April Author Talk: Ronda Miller

Author of: I Love the Child

Winner: 2020 Kansas Authors Club Children's Book Award


Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here​
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Ronda will be talking about education vs. entertainment, the importance of layered messaging, finding and working with an illustrator, inclusivity, and her objectives in writing this book.

Don't forget to support our Kansas Authors! Buy a book. Review a book. Send a note of appreciation about a book. You can order Ronda's book from her publisher, Kellogg Press, or wherever you buy books!

May Author Talk:
Roy Beckemeyer

Stage Whispers

Winner:
2019 Nelson Poetry Book Award


Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here​
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Roy will talk about the writing of his poetry book, Stage Whispers. Discussion will include how the chapters and layout came about, and how the poems were assigned to the chapters. He will read from the book as part of the discussion.

Don't forget to support our Kansas Authors! Buy a book. Review a book. Send a note of appreciation about a book. You can order Roy's book from publisher, Meadowlark Press, or wherever you buy books!

Deadline Extended: April 20, 2021

The William Allen White Community Partnership is looking for poems, stories, and essays for an anthology about the legacy of William Allen White. The project is a fundraiser to support  Red Rocks, the WAW home in Emporia.

Not sure what to submit? How about an essay about your time as a student at the WAW School of Journalism at KU? What about a poem inspired by time spent at Peter Pan Park, a site donated to the city of Emporia by the Whites after the death of their daughter, Mary. Perhaps you attended the William Allen White grade school in Emporia and have stories you could share. Have you been to Red Rocks? Did you ever work for the Emporia Gazette? 

Send your questions and entries to Kerry Moyer. Kerry is a District 2 member, our state prose contest manager, and he serves as a board member for the William Allen White Community Partnership. 

Kerry Moyer, District 2 member, was a guest speaker for Riverside Elementary School's Reading Across America Event (March 1) Of the event, Kerry says, "Getting to talk about writing and poetry with kids was a lot of fun!"

   Denise Low, a former Poet Laureate of Kansas, will speak on Zoom this Saturday, March 27 @ 1:30 PM (CST).
   Whether you write poetry or prose, Professor Low will read poetry from her newest book, Wing, and explain how the two genres are alike and different in order to show and tell.
   Denise Low, Ph.D., has taught creative writing at the University of Richmond and the University of Kansas, and she founded the creative writing program at Haskell Indian Nations University, where she taught 25 years.
   Denise will be joining the meeting from her home in Healdsburg, CA.
   If you're interested in attending this free virtual event, contact Jim Potter, jim@copintheclassroom.com or 620-899-3144.

March Author Talk:
Michael D. Graves

All Hallows' Shadows

Winner:
2020 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award


Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here​
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At 7 p.m. on March 27, Meadowlark Press will be hosting a virtual book launch event, and you're invited! Kevin will read from the collection and will be answering your questions and chatting it up with you. Register for the event at tinyurl.com/MTWbooklaunch
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Antonio Sanchez-Day was a poet and an active member of KAC District 2, since 2018. He listed poetry, memoir and nonfiction as his areas of interest. He volunteered as a creative writing instructor at the Douglas County Jail. His book of poetry, Taking on Life, was published by Coal City Press in 2019. 

​If you have memories to share of Antonio, please submit them to the website manager. 


A review of Taking on Life, by D2 member, Tyler Robert Sheldon, in Tinderbox Poetry Journal.

An article about Antonio Sanchez-Day and editor/mentor Brian Daldorph, published by the University of Kansas.

Link to poem "I have been alone" by Antonio Sanchez-Day, published at The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative. 

Antonio's obituary can be read here.

Left: Antonio and Mike Hartnett
Right: Brian Daldorph, Mike Hartnett, and Antonio Sanchez-Day

Photos shared by Brian Daldorph.

Members,

Take some time to review the contest guidelines for 2021. We open for submissions on April 1. 

This year's theme is "Writing Through Difficulties." The contest features eight prose and eight poetry categories, with cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awarded at the 2021 Convention in October. 

We also have youth writing contests. Please share this opportunity with your young people and friends and teachers who work with youth. 

Our annual writing contests are open to individuals residing in Kansas and current members of Kansas Authors Club, regardless of residence. Members receive a discounted rate on entries.

The first KAC newsletter of 2021 will be available digitally and will be mailed on April 2. We need member submissions by 3/22. We want to add some articles and are specifically looking for pieces about the KAC writing contests, especially ones that would encourage others to enter. Please send questions and/or submissions to member Curtis Becker.
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Perry Shepard, District 2 President, will be at KKFI 90.1 on 31 March, 2021 from 12:00-1:00pm. KKFI is a Kansas City Public Radio 

About Perry:
The novel Hero Versus Me and Monkey Jo was published in 2019 through Anamcara Press LLC. My second novel titled Hard Love is scheduled to be published in 2021. I have a third novel simmering at this writing. I have two books of poetry ready for publishing titled A Rhythmic Electric Circus of Sound Part 66; A.R.E.C.O.S Part 66 has been pre-launched and Restless Fugitive. I have won a national poetry contest second place award for one of my poems and published in The Best Amateur Poets in 2014. In Writer’s Digest 84th poetry competition I won an honorable mention. In 2019 I won two honorable mentions in the Kansas Authors Club statewide writing contest for a short story and a play. In the 2020 Kansas Authors Club statewide writing contest I won a fist place award for a play and a short story.

I am the President of Kansas Authors Club, District 2. I have been published in newspapers, college poetry collections and fanzines. I am also a visual artist in several mediums. I have been a member on the board of directors on a Community Radio Station in Salt Lake City (KRCL) and one of the founders of the Utah Music Association. I was the Mayor and President of Harveysburg Village Council in Harveysburg, Ohio. I owned and operated the Painted Word Emporium in Salt Lake City an art gallery, performance hall and restaurant. I was director of educational programs in Job Corps for 25 years. I still work with youth in crisis. I am a Vietnam Veteran.
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Man has always felt the need to express himself. Not only through grunts, sign language and words, but by putting something down that will remain after he has moved on.

The use of Ogam, an ancient Celtic language, has been traced back as far as 2000 B.C. Ogam is written in a series of perpendicular parallel lines similar to the bar system found on items in a modern day store. Ogam writing has been uncovered at about fifty sites along a 100-mile corridor in Colorado’s southwestern corner and the Oklahoma Panhandle. Why did the early inhabitants need a written form of communication? Perhaps to call people together for religious reasons, trade, or to record a story of an event. One Ogam inscription is a kind of calendar that tells when a certain grain should be planted.

Almost everyone is familiar with rock art, which not only is found in America and credited to Native Americans, but is found all over the world. Rock art is a very general term for pecking, incising or painting designs onto natural rock surfaces.

In modern America, the most common kind of “rock” art is that which is painted on concrete and brick walls of our cities and along our highways. In modern American culture, as in all cultures, it expresses the values, attitudes, beliefs, and desires of society … the need to express ourselves. Writing is an important outlet for self-expression and the release of tensions, anxieties, and conflicts. Some individuals feel this urge to write more strongly than others.

Apparently down through the years, man’s need and desire to use writing as a way to communicate and express his feelings has not changed. Because of this inherent need and love of writing, The Kansas Authors Club was organized 116 years ago in 1904. The first president was Henry W. Roby. Kansas Authors Club is Kansas’ oldest writing organization. Since its inception, many famous writers have been counted among its members: Eugene Ware (Ironquill), Margaret Hill McCarter, William Allen White, Dr. Charles Shelton, Dr. Karl Menninger, and Senator Arthur Caper, to name a few. Today’s members are in excellent company.
    
The Kansas Authors Club still is meeting the need. As Professor I. B. Morgan, President of Kansas Author’s Club in 1935-’36 noted—the movement has been “forward and upward.” Professor Morgan stated that the nation at that time was in need of constructive literary productions teaching the sterling qualities of good citizenship, civic responsibility, the sovereignty of the people and a keen sense of duty.

People respond to writing, in whatever form, and find their imaginations stimulated, their sense of wonder awakened, and the horizons of their world pushed back just a little. It is only at the moment when a viewer responds to what is communicated by art or writing that the work becomes complete. In fact, the work is actually finished anew each time it is viewed, for no two viewers will see and respond in exactly the same way.
 
While writing fulfills the need and desire, the challenge still is there for us today. We can sate our need and love of writing, but we are challenged to do our best. To quote a poem by Edwin Markham:

Marie Fletcher joined Kansas Authors Club in 1990. She worked as a typesetter and proof reader for her local newspaper, The Leoti Standard, for 10 years from 1974 to 1984. Marie says, "Writing is sort of an inherited trait in our family, and while working there I wrote several articles that they used in the paper. In 1990 I became a member of Kansas Authors Club, 7th District, and really enjoyed what I learned, as well as entering the writing contests in prose and poetry. I’ve had articles published in Reminisce, Country, Colorado Fence Post, Birds and Blooms, Good Old Days, Best Times, Older and Bolder and a few others. Also, some in our local paper which is now The Native Sun.

District 5 member Ann Fell launched her latest book this month. Undoubtedly a divergence from her previous books--hardly suspense fiction and there’s not a single piano in its pages--Grandma Georgia’s Recipe File was a fulfilling project in several ways.

Fell explained, “It was heartening to go back and spend time in memories with my grandmother, to read her letters again, and discover how my life fits into family and regional history. When contemplating the future, it’s helpful to remember where we came from, the pillars that support us.”

In the downtime of COVID restrictions, Fell discovered healing through memories. Designing and publishing a book of family recipes to surprise her grandmother’s granddaughters, (now all grandmothers themselves) was good medicine. Beyond that, she took advantage of this opportunity to engage in a learning experience on formatting books for publication, a skill she highly recommends to anyone who is bitten by the writing bug. “It’s not as hard as I always thought,” she said.

The idea of publishing family recipes is one she also recommends. “It’s astonishing how much positive attention this book release has received.” Everyone loves a family cookbook, even if it doesn’t originate in your family. In a very real way, our stories are told by the food we prepare, share, and eat.

Copies of Grandma Georgia’s Recipe File can be ordered  from Ann Fell or from Amazon by clicking the button below.

Duane Herrmann reports more poetry publications. Congratulations, Duane!

Six poems beginning on p.76 of Hawaii Review. 

Two of my poems will be in: Iris 1.4 – "I Didn't Know," and "Wanting to be Dead"


"The Short of it," several short pieces, prose and poetry,
reblogged on: The Reluctant Poet, some of which will be included in the print anthology of last year's postings.

Just Place Chapbook, the poem "Miles and Miles"

Six of my poems have appeared in the print anthology, To The Newspaper Again, from Poet's Choice (Mumbai, India), which just arrived.

And, two more poems were published in the first issue of the 2021 Quarterly of the Topeka Genealogical Society.

If you have news of writing events that would be of interest to all Kansas Authors Club members, or if you are a member (dues current) who would like to announce an achievement, please submit your news via this form. ​

District 1 member, Ruth Maus, and District 2 member, Brian Daldorph, will be featured poets at the Birdy Poetry Prize Virtual Readings and 2021 Winner & Finalist Announcement. Meadowlark Press invites all Kansas Authors Club members to attend.