Austin Sunrise

Phil Oakley is a writer, educator, filmmaker, journalist and executive. He is the author of eight novels. He began working on his first one in the spring of 1964, while a freshman at The University of Texas at Austin. That book finally reached publication fifty years later in 2014. In addition to writing, Phil currently works as a paraprofessional educator at Kennedale High School. Previously, he served as Director of the Louisiana Film Commission, was a regional executive of The Walt Disney Company, supervising coverage for ABC News in the southwestern United States and Latin America. He also was an editor/producer for The Dallas Morning News. As a journalist, Phil won national awards from Columbia University, the Radio-Television News Directors' Association and a National Headliners Award. He covered presidents and presidential campaigns, beginning with Lyndon Johnson and extending through the terms of George W. Bush. Phil was born in Austin during the last days of World War II. He lives in Arlington, Texas with his wife, the former Nancy Matens of Baton Rouge. Both are graduates of Louisiana State University. They have two sons and one granddaughter.

"An epic in the mold of Larry McMurtry that follows the Oakley family from turn of the century New Mexico into Prohibition-era Texas. For those who like action, there's plenty of that interspersed throughout the multi-layered character studies that make up the core of the novel. But it's the humanity of the family and the deft hand for historic detail that is the real selling point here. Oakley has imbued his characters with a rare richness and their basic decentness in a world undergoing vast change is all too recognizable. This is storytelling with heart for those who like depth-filled characters contemplating on family, time's passage, and hard lessons learned." - Allen Houston, author of the Nightfall Gardens series