Oklahomeland

'Oklahomeland' welcomes you to the real Oklahoma, the Oklahoma not of a musical but of sweat-stained people, of a raw land and emotions. Jeanetta Calhoun Mish is foremost a story-teller whose compelling narratives and imagery entice you into caring as much as she does. You can take a walk with a little girl and her Grandpa or drive down a rural highway, always connected with the land. Even the more "scholarly" subjects are conversations told with passion and fire, whether about Woody Guthrie or lynchings in her hometown. It's fitting she chose a quote from another writer of much emotional power, William Faulkner, for the title of the essay, "Like a Fire in Dry Grass," for when Mish writes about Oklahoma's people and causes, she is also like a fire in dry grass.