9 Essential Books By Tulsa Authors
BY ROOT STAFF
About This List
The Tulsa and Oklahoma sections at Magic City Books seem to grow larger with each passing year.
We collaborated with the beloved local bookseller on this guide to highlight nine essential books written by Tulsa authors. Their titles crisscross genre, era and form, ranging from historical accounts of local history to imagined pasts, poetry and whole fiction. This guide has something for everybody.
You can purchase these books from Magic City's online store, or by going there in person! It's a charming shop in the Tulsa Arts District staffed by friendly book lovers who always carry plenty of good recommendations to add to your home shelves.
Hannibal Johnson
A work of nonfiction that tells a story often overlooked: how Greenwood became Black Wall Street, and was rebuilt to great prosperity in 1942. Johnson is one of Oklahoma's most important scholars and activists.
Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and was named the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States in 2019. She lives in Tulsa. Her poetry is an intimate portrait of resilient womanhood and indigenousness, and Crazy Brave is a masterful memoir detailing her journey.
Rhys A. Martin
Rhys Martin is a local history enthusiast, photographer and president of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association. Lost Restaurants collects and reminisces upon Tulsa’s long-gone culinary institutions with plenty of archival photos and well-researched historical accounts of Tulsa's culinary past.
S.E. Hinton
Hinton wrote The Outsiders while attending high school in Tulsa. Based on real-life experiences with greasers and "socs," this classic tale just might be the most iconic depiction of Tulsa in the 1960s, if not all time.
John Wooley & Brett Bingham
Simply required reading for any Tulsa resident. You've seen the Cain's Ballroom, but not like this. John Wooley has authored over 25 books, co-written with Brett Bingham here, they bring Bob Wills' Honky-Tonk back to life.
Hannah C. Howard
This young adult fantasy novel was published in August 2020. Howard lives in Oklahoma with her family and brings you the story of Siria Nightingale's battle against evil for light, literally.
Michael Wallis
It's not crazy at all to suggest that Michael Wallis is a local legend. An American journalist, popular historian and author, his work focuses on the American west and old-school pop culture. This is a fresh telling of the failed Donner Party expedition.
Jennifer Latham
Latham's novel jumps between the present-day and 1921 Tulsa as the Race Massacre is underway. This is her second novel, she writes full-time and lives in Tulsa with her husband and two daughters.
Richard Cox
Published in 2020, House of the Rising Sun is Richard Cox's fifth novel. A Tulsa resident, this is his whirlwind apocalyptic thriller set in the southern United States.