Steve Gerkin links photography, fiction and craft across three books

Tulsa author Steve Gerkin is releasing three books that span ekphrasis, unpublished fiction and literary analysis, with work rooted in photography, memory and the writing life. The collection highlights his late-in-life MFA study, a collaboration with photographer Sam Joyner and an award-winning creative run in Oklahoma.

Why it matters: - Steve Gerkin’s three-book release shows how one writer can move across photography, fiction, poetry and criticism without losing a common focus on observation and craft. - The books also preserve personal and literary history, including a collaboration shaped by friendship, a body of previously unpublished work and a guide to how effective writing works.

What happened: - Tulsa author Steve Gerkin has brought out three books: Echoes of Light: Images into Writing, Tomorrow Starts Today & Other Stories and What Makes Them Tick: Historic Writers Exposed. - The books were presented as a new chapter in Gerkin’s writing career and as a broader portrait of his interests in creativity, memory and legacy. - Gerkin’s work spans creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, historical writing and literary craft.

The details: - Echoes of Light: Images into Writing grew out of Gerkin’s collaboration with Tulsa photographer Sam Joyner. - Joyner worried that hundreds of his black-and-white photographs could end up unseen in storage. - Gerkin helped turn those images into a collaborative book built around 49 photographs and literary responses. - The project uses ekphrasis, where writing responds creatively to visual art. - The writing in the book moves through creative nonfiction, historical nonfiction, flash fiction, poetry and historical fiction. - The images serve as starting points for stories, memories, characters and imagined scenes. - Gerkin delivered boxes of the finished book to Joyner in December 2024, when Joyner’s health had declined. - Joyner died on Father’s Day 2026. - Gerkin said Joyner told him, “These came just in time.” - Tomorrow Starts Today & Other Stories collects 31 previously unpublished pieces. - The collection includes fiction, nonfiction and poetry developed during Gerkin’s MFA studies at Lesley University and workshops at the University of Iowa. - The subjects include discrimination, protests, coming of age, gangsters and humor. - Gerkin began his MFA studies at 72. - What Makes Them Tick: Historic Writers Exposed examines 18 historic writers and the techniques behind their work. - The book looks at writers including John Steinbeck, Joan Didion, Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson. - It focuses on craft elements such as imagery, characterization, satire and point of view. - The book is positioned as a resource for both developing and experienced writers. - The title encourages readers to look beneath finished prose to see how writing creates interest, personality and meaning.

Between the lines: - The three books are linked by a single idea: attention. - In Echoes of Light, attention starts with a photograph. - In Tomorrow Starts Today, attention turns to experience and language. - In What Makes Them Tick, attention shifts to the mechanics of literary technique. - Gerkin’s path also reflects a late-career creative arc, with formal writing study beginning after he had already built a long professional life. - His recognition includes the 2025 Oklahoma Book Award for Design and Photography for Echoes of Light. - Gerkin also presented “Echoes of Art: Writing Ekphrasis that Transcends the Frame” at WriterCon in Oklahoma City in 2025. - His work is closely tied to Tulsa’s literary community and the surrounding regional scene.

What’s next: - Gerkin’s books now serve as both finished works and reference points for readers interested in image-based writing, unpublished fiction and the study of literary craft. - The collection points to a continuing role for Gerkin as a writer, mentor and participant in Tulsa’s literary culture. - For more information about Steve Gerkin and his work, visit Steve Gerkin’s website.

The bottom line: - Steve Gerkin’s three-book release is less about genre than about range: preserving images, revisiting unpublished writing and breaking down the techniques that make literature work.