Okla Elliot

Okla Elliott passed away unexpectedly in his sleep on March 19, 2017, from an apparent heart attack. He was an assistant professor at Misericordia University in northeast Pennsylvania. He held a PhD in comparative and world literature from the University of Illinois, a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Ohio State University, and a certificate in legal studies from Purdue University. His work has appeared in Cincinnati Review, Harvard Review, Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner, A Public Space, and Subtropics, and was included as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2015 . His books include From the Crooked Timber (short fiction), The Cartographer's Ink (poetry), The Doors You Mark Are Your Own (a coauthored novel), Blackbirds in September: Selected Shorter Poems of Jurgen Becker (translation), and Bernie Sanders: The Essential Guide (nonfiction). He was a senior editor at New American Press and the managing editor of the culture and politics website As It Ought to Be. At the time of his death, he was working on Pope Francis: The Essential Guide (nonfiction).