TAHLEQUAH — From the time Sequoyah invented the Cherokee syllabary, Cherokees have put pen and printing press to paper.

Some of their works have been in Cherokee, some in English, and other documents, such as Cherokee newspapers of the 1800s, published with Cherokee and English versions of the stories, side by side.

The Cherokee Arts and Humanities Council will publish “Cherokee Writers from the Flint Hills of Oklahoma: An Anthology,” this summer, showcasing the talents of Cherokee authors past and present.

Roy Hamilton, author and president of the CAHC, and Karen Coody Cooper, author and Cherokee historian, are coordinating the project. The book, published by Indigitronic Publishing House of the CAHC, will be ready for sale during this year’s Cherokee National Holiday over the Labor Day weekend. Proceeds will benefit the educational and cultural activities of the CAHC.

“I know there are a lot of good writers out there,” Hamilton said. “I’d like to see a lot of people who have the ability to write and the desire to write make the attempt.”

Cooper said the anthology gives new writers the chance to find their styles and their own voices.

Hamilton was between personal projects and trying to come up with something new to do when the idea of compiling an anthology came to him.

“I thought there were probably a lot of authors out there who would like to see something in print. I thought, ‘Why not put out an anthology?’” he said.

Cooper said although there have been other Cherokee anthologies, this is the first contemporary one of its type.

“It’s just Oklahoma Cherokees, not North Carolina Cherokees. It could be Oklahoma families who have moved to California, as long as there is an Oklahoma tie-in,” she said.

These days, fewer grants are available for publications allowing new writers’ work to gain an audience.

“I think it’s time to present some of our newer community voices and let them be heard,” she said.

Hamilton would like to receive short pieces, whether complete in themselves or parts of another work. He also has several pieces of visual art that will be included. He could use more of these, and asked visual artists to focus on small works that would reproduce well in black and white.

The anthology also will feature a short biography of all contributors. It will be organized chronologically, by the age of the writings rather than of the authors’ birth dates, in the historical authors’ section. Contemporary authors will be organized by genre. Among the more notable contemporary artists are novelist Robert Conley, author of many historical and Cherokee-themed volumes; and Eddie Chuculate, author of the collection “Cherokee Madonna,” whose works have garnered several major awards for fiction.

Cooper has researched historical Cherokee authors and has been in charge of selecting their work for for the publication.

First, she considered the noted journalist Elias Boudinot. But Boudinot’s time in Indian Territory was brief: He was assassinated in 1839, for his role in signing the Treaty of New Echota.

Boudinot wrote “Poor Sarah,” which some consider a religious tract rather than a novel, Cooper said.

“Everything Elias Boudinot wrote was in North Carolina. From the time he moved here, he was not working for the newspaper,” Cooper said. “But his nephew, John Rollin Ridge, lived here and moved to California. He came back here during the Civil War.”

Like many Cherokees, Ridge went to California to seek his fortune during the Gold Rush. He wrote poetry, including “Mount Shasta,” which became the California state poem. He also wrote “The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit,” considered the first novel by an American Indian author, and worked as an editor on the Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Herald.

“He was historically the first Cherokee novelist,” Cooper said.

Some of Ridge’s work will be included in the anthology. She points to his story, “The Arkansaw Root Doctor,” as a good example of work in a colloquial Arkansas setting.

“It’s kind of funny, and it’s quite long,” she said. “It uses vernacular language, and sometimes you have to think about what they are saying.”

Of course, one of the most famous writers ever with Cherokee blood was Will Rogers. Coody has enjoyed reading a selection of Rogers’ work to decide what to include.

“That was interesting because most of what I’d read of Will Rogers are little snippets, cute sayings. This is a longer piece, one of his radio broadcasts,” she said. “It’s along piece that describes a peace conference. He gets very political and would be even more funny if we were familiar with all the characters of the time.”

One reason she respects Rogers is that, unlike many of today’s political pundits, he could be funny without making people mad.

“It’s nice to read these things, where he has you belly-laughing but doesn’t really think ill of the people he’s writing about,” she said.

Another interesting writer is Narcissa Chisholm Owen, mother of Sen. Robert L. Owen (the historic Owen School, across from the entrance to the Cherokee Heritage Center, bears his name). Her poem “Now” will appear in the anthology.

After graduating from Miss Sawyer’s Female Academy in Fayetteville in 1850, she became a teacher in Tennessee. There, she met and married Robert Latham Owen.

“Her husband was a civil engineer and a railroad investor,” Cooper said.

When he died, the family was broke. She taught piano and found scholarships for her sons, then returned to Indian Territory in 1880 to teach at the Cherokee Female Seminary. She accompanied her son to Washington when he became a senator. Her 1907 memoir became a great success.

Another noted Cherokee author was Rollie Lynn Riggs, a Claremore native. He was author of “Green Grow the Lilacs,” the play that served as basis for the Rogers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!”

Maggie Culver Fry, former Oklahoma poet laureate, also will have work represented. She began writing as a farm wife, and her first poetry, “The Witch Deer,” was published when she was more than 50 years old.

“It was handwritten,” Cooper said of Fry’s work. “She sent it off and her husband said, ‘You have to get a typewriter.’ So they saved up and got her a typewriter.”

Hamilton hopes more young writers, including those still in high school, will send in their work for consideration before the June 30 deadline.

“I’ve had quite a few submissions, but I could always use more, especially from younger people. I’ve only had one from a teen-ager,” he said.

Get involved

Cherokee writers in all genres — poetry, prose, short stories, essays and blogs — and visual artists may submit work for possible publication in “Cherokee Authors of the Flint Hills: An Anthology,” by June 30. For information view the site www.cherokeeculture.org. Submissions may be sent to guytutsi@yahoo.com, or mail to CAHC, P.O. Box 594, Park Hill 74451. Questions? Contact Roy Hamilton at gwytutsi@ yahoo.com, or call him at (918) 718-0367; or Karen Coody Cooper at (918) 456-6007, ext. 6164.