OTHER BOOKS
RANCHERO FORD / DYING IN RED DIRT COUNTRY
FLOYD PATTERSON
DREAMING SAM PECKINPAH
BACKYARD BRAWL
HONORS & AWARDS
FELLOW, Texas Institute of Letters
(2017, just the 16th member to be named a Fellow since 1936)
PRESIDENT, Texas Institute of Letters
(2012-14)
"My Brother's Secret," TEXAS MONTHLY, February 2015—Winner, Edwin "Bud" Shrake Award for Short Nonfiction
RANCHERO FORD/DYING IN RED DIRT COUNTRY—Shortlisted, P.E.N. Southwest Book Award
FLOYD PATTERSON—Finalist, P.E.N./E.S.P.N. Award for Literary Sports Writing; Phillis Wheatley Book Award for Nonfiction; winner, Oklahoma Book Award, Writers League of Texas Nonfiction Book Award
DREAMING SAM PECKINPAH—Finalist, Bush Memorial Award
SPENDOR IN THE SHORT GRASS—Finalist, Carr P. Collins Award
CHASING THE RODEO—Finalist, Carr P. Collins Award
BACKYARD BRAWL—Finalist, Oklahoma Book Award
COLO—STATE—PEN:
18456
William Kip Stratton – friends call him by his middle name – is the Los Angeles Times bestselling author of The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film and eight other books. He was born in Guthrie, Oklahoma, but has lived much of his life in Texas. Both his mother's and father's families had deep roots in the West. His mother's family homesteaded outside Guthrie during the Great Land Run of 1889. His father was a rodeo cowboy from Denver's skid row as well as a runaway dad.He became the subject of Stratton's book, Chasing the Rodeo.
Stratton put himself through what’s now known as the University of Central Oklahoma while working as a newspaper reporter, taking a degree in English with honors. He later received a Master’s degree in English from the same school, submitting a novel for his thesis.While in college, he studied fiction writing under the popular novelist Marilyn Harris (Springer). He also had the opportunity to participate in seminars and workshops by the likes of James Dickey, William Stafford, Donald Hall, and N. Scott Momaday.
Stratton has worked as a newspaper journalist (Tulsa World) and a high tech manager to support his writing career. He has maintained a long freelance association with the Dallas Morning News. In addition, he has been published in such magazines as Texas Monthly, GQ, Outside, Sports Illustrated, Mayborn,Southern Magazine, and Texas Observer. (He won the 2016 Edwin "Bud" Shrake Award for his Texas Monthly essay, "My Brother's Secret.")
His first book, Backyard Brawl, appeared in 2002. Chasing the Rodeo followed in 2005, as did a book he edited with his longtime friend Jan Reid, Splendor in the Short Grass. That year he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.
In middle age, Stratton began training as a boxer. This brought him into contact with prizefighters, promoters, and managers. One person he befriended was two-time female boxing champion Anissa Zamarron. In 2009, he published his book about her rise from a troubled adolescence to prominence in women's boxing, Boxing Shadows. In 2011, his book of poetry, Dreaming Sam Peckinpah, was published to acclaim. That same year, he was a speaker at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference.
Floyd Patterson: The Fighting Life of Boxing’s Invisible Champion was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2012. Also in 2012, Stratton was elected President of the Texas Institute of Letters.In 2015, he published Ranchero Ford/Dying in Red Dirt Country, his second volume of poetry; Colo—State—Pen:18456 appeared in 2018. He lives in suburban Austin, Texas.
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BIO
