John Gifford

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John Gifford is a writer based in Oklahoma City. He began his writing career in 1997, drafting executive speeches and communications, and has since served as a business and sports reporter, and as a corporate writer producing a range of deliverables, including B2B and B2C advertising and marketing collateral, corporate position statements, case studies, executive and shareholder communications, corporate reports and white papers, strategic proposals and more.

His essays and reporting have appeared in The Dallas Morning News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Atlantic, Southwest Review, The Christian Science Monitor, U.S. News & World Report, American Forests, and elsewhere.

Gifford holds a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Oklahoma, where he received the Goldia Cooksey Memorial Award for creative writing, and an MFA from the University of Central Oklahoma, where he won the Ernest Hemingway Fiction Award. His books include the angling guide, Oklahoma Sportfishing, two collections of short fiction–Wish You Were Here and The Sharks of Al Jubail–and a forthcoming creative-nonfiction title, Red Dirt Country.

Prize anthology mentions

Best American Essays 2018*

Best American Essays 2019*

* indicates notable/special mention

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