OSU English professor wins national book award

Monday, July 31, 2006

by Alex Denkinska

Oklahoma State University associate professor Toni Graham has won the John Gardner Book Award for her work “Waiting for Elvis.”

Graham was nominated by her publisher, Leapfrog Press, for the award for excellence in fiction writing. In the spring, she will visit Binghamton University in New York where she will receive the prize, give a reading from her book and teach writing workshops.

John Gardner was a fiction writer who died in a motorcycle accident while teaching at Binghamton. After his death, the university’s fiction society created an award in his memory. The honor was given initially for short stories and later became a national book award.

The author of books including “Grendel,” “October Light” and “The King’s Indian,” Gardner is best remembered as a teacher of young writers.

“John Gardner was a fiction writer of some repute, but he was famous as a fiction writing teacher, and he’s someone we all aspire to be,” Graham said. “It’s really strange to receive this award because I quote Gardner in my workshops nearly every day.”  

Graham spent more than five years writing “Waiting for Elvis,” a collection of connected short stories. Graham says she thought “Waiting for Elvis” would be a great title for a book that deals with a middle-aged, single woman who spends her days trying to find the right man. In the end, it seems more plausible for Elvis to return from the dead and propose marriage than for her character to find love.

Graham, who said she writes her books first for herself and then for her audience, has been writing since she was seven. It was later in college when writing became her passion.

“I realized I can’t have life if writing isn’t a part of it,” she said.

Graham’s works were first published when she was an undergraduate at San Francisco State University. She is also the author of the book “The Daiquiri Girls,” which won the Associated Writers and Writing Programs Fiction Award. Her other honors include the California Short Story Competition and the Herbert Wilner Memorial Short Story Award.

Graham has been a member of the OSU English department faculty since 2000. She also co-edits Cimarron Review, a magazine published by the university.