Gaylord Professional Writing Instructor Awarded Prestigious Oklahoma Book Award

Assistant professor Mary Anna Evans’ latest novel "Catacombs," the 12th book in the Faye Longchamp mystery series, was awarded the 2020 Oklahoma Book Award for fiction.

With Oklahoma City as the setting, the novel follows archaeologist Faye Longchamp as she discovers an underground chamber that harbored Chinese immigrants a century ago.

“I found this story fascinating, and I thought my protagonist Faye Longchamp would be fascinated, too,” Evans said. “All my stories begin with an interesting nugget of history that lets me dig deep into the book's setting. Once I know how Faye is going to respond to that setting, I'm well on my way to starting my book.”

As a professional novelist and nonfiction writer, Evans is able to take the research skills she’s learned through writing her own works and applying them to the students in her classroom who are looking to forge their own paths to publication.

“One of the things I've shared with them about writing 'Catacombs' was the importance of doing good research,” she said “Yes, I'm writing fiction and I am eventually going to veer away from what is and toward what might be, but it's important to make my fictional world as realistic as possible, so that my readers trust me enough to go along with me when I want to take the story into something imaginary.”

She affirms that this makes her students better writers and allows her to be a better instructor, as she’s someone who’s been there and can give her students advice on how to best get their stories across to readers.

However, there are some pitfalls to researching things for stories, Evans says.

“While researching 'Catacombs,' that need for accuracy took me to the office of some public works engineers in Oklahoma City. I asked them about what's underneath the city, storm sewers and all. I also told them the plot of the book and asked what would happen if somebody blew up a bomb in a storm sewer. We had a good time talking about possibilities, then I went home and sent them books as thank-you gifts,” she said.

A few days later, a law enforcement officer called to ensure that she wasn’t going to go into too much detail about any of the mayhem and violence they’d discussed, as he didn’t want anyone getting any ideas. Evans assuaged him, telling him it was simply for research purposes. (Writers everywhere can attest: it comes with the territory...sometimes you go down some strange rabbit holes!)

“My students enjoy this story, and now they know that thorough book research sometimes puts you on the radar of law enforcement!”

Not originally from Oklahoma, Evans was honored to receive the recognition for "Catacombs," which she essentially describes as a love letter to the state.

“Both books are love letters to my adopted home, and that's one reason why I'm so thrilled and honored to be recognized with an Oklahoma Book Award,” she said.

The latest installment in the Faye Longchamp series, "Wrecked," was released on Oct. 20.