Center for Poets and Writers

Our Mission

The Center for Poets and Writers at OSU-Tulsa promotes writing and filmmaking and cultivates a thriving, diverse literary and film arts community.

Our Vision

The Center enriches Oklahoma through literary and film arts.

Our Goals

Education: Provide opportunities for writers and filmmakers to advance their craft and develop professionally
Collaboration: Support and partner with organizations in the arts and humanities to maximize scale and impact of programs
Community Engagement: In a spirit of reciprocity, engage local, national, and global individuals and communities to enhance the quality of life in Oklahoma

Programs and Events

Writing Workshops

Indian Territory Film Festival

Tulsa LitFest

Tulsa Nightwriters

Upcoming Workshops and Events

View the Center for Poets and Writers calendar

Cherokee Film

Tulsa FMAC

Our History

The Center for Poets and Writers was founded in 1994 by novelist Teresa Miller and has hosted over a hundred of the country’s leading authors, including Maya Angelou, Neil Gaiman, Pat Conroy, Anne Lamott, Billy Collins, Alice Walker, Isabel Allende, Amy Tan, Edward Albee, Dave Barry, Frank McCourt, Anna Quindlen, Rita Dove, and Khaled Hosseini.

Additionally, the Center has a long history of promoting Oklahoma authors, organizing literary festivals, sponsoring writing workshops, and developing book registries to get free books to children and other underserved audiences.

The Center has also cultivated strong ties and with other organizations and along Tulsa Town Hall, the Tulsa Library, and the Tulsa World developed the Tulsa Reads program, engaging hundreds of readers and dozens of community partners.

Miller retired from the Center in 2015, and Dr. Lindsey Claire Smith served as director until summer of 2024. Dr. Eric Howerton is the current director for the Center for Poets and Writers.

Eric Howerton, Ph.D., Director is a Teaching Associate Professor at the Oklahoma State University English Department, where he directs the Center for Poets and Writers and the ENGL 3323 Technical Writing course.

Zach Litwack, Filmmaker in Residence is an award-winning filmmaker based out of Tulsa. He has worked in the film industry and taught filmmaking in Tulsa and Chicago, IL since 2001.

More about Dr. Eric Howerton
Dr. Eric Howerton received his PhD from the University of Houston (Creative Writing and Literature), an MFA in Fiction from the Pennsylvania State University, and bachelor’s degrees in English/Philosophy and Psychology from the University of New Mexico. At OSU, Dr. Howerton teaches technical writing, literature, creative writing, and Honors composition courses on food studies and invented intelligences. He is also involved in teaching English reading and writing courses at the Payne County Jail, and he has worked with the Edmon Low Library to generate and edit open-source textbooks.
Dr. Howerton’s stories, flash fictions, restaurant reviews, book reviews, poems, magazine features, and editorials have been published widely in print and online. Dr. Howerton’s short story “Go Down, Diller” was recently co-adapted into a screenplay of the same name, and the film (directed by Dr. Andrew Bateman of CU Denver) will be submitted to festivals in the second half of 2024.
In addition to writing and film, Dr. Howerton’s interests include skiing, backpacking, making loud music, gardening, foraging, and culinary experimentation.
More about Zach Litwack
Zack Litwack's fiction and documentary films have screened at numerous festivals, including The Cannes Film Festival and the Kansas City International Film Festival.
He has recently begun work as a Filmmaker in Residence at Oklahoma State University, where he teaches film courses and helps develop curriculum for the film education program. He is in post-production on the short dark comedy, "I’m Taking You Home" and the feature, "Drowned Land". He is in development on the features, "Lost and Found" and "Quiet Storm."
Advisory Board Members

Dr. Smith served as director from 2015-2024 while teaching as a Professor of English, in both Tulsa and Stillwater.

Author Teresa Miller founded the Center for Poets and Writers in 1994 and served as its executive director until she retired from the university in 2015 to focus on her writing.

More about Dr. Lindsey Claire Smith
A Professor of English at Oklahoma State University (OSU) with affiliated appointments in OSU’s American Indian Studies and American Studies programs, Dr. Lindsey Smith is now the inaugural Site Director of NYU Tulsa.
Lindsey earned her BA in English from Hendrix College and pursued advanced studies, obtaining both her MA and PhD in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A sixth-generation Oklahoman and a Tulsa native, Lindsey earned her BA in English from Hendrix College and her MA and PhD in English from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of three books, including the 2023 monograph Urban Homelands: Writing the Native City from Oklahoma, and currently serves as editor of American Indian Quarterly and as director of the Center for Poets and Writers at OSU’s Tulsa campus.
During her time at OSU, Lindsey has received a number of awards, including the University Award for Excellence in Advancement of the Land Grant Mission (2019), the Community Engagement Award in the College of Arts and Sciences (2015), and the Junior Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence in College of Arts and Sciences (2012).
More about Teresa Miller
In addition to her work with the Center, Miller taught creative writing and regional literature at OSU-Tulsa, was the executive producer/host for the television interview program Writing Out Loud, an editor for the OU Press and a curator for the Oklahoma History Center.
She is the author of the novels Remnants of Glory and Family Correspondence and the memoir Means of Transit. Miller and her memoir have been featured on The Diane Rehm Show.
A member of the Tulsa Library Hall of Fame, Miller is the recipient of the Saidie Lifetime Achievement Award from Tulsa Women in Communications, the Pinnacle Award from the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from NSU.