Books set in Oklahoma
Every state has its hallmark writers. Mississippi has William Faulkner and his incomparable (fictional) Yoknapatawpha County and Missouri can lay claim to Mark Twain. The state of Maine is gifted with Pulitzer winner Richard Russo and horror icon Stephen King. Rural Pennsylvania is the playground of the much-heralded (and occasionally maligned) John Updike, and when many bibliophiles think of New Jersey, they also think of Richard Ford's series of novels featuring recurring Everyman character Frank Bascombe. Illinois can lay claim to William Maxwell, Sandra Cisneros, and Adam Langer, among numerous others. And what reader can think of Washington State without contending with the sparkle-vampire yarns of Stephanie Meyer?
What makes authors like these inextricably associated with a particular state is not simply the matter of their having been born there or choosing to live there. The connection, from a writerly standpoint, is deeper than that—their work, nearly all of it, is set in "their" state.
Of course, there are certainly exceptions. Whether a writer sets a tale in the town where they went to college or spent part of their childhood—like Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" and its New England arts school setting and the almost-factual small town of Jo Ann Beard's "In Zanesville," respectively—or crafts a story that follows a social or political theme to a location they know little about but lay narrative claim to anyway, the world is rife with books known, loved, and respected that also capture the essence of place—books where setting itself is one of the strongest characters.
Stacker compiled a list of books set in Oklahoma from Goodreads. Whether you're looking for a good read set in the state you call home, or you're looking to expand your curiosity with a writer you're already familiar with, we've got you covered.
The Outsiders
- Author: S.E. Hinton
- Published: April 24, 1967
- Genres: Classics, Young Adult, Fiction, School
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The Grapes of Wrath
- Author: John Steinbeck
- Published: April 14, 1939
- Genres: Classics, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literature
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Where the Red Fern Grows
- Author: Wilson Rawls
- Published: January 1, 1961
- Genres: Classics, Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens
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Where the Heart Is
- Author: Billie Letts
- Published: January 1, 1995
- Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance, Contemporary
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Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
- Author: David Grann
- Published: April 18, 2017
- Genres: Nonfiction, History, True Crime, Crime
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The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
- Author: Timothy Egan
- Published: December 14, 2005
- Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Historical
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The Bean Trees (Greer Family, #1)
- Author: Barbara Kingsolver
- Published: December 1, 1988
- Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Novels
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The Past Never Ends
- Author: Jackson Burnett
- Published: July 29, 2012
- Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Legal Thriller, Mystery Thriller
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The Innocent Man
- Author: John Grisham
- Published: October 10, 2006
- Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, Crime, Mystery
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Cimarron
- Author: Edna Ferber
- Published: January 1, 1929
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Westerns, Classics
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Marked (House of Night, #1)
- Author: P.C. Cast
- Published: May 1, 2007
- Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Vampires, Paranormal
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Paradise (Beloved Trilogy, #3)
- Author: Toni Morrison
- Published: December 24, 1997
- Genres: Fiction, Classics, African American, Historical Fiction
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True Grit
- Author: Charles Portis
- Published: May 21, 1968
- Genres: Fiction, Westerns, Historical Fiction, Classics
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Pigs in Heaven
- Author: Barbara Kingsolver
- Published: January 1, 1993
- Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction
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Where the Dead Sit Talking
- Author: Brandon Hobson
- Published: February 20, 2018
- Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction
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Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)
- Author: Ernest Cline
- Published: August 16, 2011
- Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy
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Kind of Kin
- Author: Rilla Askew
- Published: January 1, 2013
- Genres: Fiction, Family, Contemporary, Literary Fiction
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Bound for Glory
- Author: Woody Guthrie
- Published: January 1, 1943
- Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Autobiography
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Oklahoma!
- Author: Richard Rodgers
- Published: June 1, 1943
- Genres: Plays, Theatre, Musicals, Music
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Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom
- Author: Tiya Miles
- Published: January 1, 2005
- Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, African American
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Dreamland Burning
- Author: Jennifer Latham
- Published: February 21, 2017
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Mystery, Fiction
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Strange Business
- Author: Rilla Askew
- Published: January 1, 1992
- Genres: Fiction, Short Stories
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That Was Then, This Is Now
- Author: S.E. Hinton
- Published: April 26, 1971
- Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Classics, Coming Of Age
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Zeke and Ned
- Author: Larry McMurtry
- Published: January 1, 1997
- Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical
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Divine By Mistake (Partholon, #1)
- Author: P.C. Cast
- Published: August 28, 2001
- Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Mythology
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Harpsong
- Author: Rilla Askew
- Published: January 1, 2007
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adult, American
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Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921
- Author: Scott Ellsworth
- Published: February 1, 1982
- Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Race
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The Hot Kid (Carl Webster, #1)
- Author: Elmore Leonard
- Published: January 1, 2005
- Genres: Fiction, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
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The Edge of Nowhere
- Author: C.H. Armstrong
- Published: January 19, 2016
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Adult
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Along the Watchtower
- Author: Constance Squires
- Published: July 5, 2011
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Novels
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Fire in Beulah
- Author: Rilla Askew
- Published: January 15, 2001
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Social Justice, Race
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The Honk and Holler Opening Soon
- Author: Billie Letts
- Published: January 1, 1998
- Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Southern, Contemporary
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Shoot the Moon
- Author: Billie Letts
- Published: January 1, 2004
- Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Chick Lit, Adult Fiction
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The Secret Hour (Midnighters, #1)
- Author: Scott Westerfeld
- Published: March 2, 2004
- Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Fiction
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Will Rogers: A Biography
- Author: Ben Yagoda
- Published: January 1, 1993
- Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction
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The Mercy Seat
- Author: Rilla Askew
- Published: August 1, 1997
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Literature
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Rifles for Watie
- Author: Harold Keith
- Published: January 1, 1957
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Civil War
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Cultivating the Rosebuds: The Education of Women at the Cherokee Female Seminary, 1851-1909
- Author: Devon A. Mihesuah
- Published: February 1, 1993
- Genres: History, Education, Nonfiction
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Rumble Fish
- Author: S.E. Hinton
- Published: September 15, 1975
- Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Classics, Coming Of Age
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Whose Names Are Unknown
- Author: Sanora Babb
- Published: January 1, 2004
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Historical
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Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis
- Author: Sam Anderson
- Published: August 21, 2018
- Genres: Nonfiction, History, Sports, Basketball
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The Autobiography of Will Rogers
- Author: Will Rogers
- Published: January 1, 1949
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Humor
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The Buffalo War: The History of the Red River Indian Uprising of 1874
- Author: James L. Haley
- Published: January 1, 1976
- Genres: History, Nonfiction
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And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes
- Author: Angie Debo
- Published: January 1, 1940
- Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Native Americans
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Tompkin's School For The Extraordinarily Talented (Tompkin's School Trilogy #1)
- Author: Tabi Slick
- Published: April 19, 2016
- Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Amazon
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Angel of Greenwood
- Author: Randi Pink
- Published: January 12, 2021
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Historical, Fiction
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The Dirty Days: A Young Girl's Journey to and from the Oklahoma Dust Bowl
- Author: Norma Welty
- Published: June 28, 2012
- Genres: Nonfiction, American History
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Desperadoes
- Author: Ron Hansen
- Published: January 1, 1979
- Genres: Westerns, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Literature
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A Cup of Dust: A Novel of the Dust Bowl (Pearl Spence #1)
- Author: Susie Finkbeiner
- Published: October 27, 2015
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Fiction, Historical
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Nail's Crossing (Bill Maytubby & Hannah Bond Mystery #1)
- Author: Kris Lackey
- Published: October 10, 2017
- Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Contemporary
- Read more on Goodreads