Featured Author: Sheldon Russell
Dr. Sheldon Russell, Professor Emeritus, is the author of fifteen books, including his award-winning historical fiction and his popular Hook Runyon mystery series. His books have garnered three Oklahoma Book Awards for Fiction, the Langum Prize for Historical Literature, and the Spur Award for Best Historical Western from the Western Writers of America. His books have earned starred reviews from both Booklist and Publishers Weekly. Russell is a graduate of Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Oklahoma State University. He currently lives on the family ranch in the beautiful Gloss Mountains of northwestern Oklahoma.
In 2024, Dr. Russell was honored with the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award for his significant contributions to literature in Oklahoma.
Cynren has had the privilege to publish four of Dr. Russell’s novels. His forthcoming cozy mystery, A Rare Obsession, takes a turn at the infamous rare book heist from the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library.
As in A Rare Obsession, Dr. Russell reimagines history with nuance and originality using characters who run deep. His most lasting contribution to the craft, though, is his character dialogue. With only a handful of simple, back-and-forth exchanges, he reveals more about a character than pages of exposition ever could.
Sheldon Russell
“A writer has to feel emotions first himself and then generate them in his readers. I’ve come to believe it is the single most important element of good writing. No conflict, no story. A sense of humor is a bonus.”
Learn more about Sheldon Russell at SheldonRussell.com.
