Who we are
Okie Modern is a biannual literary and arts journal dedicated to exhibiting the best of Oklahoma writing and visual arts. We publish work about Oklahoma or work created by writers and artists from Oklahoma. Our aim is to create a venue for Oklahoma literature and art. In doing so, we hope to build community among Oklahoma creators and spark further literary and artistic development in the state.
While we emphasize work from writers who were born, raised, worked in, or who consider themselves to be connected to the state, we also accept work from creators who do not have a direct connection to the state, but whose writing in some way features Oklahoma.
Outside of our literary and artistic publications, Okie Modern also hosts a blog about Oklahoma literary history and contemporary literary culture. We accept pitches and full pieces.
Meet the Team
Elizabeth J. Wenger
Founder, Editor-in-ChiefElizabeth J. Wenger is a queer writer from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net Anthology and has appeared in Los Angeles Review, Nashville Review, Baltimore Review, and elsewhere. Her essay collection was selected as a finalist for the Black Lawrence Press Hudson Prose Prize. As a journalist, she’s covered Oklahoma arts and music for over 5 years. Wenger earned her MFA at Iowa State University’s program for Creative Writing and Environment. She is a PhD student in Creative Writing at the University of Utah.
Madeline C. Roper
Managing EditorMadeline Roper is a writer and consultant from Tulsa, OK. Her work has been published in ASLUT Zine, Orange Peel Magazine, The Tulsa Voice and more. She currently lives in Nashville, TN with her boyfriend and two cats.
Julie Packett
Visual Arts EditorJulie Packett is a writer and editor based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her books explore literacy and meaning-making and have been published by Bloomsbury Academic and Peter Lang. She holds a doctorate from Columbia University and has extensive experience working with literary and scholarly writing. She is enthusiastic about supporting Oklahoma writers and artists.
Samuel Rucks
Poetry EditorSamuel Rucks is a poet and writing instructor from Tulsa, Oklahoma. His work has been featured in the Stardust Review, the Bangalore Review, Yas Poetry Series, and Frontier Mosaic. Sam earned his MFA at the University of New Hampshire, where he’s currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Composition and Rhetoric while teaching first-year writing. He is currently based in Dover, New Hampshire.
Rachele Salvini
Fiction EditorRachele is an Italian woman based in the US. She spent most of her life in Italy, and she writes both in English and Italian. Her chapbook "Oklahoma Bestiary" was the runner-up for the 2023 Quarterly West Chapbook Award and came out in early 2025. She published two novels and a novella in Italian, and her work in English has been published in Prairie Schooner, Moon City Review, and others. She currently lives in Kansas, where she's the Director of Writing at Ottawa University, and she earned her PhD in Creative Writing at Oklahoma State University. She fell in love with Oklahoma animals and peoples and can't stop writing about them.
Corinne Gaston
Nonfiction EditorCorinne Gaston is a Tulsa-based writer who writes a monthly dating column at The Pickup, and runs a monthly writers’ critique group of Tulsan writers. She is a 2025 recipient of the Artists Creative Fund, which she used to produce a generative poetry workshop series and showcase. Her poem For Evelyn won second place in the 2025 Gordon Parks Museum poetry contest, and her poetry has appeared in Literary Orphans and Rose Red Review. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Southern California.
Mary Ann Livingood
Copy ChiefMary Ann Livingood is a copyeditor from Norman, Oklahoma. She spent three years as copy chief of the OU Daily and a summer as a Dow Jones News Fund multiplatform editing intern for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. She has copyedited for Latin American Literature Today and the Journal of Women’s History, and her work has been published in World Literature Today. Mary Ann earned a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Oklahoma. She enjoys thinking about the details so writers and artists can focus on making their work shine.
Contact us
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