November 18, 1997
PAGE 5
THEVISTA
0. Henry winner shares experiences, background with UCO students By Steven E. Wedel
1
Staff Writer to write my way home," 4 4 hadsaid award-winning author Rilla Askew. The Oklahoma native spoke to a group of UCO students and faculty gathered in the Pegasus Theater of the Liberal Arts Building Thursday morning. Askew talked about her experiences growing up in the eastern part of the state, her education and the experience of moving to New York, where she continued her education and began a teaching career. "I love to teach, but I made a decision to put that aside and write first. I may have to go back to teaching if I run out of money," she laughed. Askew's first fiction sale was to Nimrod, a magazine published in Tulsa. She sold several more pieces in magazines and journals before they were collected into one volume, with some
here are the ones who new material, and matter most. republished as her It's something she first book, Strange said she learned while Business. writing. When she first Since then, went to New York and Askew has won two began participating in literary awards, the writing workshops she 0. Henry Award, set her stories in which is the highest locales all over the award given for world and received short fiction, and mediocre responses the Oklahoma Book from her peers and Award. She said she instructors. was more thrilled to When Askew began win the Oklahoma to set her stories in the Book Award. Oklahoma where she "What matters to grew up, people said me emotionally is Award-winning author Rilla Askew they came alive. acknowledgment in speaks to faculty and students "Those stories were Oklahoma," Askew Tuesday in Pegasus Theater. (Staff a hit," she said. said. photo by Bryan Terry) The Oklahoma She added that it's nice to be recognized in the literary connection paid off for her again in New environment of New York, but she feels York, when an editorial assistant who had Oklahoma is her home and the people just been appointed to his job found her
manuscript languishing in the editorial office of The Viking Press. "He had an ear for the Oklahoma story and he was really responsible for pushing my book and getting it published," Askew said. Askew's first full-length novel, The Mercy Beat, was published this year. Like the stories that proved to be so successful for her, the novel is set in eastern Oklahoma. She said that, at least for now, she is comfortable with that. "Oklahoma's past is my subject," she said. "It's what I seem to be best at right now." Askew still lives in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, where her husband teaches theater. She still spends a good deal of her time in the summers living and writing near McAlester, Okla. "I just have to shut myself up and write sometimes," she said.
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