Blog Archives - Kansas Authors Club

Welcome, Andrea Rome of District 2

10/8/2024

Andrea Rome is an indie fantasy author who works as a healthcare actuary during the week to fund her writing habit. She can regularly be found scribbling away on her lunch break or at any number of coffee shops in the KC Metro Area. Her debut novel, The Standard Book of Anything, was released in January 2024 and has been named a finalist in the Sci-Fi Fantasy category of the Kindle Book awards. Andrea intends to make this initial story into a trilogy and is at work revising her draft of book two. Andrea is a native Kansan who resides in Overland Park with her extrovert husband of seven years, Jay, and their two tabby cat overlords.

Look for Andrea on:
Instagram (@andreahrome)
Goodreads(https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/47749461.Andrea_H_Rome)
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/people/Andrea-H-Rome-Author/61555439201293/?_rdr)
or on her website (https://andreahrome.com/)

Welcome to KAC, Andrea! We're glad to have you and any feline overlords join us.

Save the Date: Annual Meeting of the General Membership - October 19

10/8/2024

Please join us for the Annual Meeting of the General Membership

October 19, 2024
1:30 p.m.

Zoom Link will be sent to members mid-October.

Program includes membership awards, membership recruitment recognition, and voting for your 2025 State Officers.

Barton Community College Prairie Ink Literary Annual Open for Submissions

10/7/2024

Writers and artists in Barton, Pawnee, Rice, Rush, Ellsworth, Russell, and Stafford counties are encouraged to submit their work for publication in Barton Community College's literary annual Prairie Ink, due for a new issue to be published in April of 2025.

BCC is looking for "fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, drama, literary criticism, and those graphic narratives that can be successfully reproduced into black and white photography." Submission guidelines can be found on their website. Submissions are open until the Sunday after Thanksgiving - December 1, 2024.

You are Invited to Open Mic (a monthly virtual event on Zoom)

10/7/2024

October 8, 2024
7:00 PM
Hosted by Kristine A. Polansky

It's the 2nd Zoom Link on this page (click here)

Member sign-on required for the above link.

How does Open Mic work?

7:00-7:10pm – we check in, sign up to read, greet each other and celebrate victories
7:10-7:55 – Readers share in order of sign-up. Plan on no more than 3-4 minutes. Please be polite to your fellow readers. Time yourself in advance and give yourself a cutoff point. If there is plenty of time, attendees will get a 2nd opportunity to read.

Why should you attend Open Mic with Kansas Authors Club? There are so many reasons! It's a safe space to read if you are new to sharing your work. For more seasoned writers, it's a great way to test new material, see if it gets the response you are looking for. Best of all, it's a good way to get to know fellow writers!

September Monthly Program Recording is Now Available

10/7/2024

The recording of the September program is now available for viewing by members at this link. (Member sign-on required.) This video will be available until replaced by the November program recording.

2024 Kansas Authors Club Literary Contest: Prose Results

10/7/2024

Prose Contest Manager - K.L. Barron

Kristine A. Polansky, Anne Spry, and Janice Lee McClure

Prose Theme Contest: Words Take Flight: Choose Your Own Adventure (15 entries)

First Place: “The Cave” by Janice Lee McClure, D7

Second Place: “Up La Luz Trail With Penny” by Janice Lee McClure, D7

Third Place: “Encountering Hunger, Death, and Adventure in the Peace Corps” by Anne L. Spry, D1

Honorable Mention: “Bridge Over Cimarron” by Amy D. Kliewer, D5

Honorable Mention: “You Just Never Know” by Kristine A. Polansky, D4

Sandra Lou Talyor and S.L. Brown

Stories Written for Young Readers (14 entries)

First Place: “Catfish” by S.L. Brown, D2

Second Place: “Be Brave Bertie” by S.L. Brown, D2

Third Place: “Areon” by Sandra Lou Taylor, D5

Honorable Mention: “A Treasured Glow” by Abbi Lee, D5

Joe Bollig, S.L. Brown, and Julie A. Sellers

Short Story (14 entries)

First Place: “Sunflower State of Mind” by Julie A. Sellers, D1

Second Place: “Ficklin, Kansas” by S.L. Brown, D2

Third Place: “At the Roadside” by Robin St. James

Honorable Mention: “Just Another Day” by Ashley Masoni Huber, NM

Honorable Mention: “Dick Banal, Private Eye: Sticky Situation” by Joe Bollig, D2

Cynthia Mines, Janice Lee McClure, and Hazel Hart

Memoir/Inspiration (29 entries)

First Place: “Last One on the Line” by Don Money, D3

Second Place: “Students on a Stick” by Roger Heineken, D2

Third Place: “Breathe In, Release” by Cynthia Mines, D5

Honorable Mention: “Someone Else” by Hazel Hart, D2

Honorable Mention: “Idaho, 1950” by Janice Lee McClure, D7

Gretchen Cassel Eick and Julie A. Sellers

Humor (16 entries)

First Place: “Waiting for Daddy” by Kimberlee Bethany Bonura, D2

Second Place: “Local Professor Jailed for Crime of Fashion” by Julie A. Sellers, D1

Third Place: “The Brain Trade” by Gretchen Cassel Eick, D5

Honorable Mention: “How Gemma Changed My Life” by Margaret McKay, D5

Honorable Mention: “Brotherly Affection” by Amy D. Kliewer, D5

Sandra Lou Taylor, Hazel Hart, S.L. Brown, and Julie A. Sellers

Flash Fiction (8 entries)

First Place: “Distant Grief” by Kimberlee Bethany Bonura, D2

Second Place: “What She Ordered” by Hazel Hart, D2

Third Place: “Outlook” by Gretchen Burch, D2

Honorable Mention: “My Big Chance” by Sandra Lou Taylor, D5

Honorable Mention: “A Word Edgewise” by Hazel Hart, D2

Honorable Mention: “Deja New” by S.L. Brown, D2

Honorable Mention: “The Good Mood” by Julie A. Sellers, D1

Jerilynn Henrikson and Mike Graves (above her in the Zoom window)

First Chapter of a Novel (17 entries)

First Place: “The Yellow-Wellie Incident: An Inspector Wigford “Wiggy” Thorpe Mystery” by Kathleen E. Kaska, D2

Second Place: “A Mystery in Two Voices” by Michael D. Graves and Jerilynn Henrikson, D2

Third Place: “Birth of a Warrior” by Elmer Fuller, NM

Honorable Mention: “Shadows Deep” by Michael D. Graves, D2

Honorable Mention: “A History of Madness” by Alisha Davis, NM

Tracy Million Simmons and Julie A. Sellers

Playwriting (4 entries)

First Place: “The Magic Lamp” by Julie A. Sellers, D1

Second Place: “Community Meeting Chaos” by Cynthia Schaker, D5

Third Place: “The Heavenly Lounge” by Tracy Million Simmons, D2

S.L. Brown and Julie Ann Baker Brin

Prose Rural Voices (11 entries)

First Place: “Salt Plant” by Amy D. Kliewer, D5

Second Place: “Buried Treasure” by Julie Ann Baker Brin, D5

Third Place: “Stealing Dinner” by S.L. Brown, D2

2024 Kansas Authors Club Literary Contest: Poetry Results

10/7/2024

contest manager, Janice Northerns

S.L. Brown and Gretchn Burch

Theme “Words Take Flight, Choose Your Own Adventure” (27 entries)

1st Place: “To The Blueberry-Picking Festival” by Gretchen Burch, D2

2ndPlace: “middling paper” by April Pameticky, D5

3rd Place: “Sitting With The Cottonwoods” by Kelly Johnston, D5

Honorable Mention: “Firewatch” by Kelly Johnston, D5

Honorable Mention: “Sometimes now, words escape me” by Iris E. Craver, D2

April Pameticky, Brenda L. White, Julie Ann Baker Brin, and Gretchen Burch

Free Verse (51 entries)

1st Place: “Sixteen” by Gretchen Burch, D2

2nd Place: “Scars” by Judy Oliver, D5

3rd Place: Home of the Brave(s) by Julie Ann Baker Brin, D5

Honorable Mention: “Ekphrastic Mother/ Daughter Collaboration” by K. L. Barron, writer (D4) and Shawnee Barron (photographer)

Honorable Mention: “Itty Bitty Bio” by Jean Grant, D2

Honorable Mention: “Leaving” by Brenda White, D2

Honorable Mention: “On Speaking with My Brother Who is Dying” by Jeanice Eagan Davis, D5

Honorable Mention: “thursday in the shadow of kesoo” by April Pameticky, D5

Narrative (30 entries )

1st Place: “salt” by April Pameticky, D5

2nd Place: “High Plains Childhood: Spirits” by Janice Lee McClure, D7

3rd Place: “Eclipse” by Julie A. Sellers, D1

Honorable Mention: “you dreamed so hard it felt like permanence” by April Pameticky, D5

Honorable Mention: “Planting” by Arlice W. Davenport, D5

Honorable Mention: “Kansas is Burning” by Jeanice Eagan Davis, D5

Honorable Mention” “Fossils” by Kelly Johnston, D5

Janice Lee McClure

Classic Forms, 10 entries

1st Place: “Ghost” by Janice Lee McClure, D7

2nd Place: “Frozen Rain” by Janice Lee McClure, D7

3rd Place: “Wild At Heart” by Janice Lee McClure, D7

No HMs

Sam Barrett and Gretchen Burch

New Poets, 18 entries

1st Place: “Music Lessons” by Gretchen Burch, D2

2nd Place: “Sick as Dogs” by Samantha L. Barrett, D5

3rd Place: “Circus” by Gretchen Burch, D2

Honorable Mention: “Permission” by Gretchen Burch, D2

Honorable Mention: “Polka Dots” by Cynthia Schaker, D5

Kristine A. Polansky and Janice Lee McClure

Whimsy, 28 entries

1st Place: “Rebel with a Cause” by Janice Lee McClure, D5

2nd Place: “The King at the Door” by Arlice W. Davenport, D5

3rd Place: “Vultures” by Kristine A. Polansky, D4

Honorable Mention: “Dog in the Sun” by Arlice W. Davenport, D5

Honorable Mention: “What a Maroon!” by Arlice W. Davenport, D5

Julie Ann Baker Brin and Kristine A. Polansky

Japanese Forms, 15 entries

1st Place: “Oh, Sweet Canada” by Kristine A. Polansky, D4

2nd Place: “Swept” by Julie Ann Baker Brin, D5

3rd Place: “Mountain Haiku” by Jeanice Eagan Davis, D5

Honorable Mention: “Summer Night” by Aimee L. Gross, D1

Honorable Mention: “Mists Silence the Trees” by Kristine A. Polansky, D4

Jancie Lee McClure, Ashley Clayton Kay, and Gretchen Burch

Rural voices, 32 entries

1st place: "What I Hate About Living in the Country" by Gretchen Burch, D2

2nd place: "Hay Work" by Tim Keane, D4

3rd place: "Turning 7 in March" by Ashley Clayton Kay, D2

Honorable mention: "High Plains Childhood: Summer" by Janice Lee McClure, D7

Honorable mention: "Sledding in the Flatlands” by Jeanice Eagan Davis, D5

Poetry Chapbook Contest, 3 entries

1st, Published chapbook: Picking Fights in Book Club by Beth Gulley, D2

1st, Craft chapbook: faux pas: goofs, gaffes & other blunders by Martha Wherry, D5

Thank You to our Judges for the 2024 Prose & Poetry Writing Contests!

10/7/2024

Kansas Authors Club owes many thanks to our judges this year, whose contributions of time and expertise make our annual contests possible. Please take some time to give back to these individuals by making yourself familiar with their names and their work!

2024 Prose Contest Judges

Theme Contest: Words Take Flight: Choose Your Own Adventure
Jeffrey Ann Goudie is an award-winning freelance writer and book critic. Her book reviews have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Kansas City Star, the New York Times Book Review and the Women’s Review of Books. A former newspaper columnist for the Topeka Capital-Journal and the Topeka Metro News, she has written opinion pieces for the Kansas Reflector and the Huffington Post. Her cover story about Edythe Squier Draper, a Southeast Kansas short story writer, was a cover story in the Little Balkans Review and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She has written many profiles of notable Topekans for Topeka Magazine. She is a long-time member of the National Book Critics Circle and the National Federation of Press Women. Raised in Midland, Texas, she considers herself a Kansan by choice. She is married to writer Thomas Fox Averill. They have two grown children.

Stories Written for Young Readers
Lindsay H. Metcalf is a former journalist who writes award-winning nonfiction and poetry for young people. She is a co-editor of and contributor to several young activist poetry anthologies, including No Voice Too Small, which won the International Literacy Association’s 2021 Social Justice Award, and No World Too Big, which won the 2024 Green Earth Book Award. Two of her picture books were named Junior Library Guild selections: Outdoor Farm, Indoor Farm and Farmers Unite! Planting a Protest for Fair Prices, a Kansas Notable Book and Bank Street Best Book of 2020. Her 2020 debut, the picture book biography Beatrix Potter, Scientist, won the Friends of American Writers Young People’s Literature Award. Lindsay began her writing career as a reporter, editor, and columnist for The Kansas City Star and other news outlets. She lives in Concordia, Kansas, with her husband, two sons, and a geriatric cat and a mischievous puppy. Learn more at lindsayhmetcalf.com and @lindsayhmetcalf on social media.

Short Story
Susan Jackson Rodgers is the author of the novel This Must Be the Place (2017), as well as two story collections: The Trouble with You Is and Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6. Her stories and essays have appeared in journals such as New England Review, Colorado Review, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, River Teeth, and Brevity. She is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize Special Mentions and past winner of the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition. Originally from Connecticut and New York City, Susan taught creative writing at Kansas State University for 15 years. Currently she is a professor of creative writing and literature at Oregon State University. She has served as the director of the OSU MFA program and on the Board of Directors for the Associated Writers and Writing Programs. Susan has been the associate dean of the OSU Honors College since 2020.

Memoir/Inspiration
Cathleen Bascom—Literary Bishop
After a Creative Writing B.A., I earned an M.A. in Modern English Literature at Exeter University in England, where my focus was the literary devices used by C.S. Lewis and G.K Chesterton to portray religious experience. I also became fascinated with Henry James’ multivalent use of pronouns. However, while skiing in the Alps on winter holiday, I came to peace with my calling to the Episcopal priesthood and went home to America. I served in parish ministry for decades.

I returned to literary studies and to writing, earning an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Environment through Iowa State University’s cutting-edge cross-disciplinary program. I also served as Assistant Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Waldorf University teaching biblical literature as well as honors and English courses in which prairie restoration, plains writers, and George Harrison of Beatles-fame were given attention. In 2018, I was honored as Faculty of the Year.

I was ordained and consecrated as the 10th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas early in 2019 at Grace Cathedral, Topeka. The chief consecrator was then Presiding Bishop Michael Curry (of Royal Wedding fame.)
As Bishop in Kansas, creation care and prairie preservation and restoration remain important priorities. We have transformed three acres of diocesan lawn in downtown Topeka (just blocks west of the State Capitol) into public gardens that include a teaching prairie, culinary food garden, outdoor chapel, and prayer spaces. A labyrinth is coming!

I am married to Tim Bascom, author of five books and literary companion. We have two adult sons, Conrad and Luke. I like to garden, cross country ski, travel, and enjoy the blessings of family and friends.

Humor
Becky Mandelbaum is the author of the novel The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals and the story collection Bad Kansas. Her work has received a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in The New Yorker, One Story, The Sun, The Georgia Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and elsewhere. She has received support from Hedgebrook, Writing by Writers, The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, Lighthouse Works, and the Washington Arts Commission. Originally from Kansas, she now lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Flash Fiction
Judy Bauer earned an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Kansas and holds a master’s in counseling from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She worked as a counselor, teacher and social worker. She won the 2009 Langston Hughes Award for her novel in progress and was a Pushcart Nominee for the short story “Click” published in Coal City Review 24:2007. Her short-short “Before You Understand—After Diane Williams” was published in Coal City Review 21:2006. Coal City Review published her short story “Before With Other Men If I Had Tried” in the 30:2012 issue. Her poems “Matter” and “High Anxiety” will be published in October 2024 in Sea Change, Island Writers Network 25th Anniversary Anthology, Hilton Head, South Carolina. Connect with Judy at www.judybauerwrites.com

First Chapter of a Book
Marcia Peck’s debut novel, Water Music: A Cape Cod Story, runner-up for the Faulkner Wisdom Award for an unpublished novel, was released in 2023 by Sea Crow Press.

Marcia’s award-winning fiction has appeared in New Millenium Writings, Chautauqua Journal, Gemini Magazine, Glimmer Train, 26 Minnesota Writers (Nodine Press), Tribute to Orpheus 2 (Kearney Books), three volumes of Open to Interpretation: Fading Light (Taylor and O’Neill), A Sense of Place: Cape Women Writers, among others. Her flash fiction, “Long Distance,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Essays have appeared in Showcase: the Magazine of the Minnesota Orchestra, Strad Magazine, Strings Magazine, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Musical America.

Before joining the cello section of the Minnesota Orchestra, Marcia studied cello at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Schumann Konservatorium in Düsseldorf. Her life in music has inspired her to look for the rhythms and sounds of music echoed in language.

Marcia’s current novel-in-progress, The Unattended Moment, was a finalist for the Faulkner-Wisdom Novel-in-Progress award.

Playwriting
Catherine Trieschmann's plays include CROOKED (New York Times Critic’s Pick), HOW THE WORLD BEGAN (Four stars, The London Times), HOT GEORGIA SUNDAY (Four stars, Chicago Time Out), THE MOST DESERVING, HOLY LAUGHTER, and ONE HOUSE OVER. They have been produced Off-Broadway at the Women’s Project Theater, in London at the Bush Theater and with Out-of-Joint at the Arcola Theatre, South Coast Repertory, the Denver Theater Center for Performing Arts, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Geva Theatre Center, Florida Stage, and Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, among others. She has received commissions from South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theater Club, Denver Center for Performing Arts, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Geva Theatre Center and the William Inge Theatre Festival. She’s the recipient of the Weissberger Award, the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award from the Willian Inge Playwriting Festival and a two-time Edgerton New Play awardee. Her plays are published by Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing and Methuen. Ms. Trieschmann has also served as a teaching artist, instructing students in playwriting, acting and improv for Arena Stage, the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and at universities around the country. She holds an MFA from the University of Georgia and lives in a small town in Western Kansas.

Prose: Rural Voices
Raylene Hinz-Penner, lifetime Kansan, grew up in the southwest corner near Liberal on a dairy farm. Retired from a career teaching creative writing and American literature at Bethel College in North Newton and Washburn University in Topeka, she writes about place and how it shapes its inhabitants. In 2007 she published Searching for Sacred Ground: the Story of Peace Chief Lawrence Hart (Mennonite); in 2022 she published a memoir featuring place, East of Liberal: Notes on the Land. Her current writing is in support of educating herself and her community on how farming settlement in Kansas dislocated Native peoples. She lives in North Newton.

2024 Poetry Contest Judges

Theme “Words Take Flight, Choose Your Own Adventure”
David Cazden was the poetry editor for the magazine, Miller's Pond, for five years. He is the author of three collections of poetry, Moving Picture (Word Press, 2005), The Lost Animals (Sundress Publications, 2012) and forthcoming, Kentucky Pathways (Bainbridge Island Press, 2024). David's poetry has appeared widely in magazines such as Passages North, Nimrod, Verse Daily, The Connecticut Review, The New Republic, Crab Creek Review, Fugue Journal, The Shore and elsewhere. He was the recipient of an Al Smith Fellowship for Poetry from the Kentucky Arts Council and he lives in Danville, Kentucky. Website: https://www.davidcazden.net/

Free Verse
Rebecca Aronson is the author of three books of poetry: Anchor, winner of the Eric Hoffer award for poetry and first place poetry prize from the Philosophical Society of Texas; Ghost Child of the Atalanta Bloom, winner of the Orison Books poetry prize; and Creature, Creature. She has been a recipient of a Yetzirah fellowship, a Prairie Schooner Strousse Award, the Loft’s Speakeasy Poetry Prize, and a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to Sewanee. She has work appearing recently or soon in The Taos Journal of Poetry, In the Tempered Dark: Contemporary Poets Transcending Elegy, Crosswinds, The Laurel Review, and others. She is host of Bad Mouth, a series of words and music. She lives in Albuquerque with her husband, teenage son, and a very demanding cat.

Narrative
Laura Donnelly is the author of Midwest Gothic, selected by Maggie Smith as the winner of the Richard Snyder Prize and published by Ashland Poetry Press in fall 2020. Midwest Gothic was also a finalist for the Berkshire Prize and the Lexi Rudnitsky Editor’s Choice Award. Donnelly’s first book of poetry, Watershed, won the 2013 Cider Press Review Editors’ Prize. Her poems have appeared in Colorado Review, Indiana Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Rhino, Passages North, Mississippi Review and in the online publications of Missouri Review, Harvard Review, Poets.org and elsewhere. Her book reviews appear in Kenyon Review Online and Terrain, and she co-authors a column on nature and the arts for the Sterling Nature Center in Upstate New York. Originally from Michigan, Donnelly received an MFA from Purdue University and a PhD from Western Michigan University. Her work has been supported by fellowships and scholarships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Corporation of Yaddo, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She is currently the Chair of the Department of English and Creative Writing at SUNY Oswego and lives in Upstate New York with her husband, Ben, and a cat named Sue. You can find her online at www.laurakdonnelly.com.

Classic Forms and New Poets
Alexis Sears is the author of Out of Order, winner of the 2021 Donald Justice Poetry Prize and the Poetry by the Sea Book Award: Best Book of 2022. Her work appears in Best American Poetry, Poet Lore, Cortland Review, Cimarron Review, Rattle, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her BA in Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University. Editor-at-Large of the Northwest Review and Contributing Editor of Literary Matters, she lives in Los Angeles.

Japanese Forms and Whimsy
Steve Brisendine lives, works and remains unbeaten against The New York Times crossword in Mission, KS. He is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently full of old books and silence(Alien Buddha Press, 2024) and Behind the Wall Cloud of Sleep (Spartan Press, 2024). His work has appeared in Modern Haiku, I-70 Review, Flint Hills Review and other publications and compilations. He has no degrees, one tattoo and a deep and unironic fondness for strip-mall Chinese restaurants. In his spare time, he tries to make himself seem far more interesting than he actually is.

Rural voices
Annie Woodford is the author of Bootleg (Groundhog Poetry Press, 2019) and Where You Come from Is Gone (Mercer UP, 2022), recipient of the 2022 Weatherford Award for Appalachian Poetry. Her micro-chapbook, When God Was a Child, was published by Bull City Press in 2023. Her work has been published most recently in Appalachian Journal. Originally from Henry County, Virginia, she now lives in Deep Gap, North Carolina.

Poetry Chapbook
Katherine Hoerth is author of five poetry collections, including Flare Stacks in Full Bloom (Texas Review Press, 2022). Her work has been published in Literary Imagination (Oxford University Press), Valparaiso Review, and Southwestern American Literature. She is an associate professor at Lamar University and director of Lamar University Literary Press. Her forthcoming book, Pandora’s Prairie, will be published by Cornerstone Press in 2025.

Thank You to our 2024 Youth Contest Judges

10/1/2024

The Kansas Authors Club is grateful to our volunteer judges this year for their time and contributions to our youth activities. We couldn't have done this without them! Help us give thanks to these individuals.

Fiction Grades 3-4 and
Nonfiction Grades 3-4
Lydia Montgomery is a paraeducator at Overbrook Attendance Center. She is a Kansas native, having spent most of her life in Emporia, Kansas and currently living in Burlingame, Kansas. She lives with her partner, four adorable cats, a big fluffy dog, and a sassy bearded dragon. She has been an avid reader her whole life, and she is very passionate about encouraging young minds to love reading and foster their creativity through writing.

Fiction Grades 5-6 and
Poetry Grades 5-6
Kennedy Eyberg is a student at Emporia State University, studying English with a concentration in Creative Writing. She enjoys reading, writing, sewing, and playing guitar and clarinet in her free time. She has been published in Quivira and the Flint Hills Review.

Fiction Grades 7-8 and
Nonfiction Grades 7-8
Michelle Young was born and raised in Abilene, Kansas. She attended Emporia State University and studied English Education until December 2023 when she received her Bachelor’s degree. During her time at ESU, she worked as an AVID Tutor and fell in love with teaching middle schoolers. Post-student teaching and graduation, Michelle discovered her purpose and enjoyment through serving at her church, reading, listening to podcasts, spending time with friends and family, spoiling her two cats, and spending time outdoors. She is live, laugh, loving in Lawrence, Kansas, and will begin her first year teaching as a 7th grade English Language Arts teacher in the fall of 2024.

Fiction Grades 9-12
Tracy Million Simmons is the owner/ publisher of Meadowlark Press, celebrating ten years in business in 2024. Meadowlark has published more than 70 titles, including six Kansas Notables. Meadowlark books have been recognized by the High Plains Book Awards, Midwest Book Awards, and Kansas Authors Club book awards.

Tracy is the author of Green Bike (with Kevin Rabas and Michael D. Graves), A Life in Progress and Other Short Stories, and Tiger Hunting, the 2013 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award winner from the Kansas Authors Club. Tracy currently serves as the Executive Director of the Kansas Authors Club.

Note from Tracy Million Simmons: This was a very strong set of entries. Overall, there was not a single piece that was not award worthy. I was very impressed with the writing. I was impressed that these entries were well-written and grammatically clean. It made the job of judging them both a pleasure and difficult. In the end, I had to walk away from reading the pieces for a few days and contemplate which stories lingered in my mind after reading. Those that I found myself returning to in memory, thinking about the characters or the author’s particular descriptions, are the stories I eventually sorted into the top rankings. I want the authors to understand that this process of judging stories is objective only to a point. You’ve done the job well by polishing your writing, submitting it free from grammatical errors and typos. Personal taste certainly has an impact on the final standing, but I sorted the stories first with an eye to plot, structure, and flow. Given the constraints of a limited word count, I felt the selected stories did a particularly good job of telling a complete story.

Poetry Grades 3-4 and
Nonfiction Grades 5-6
Phyllida Porter: I'm a sunflower—born in Emporia, January of 1934. From the very beginning I was surrounded by artists of all disciplines; family, friends, and colleagues. Anything I tried to create was encouraged and critiqued. As a result, words don't scare me nor do I shrink from new techniques and ideas.

I have written children's stories, poems, and my version of the "great American novel,” none of which have been published, as yet. (I am hopeful.)

I graduated from Denver University with a BA in Mass Communications; I had an on-air program on the Voice of America, Public Affairs Manager with the Bureau of Land Management, Air Force technical training, and lastly was Assistant Director of Education at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico. I was an Emergency Medical Technician and have a Certificate in Gerontology from D. U. My poetry and my writing have grown, re-formed, skewed and stewed, become more lyrical and more blatant not to mention—odd, quirky, questionable, hopeful, demanding and unabashedly my own self in words.
I write because I must.

Nonfiction Grades 9-12 and
Poetry Grades 9-12
Felicity Wenger is an Emporia State University graduate with a BSE in English. She is currently a childcare worker but has plans to further her English horizons. She has been working various childcare jobs over the last four years with such corporations as Boys and Girls Clubs of South Central Kansas, Summerscapes in Emporia, KS and Camp Shine in Ottawa, KS. She also has a year of student teaching experience with grades 7-11. Felicity currently lives in Ottawa, KS with her younger brother and her cat. In her spare time, Felicity enjoys reading, listening to music, and being in nature.

Poetry Grades 7-8
Olivia Benoit is going into her 3L year at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. She graduated from the University of Kansas in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies, with a minor in National Security & Intelligence. She currently works at a criminal defense firm in Kansas City. She plans to practice criminal law after she graduates and takes the bar. Someday, she would like to become an English teacher. She is on track to complete her Goodreads challenge for 2024, which is to read 45 books!

Note from Olivia Benoit: Please feel free to send me your work in the future if you keep writing or edit any of your pieces! Great work writers!

2024 Youth Contest Results

10/1/2024

The annual Youth Contest Awards were presented this year at the Kansas Book Festival at Washburn University in Topeka on September 28. We had a great turnout this year, both in youth entries, and in ceremony attendees. Many thanks to Tim Bascom and the Kansas Book Festival committee for collaborating with us to celebrate our young writers.

Also thanks to POD Print in Wichita for providing our winners with copies of the awards book!

Here are the 2024 results:

Fiction: Grades 3-4
1st – Avishi Roy, “The Brake”
2nd – Taksh Pidara, “Captain Color Volume 1”
3rd – Micah Jay, “The Dog and the Man”
HM – Aaruthrai Balaji, “The Haunted House”

Fiction: Grades 5-6
1st – Jason Lion Chaithonh, “Twilight Through Igulent”
2nd – Myra Upadhyay, “Revenge of the Shadow”
3rd – Avyukta Bhavnani, “The Three Queens”
HM – Sophia Powell, “The Story of Layla the Witch”
HM – Samila Chan, “Eyes in the Forest”

Fiction: Grades 7-8
1st – Aubrey Nelson, “Courage”
2nd – Addison Buck, “Something Important”
3rd – Harper Lynne Falls, “That Day”
HM – Avery Cao, “My Life Ruined”
HM – Avery Cao, “Runner”

Fiction: Grades 9-12
1st – Arielle Li, “the sun and i”
2nd – Prisha Dalal, “Not a Single Word”
3rd – Feynman Cox, “Life Fulfilled”
HM – Brielie Hogan, “The Photographer”
HM – Madeline Male, “The Death Diamond”

Nonfiction: Grades 3-4
1st – Ivy Sun, “Solar Eclipse”
2nd – Ivy Sun, “The Great Pyramid of Giza”
3rd – Vihaan Mohan, “The Watergate Scandal”
HM – Kamryn Roberts, “Union Station Christmas Lights”
HM – Kamryn Roberts, “All About France”

Nonfiction: Grades 5-6
1st – Vikram Kapoor, “A.I.”
2nd – Fawaz Khan, “Revolutionary War”
3rd – Avyukta Bhavnani, “The Start to the American Revolution”
HM – Camilla Daraiseh, “The Continental vs the British Army”
HM – Corbin Barney, “The Correlation Between Student Sleep and Success”

Nonfiction: Grades 7-8
1st – Maanya Mohan, “Should Middle School Have Recess?”
2nd – Maanya Mohan, “The Ferris Wheel”
3rd – Adain Smith, “Who Owns the Art?”
HM – Poppy Muzzy, “Luminous Life”
HM – Adain Smith, “Why you shouldn’t have coffee before bed”

Nonfiction: Grades 9-12
1st – Maggie Hahn, “Prairie Fire”
2nd – Arielle Li, “Change is Inevitable”
3rd – Michelle Blackburn, “Forensics for All”
HM – Prisha Dalal, “वरह”
Hm – Loren Reiske, “We Were”

Poetry: Grades 3-4
1st – Liam Andre Brichet, “The Rain or La Pluie”
2nd (tied) – Kendall Paige Falls, “Lake of the Ozarks”
2nd (tied) – Kendall Paige Falls, “Colorado”
3rd – Amelia Ellis, “Rivers”
HM – Kamryn Roberts, “Sleeping”
HM – Amelia Ellis, “We Are Playing Music”
HM – Asa Patton, “Chicken”

Poetry: Grades 5-6
First place – Corbin Barney, “The Awakening of Spring”
Second place – Adeline Alaniz, “Music Shapes the World”
Third place – Ember Bowman, “Nature’s Melody”
HM – Avyukta Bhavnani, “The Little Bud”
HM – Jason Lion Chaithonh, “My Haikus”

Poetry: Grades 7-8
First place – Adain Smith, “Pearl, the Paper Dog”
Second place – Sofia Stalnaker, “Twain Loves Poetry”
Third place – Poppy Muzzy, “Clocked Out”
HM – Harper Lynn Falls, “Blue”
HM – Kylie Dodd, “Circulation”

Poetry: Grades 9-12
1st – Feynman Cox, “Glass and Gravel”
2nd – Brielie Hogan, “The Call to War”
3rd – Madeline Male, “A Poem at the Pond”
HM – Maggie Hahn, “Man’s Search for Meaning”
HM – Hannah Christian, “Over the Rainbow Bridge”

Bajaj Youth Writer of the Year: Adain Smith

Thank you to POD Print for sponsoring our Youth Contest. POD gifted a copy of the youth awards book to each child who placed in the contest