...
Ken Hada
Stalking the Smoking Gun
Every so often, perhaps once a week, the Oklahoma State Senate closes its doors, posts aging sentries outside in the ...
David Fritze
Love, Lennie
Like most of our peers, my brother and I were big fans of the TV sitcom The Odd Couple when we were growing up in ...
Charles Morrow
Hay Maker
By mechanics, lanes of yellow vanish into the bailer’s munching mouth, while out the other end, like some ...
Sandy Hiortdahl
Starlight
To fans of classic films the name Jennifer Jones evokes images of a brunette beauty with distinctive high cheekbones, ...
Les Howell
Oklahoma: Land of Gore
Sometimes the gore tumbles from the cottonwood trees on the South Canadian River. Those were squirrels that never ...
Dale Ingram
The Secret Wheat Deal
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
Last Nice Day
There is a television channel that only shows the live radar, and my parents watch it the way other people watch ...
Meg Thompson
Dream Catcher
“And where are you from?” The inevitable vacation question. And I want to say Not that Oklahoma, The one you ...
Xandra Kaste
Death Under the Strawberry Moon
By 1794, the Cherokees were settling in the West in growing numbers, and conflict with the Osage over hunting rights ...
James Murray
The Pacifist Preacher & Quanah Parker
The Fourth Cavalry mustered at the gates of Fort Concho in San Angelo, Texas. Led by Colonel Ranald Mackenzie, the ...
Jay Cyril Mastrud
The Anti-Okie Panic
In the public discourse, the desperate people pouring over the border in search of work were described as an “influx ...
Thomas Conner
The Time I Shot Donald Trump
There was a year—I don’t remember the exact one but definitely around the height of his new-found celebrité in ...
Juan Reinoso
Disrespectfully Yours
In December 1950, Woody Guthrie and his family rented an apartment in the Beach Haven apartment complex in Brooklyn, ...
Barry Friedman
Trust Me
I used to think the funniest thing I’d ever heard Donald Trump say was when, one day in his office, he handed me a ...
Mark Singer
Leaning
At the 2016 Republican National Convention, which I covered for Flavorwire, I said (perhaps too optimistically) to ...
Tatiana Ryckman
Mathematical Traditions
American Indians generally have had a pragmatic orientation to the use and study of mathematics. In most Indian ...
Chris Landon
Our Own Formulas
The 27th of May, 1949, was a momentous day for Louis “Speedy” Wiley, my grandfather. In the span of 24 hours, he ...
Apollonia Piña
Okie Islam
In late March 1963, field minister Arthur 7-X held a press conference in Oklahoma City. Nation of Islam travelers had ...
James Murray
Challengers of the Dust
Guymon, Oklahoma, 1935 I stepped off the westbound Santa Fe passenger train and entered Barsoom. Four ...
William Bernhardt
The Old Ways
In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were ...
Annie Heartfield Hartzog
‘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
Firelight Along the Frontier
Flames rushed skyward from a structure less than a mile away across the sagebrush. At the height of another dry desert ...
Michael Canyon Meyer
The Atonement of Christie
Was Nede Wade “Ned” Christie a bloody outlaw or a wrongfully accused Cherokee patriot? That was the question in ...
Kent F. Frates
The Native Hue of Resolution
The Riverside Indian School is perched on a hill along the Washita River in the wind-whipped town of Anadarko, ...
Marcos Barbery
The Skunk Paint Years
It’s customary to begin with introductions amongst the Sioux. Even though this is a one-sided introduction—and ...
Marcus Bush
A New Day
Last September in the town of Bartlesville, 15-year-old Blue Haase got a ride to his local school board meeting. During ...
Molly Bullock
In My Tribe
A childhood summer afternoon is thrown into relief. I’m 10 years old. My big sister Kat and I are spending the day ...
Jezy J. Gray
The Greatest of Wrongs
The initial idea of the compilation of this work was to give the reading public an authentic record of the private life ...
Geronimo and S.M. Barrett
Home Territory
We headed south from McAlester to the Texas border in early morning. The day was blazing hot, humid, no wind. Typical ...
Rilla Askew
Imagine There’s No Cowboy
Indians on horseback have been stampeding across the television screen all afternoon. It’s the mid-1960s, so maybe ...
LeAnne Howe
The Mummy of John Wilkes Booth
"My ashes, as the phoenix, may bring forth A bird that will revenge upon you all." — William ...
Gordon Grice
Safe
Added a padlock to the fence, I am safe, nine different passwords, I am secure. New model with ...
Landry Harlan
Everyone’s Darling
Old Carlos squinted into the sun and grinned. “Come in,” he said and swung the door open and stepped aside, tilting ...
Richard Higgs
Summer Leaving Oklahoma Before the Advent of Global Warming
Some morning in late September he’d stumble in the diner ragged as a dandelion in a dust storm: ripped ...
Nick Norwood
Surviving and Sustaining at Gosney Farms
One night in 1997, a concerned neighbor called John and Kris (Ratzlaff) Gosney of Cheyenne Valley, Oklahoma, with a ...
R.E. Graalman Jr.
Plane Cowboy
The man in a yellow shirt behind me His head too close to mine above worn navy-blue faux-leather, above the ...
Shandhini Raidoo
Haul
Their two-ton Jimmy staggers now, rolls and wobbles on creaky springs, creeping over berms on a ...
Nick Norwood
The Piano Player
For a divorced woman getting by as a music teacher in 1921, Patti Adams Shriner achieved an incredibly bold ambition ...
Scott Pendleton
Katie Rain Hill
Katie Rain Hill is a commitment-phobe. She’s recently finished a degree in anthropology and sociology with a minor ...
This Land
In Transit
My alarm was set for 7:00 am, and when I woke up, it felt like Christmas morning. My boyfriend’s mom, Denise, ...
Katie Rain Hill
The Cyclone
It was Sunday afternoon, April 3, 1892, still and sultry, with a black cloud lying ominously back in the west and ...
Francis Moore Milburn
Weather You Care
A colorful sign reads, “MOTEL Reno.” The sky is dark with clouds in an array of white and black. Rain patters the ...
Mason Powell
Down Through There
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
How to Arrest the Increase of Homicides in America
It must be conceded that we are in a peculiar condition in this nation today—in such a condition that, in my ...
Liam Carey
At Risk
While driving to a visit in Adair County on an early afternoon in the rolling brown of a northeastern ...
Christopher Murphy
Rhyme & Punishment
I come to David L. Moss every week to teach poetry to incarcerated women. It’s become so routine that all of the ...
Beth Niestemski
Kurt Vonnegut’s Oklahoma Eden
On a warm day in December, Woolaroc ranch hands are rounding up the bison for the annual inspection and culling. A ...
Ginger Strand
Land of Grand Librarians
Every day an imposing shadow strides across our nation’s capital from the largest library in the world. While the ...
Larry Guthrie
This Alley
May 2013, Oklahoma County Highway’s littered – Broken wasp mid upturned beetles, kindling ...
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
Then
Black Blizzard—hundreds of thousands of years to create the topsoil. Red from Oklahoma, Texas grey, brown Nebraska. ...
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
My Uncle Was an Astro Zombie!
My uncle was an astro zombie. I know you don’t believe me. No one does. When I whisper it to my neighbors, their ...
Dale Ingram
A Childhood Noir
My earliest recollections are of being pinched. Not in the figurative sense, but actually. I was an awkward, ...
Jim Thompson
Eschatology
The neighborhood dogs are barking again: a chain letter cha-cha-cha that begins blocks away and rolls through the ...
Markham Johnson
Transcending the Curriculum
I arrived at Ada Junior High School 15 minutes early. I walked past the football team, heard the whistle shrilling, the ...
Ken Hada
It’s Too Late
For the houseboat in Amsterdam. The snake of blue through the city will wind without me turn to ice ...
Britton Gildersleeve