Recent Reading: Oklahoman's Pulitzer Prize-Winning Play 'August: Osage County'

AT has a wide range of interests, which is why we sometimes take a break from politics to talk about literature. Today's topic: Tracy Letts and his prize-winning drama, August: Osage County.

That's right, Sooner fans, an Oklahoma writer won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama this year—who woulda thunk it?

Given this development, we wandered over to Steve's Sundries on Harvard and bought a copy of the play, autographed by the author himself, no less.

August: Osage County is a powerful dramatic work, a full-throated family drama that is by turns outrageous, bitter, funny, and touching. We found ourselves agreeing with the jacket blurb written by David Cote of Timeout New York:

A tremendous achievement in American playwriting: a tragicomic populist portrait of a tough land and its tougher people.

Coming from a New York critic, this is high praise indeed; Okies like to think of their state and themselves as tough.

On the page, Osage County is a rich and tightly constructed tale packed with memorable Oklahoma characters. In the hands of talented actors, we have no doubt that the play will have Oklahoma audiences glued to their seats, anticipating every line.

UPDATE: Speaking of Tracy Letts, the playwright will be in T-town later this month as part of OSU-Tulsa's Celebration of Books.

Letts will be speaking on Friday, September 26, at the PAC Chapman Music Hall, along with best-selling author Mitch Albom. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased from myticketoffice.com.