W.K. STRATTON
W.K. (Kip) Stratton 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 titles. He also won the Western Heritage Award for Last Red Dirt Embrace, as well as many other awards.
Kip was born in Guthrie, Oklahoma, but has lived in Texas most of his life. Both his parents' families had deep roots in the West. His mother's family homesteaded outside Guthrie during the Great Land Run of 1889. and his father was a rodeo cowboy from Denver's skid row -- and a runaway dad -- who became the subject of Stratton's Chasing the Rodeo.
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While working as a newspaper reporter, Kip attended the University of Central Oklahoma earning a Bachelor's and Master's degrees in English (with honors). He later received a Master’s degree in English, submitting a novel for his thesis.
While in college, Stratton studied fiction writing under the popular novelist Marilyn Harris (Springer) and participated in seminars and workshops by the likes of notable writers such as James Dickey, William Stafford, Donald Hall, and N. Scott Momaday.​
Kip 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's been published in magazines such as Texas Monthly, GQ, Outside, Sports Illustrated, Texas Observer, and many more. In 2016, he won the Edwin "Bud" Shrake Award for his Texas Monthly essay, "My Brother's Secret."
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His first book, Backyard Brawl, was released in 2002. Chasing the Rodeo followed in 2005, as did a book he edited with longtime friend Jan Reid, Splendor in the Short Grass. That year, he was also inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters.
Later in his career, Kip trained as a boxer, bringing him into contact with prizefighters, promoters, and managers, including Anissa Zamarrom, who became the subject of his 2009 release, 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. In 2022, he was a finalist for the National Magazine Award.