Alley, Sly

Poet. Papers (2011-2019) of Sly Alley, a writer whose first published poetry collection, Strong Medicine, won the 2017 Oklahoma Book Award for poetry. Alley is an enrolled citizen of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation with Otoe-Missouria and Ioway heritage. His papers document his career as a poet. They include correspondence, poetry drafts, and publicity materials. The correspondence series features publication details for Strong Medicine and other short works, and the poetry drafts trace the development of various poems, including “Denial Is Just a River in Oklahoma.” The publicity materials contain fliers from poetry readings, festivals, and book awards.