At first glance, it’s impossible not to see the heritage in writer and Tulsa Artist Fellow Chelsea T. Hicks’ entire countenance. Her dark eyes swim with sincerity when she describes growing up in Virginia away from Oklahoma’s Osage Nation, of which she is a member. Her long, dark hair is pulled back into a ponytail, showing off the long red and white beaded earrings by Moira RedCorn that dangle from her earlobes, one of the subtle clues to her connection with her tribe and her history.
Hicks won the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” honor, which recognizes writers from around the world, under the age of 35, who have published their first and only book of fiction within the last five years. The honorees were recognized at a ceremony in May 2023 and presented with a $1,000 prize.
“It’s a huge shock, and an even bigger blessing — like a kiss on the forehead from the universe. At the celebratory event in May I got to give some remarks to a big crowd at the Brooklyn Museum — it was very exciting! When I had felt crushed, creatively speaking, by the struggle, receiving this award made me want to keep going as a writer,” she says. “I hope this award might mean a translation of the book into other languages.”
The National Book Foundation honor is just the beginning of an auspicious and varied career, if the packed summer that followed is any indication. Hicks is in a documentary called (), which follows two women (one of whom is Hicks) who compose in their own ancestral languages — of Occitan and Wahzhazhe — and draws attention to the interconnection between language and land. “The film, which is by Francis Fourcou, tells the story of an unlikely connection between two places, Occitania, an ancient region in the south
