The winner of the 2024 Oklahoma Book Award is familiar territory for author Sheldon Russell

WAYNOKA, Oklahoma (KFOR) – From the beginning of his own book to the page he is currently on, no great travel is required for the author Sheldon Russell.

It is only a few steps from the porch of the house where he grew up to his office, where he spends several hours a day writing.

“I stay pretty much in this area,” he tells us.

His father was a railroad agent and lived in nearby Waynoka, just a few miles away as the crow flies; close enough that young Sheldon could hear the steam locomotives coming and going.

“There really was a culture of storytelling here,” he emphasizes. “We would always gather out here on the porch of the house to tell stories.”

Personally, Russell admits that he is much better at telling stories than doing them.

He laughs: “I didn’t really like physical work. But I like my chair.”

His books – some of them crime novels, others set in the Wild West – are all set in Oklahoma and many of them near his old hometown.

“When you’re too far from home,” he argues, “you spend all your time researching.”

Sheldon and his wife Nancy have been married for over 60 years.

His small office is right next to her art studio and lately they both have been working on the same premises.

Sheldon says, “I tie them all together.”

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His latest book, Listen, is about an author sent by the federal government to Alva, Oklahoma, to tell the stories of ordinary people suffering during the Dust Bowl.

Meanwhile, Nancy was working on a series of relief sculptures depicting the “Castle on the Hill” that once housed the Oklahoma Normal School, now Northwestern OSU.

On a windy March night in 1935, the castle burned down. For both Russells, this event was the focus of their work.

“The castle is a major part of it,” says Sheldon. “It’s a main character.”

“Almost empty” is how people describe this land since the buffalo began roaming there.

But you may be surprised from time to time.

“Listen” and there are stories in the air.

Russell’s book was published in April 2023 but won the 2024 Oklahoma Book Award for Fiction.

For more information about his other books or to order lists, visit sheldonrussell.com.

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