The book launch for Brenda Leigh White’s collection of poetry, Blue Collar Saint, will be held at Twin Rivers Winery, 627 Commercial, Emporia, Saturday, December 4, 4:00-6:00pm. The author, along with friends and supporters, will share work from Brenda’s collection followed by a short open mic opportunity for attendees.
 
White is a native of Emporia, Kansas, but her heart resides on the family farm in Morris County. Her most favorite place in Kansas is the woods and creek on the farm. There she has seen snakes fishing in a puddle and found a baby western box turtle at the natural spring feeding into the creek. She has had poetry published in Quivira and The Flint Hills Review. What she loves most about living in Kansas is the beauty of the flint hills and the state motto, ad astra per aspera, “to the stars through difficulties.” 

Cheryl Unruh, Kansas Notable author, says, “With unapologetic honesty and a masterful use of language, Brenda Leigh White, in Blue Collar Saint, cycles through whimsy, curiosity, and harsh reality. Always questioning the world around her, White writes with sharpness, clarity, and wit, leaving the reader alternately gutted and longing for more.” 

Emporia poet Kerry Moyer says, “The verses in Blue Collar Saint were born on the assembly line, in the working-class spaces and places of this poetic traveler’s journey. White shares her scars and lays bare a resilience rooted in wit, intelligence, and strength. This is a fine collection, from an authentic new voice in Kansas poetry.”


Blue Collar Saint is available for order through meadowlark-books.square.site and may be ordered through any bookseller. Learn more at www.meadowlark-books.com.

The deadline for submitting entries to the 2022 yearbook has been extended. Members now have until December 31 to enter. 

• Every Member having paid current dues is invited to submit ONE literary contribution for the yearbook. That submission can be either prose or poetry. Prose is limited to one printed page (no more than 500 words). Poetry is limited to one printed page (no more than 40 lines including spaces between verses).

 

• All literary contributions remain the property of the individual authors. Authors may continue to use or distribute their work without requesting permission from the Kansas Authors Club. No work printed in the KAC yearbook may be copied or distributed in any form without explicit permission from the author.

 

• Yearbook Submissions are preferred via the online site, Submittable. There is NO CHARGE to submit a yearbook entry.

​

District 6 Meetings are held on the 4th Saturday of each month (except December), online via Zoom at 1:30 p.m. Questions? Contact Jim Potter for a meeting link.

 Jared Vaughn started writing stories at the age of nine, including terrible sequels to Back to the Future. By 2014, he'd written stories, songs, skits, and just about anything but a book. So he set out to write The Longest Time, a story that had been in his mind for fifteen years. He released it in 2017, dressed as Marty McFly at his first booth at a comic con. The Longest Time received unanimously positive reviews from readers of all ages who appreciated the story's nostalgic appeal, heart, humor, and positive message as well as a genre-bending twist that takes everyone by surprise. Through his company, Time Honored Productions, he next published a collection of short stories called Free Time Tales. It featured nine other local writers including Shoshanna Aaliyah, a young lady who also wrote Tobias' Travels, which is releasing soon as a kid's book. Another Time, the sequel to The Longest Time, was released in 2020 to reviews that compared it as equal in quality to the original or even better. The Time Honored team can be seen at many events throughout the year sharing their creativity and the Power of Love. They continue to grow with artists, cosplayers, actors, and authors including the recent addition of acclaimed author Lynn Main.

  In 2021, Jared joined the Kansas Authors Club and was introduced to a new circle of talent. He was invited to be the guest speaker for the November 27th Zoom meeting for District 6 and enthusiastically accepted. Jared will share tips about what he feels is the most important part of writing-- the art of storytelling. His fun and informative presentation has been utilized at writing workshops and author panels and proven effective for all ages and levels of experience. ​

You can view the interaction of Huascar Medina and Annette Billings as they shared their poetry. They carried on a delightful poetry conversation at the November D5 meeting. I guarantee you will be inspired to write poetry after listening to these skilled wordsmiths. Click on the button below.

Today, I am honored to introduce Cat Webling, a new member to the KAC and District 6. She lives in Russell. 

​I’m a Georgia-born writer who moved to Kansas post-pandemic to be with my family – my partner, son, and cute cats! So far, I’ve had six major publications: a science fiction novel (with a second on the way!), two short story collections, and three poetry collections. You can find my work on my website. I’m a regular writer and editor for SUPERJUMP Magazine, and have contributed posts for Nymeria Publishing, The Gamer, and FanFare. I write science fiction and fantasy, as well as poetry and articles about literature, theater, gaming (especially Dungeons and Dragons), and fan culture. I like to write things that make people think, or smile, or feel something; it’s what I think writing can and should do!
 
I look forward to learning more about the KAC and my district, and I’m excited to join this vibrant community. 

Welcome, Cat! We look forward to meeting you. 
​
[Cheryl Unruh]

Books by Cat Webling: 

​Emporia, KS--Flyover People essayist Cheryl Unruh, takes the stage for a literary celebration, complete with reading and book signing as Meadowlark Press releases Unruh’s new memoir, Gravedigger’s Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town, at Lyon County History Center on Saturday, November 13 at 1:00pm.
 
An array of regional books will be available for purchase, including other titles by Unruh, as well as books published by Meadowlark Press.
 
Unruh’s memoir details a small-town childhood as the daughter of a carpenter-father, who also happens to be the town cemetery caretaker. As Cheryl grows, so does her comprehension of her father’s particular maladies, a skin-condition that is not discussed by the family, as well as his struggles with depression. Presented in short vignettes, Gravedigger’s Daughter introduces Unruh’s father from a child’s eye view, and then via observations and interactions that take us through Unruh’s adolescence to adulthood. Divided into three parts, the book covers Unruh’s childhood in Pawnee Rock, her father’s middle-age years when she lived away, and his later years.
 
Unruh grew up in the town of Pawnee Rock in central Kansas, population 400, in the 1960s and 70s. “The stories, or vignettes, are poem-shaped, but each captures a moment in time. I see each one as a snapshot,” Unruh says. “While I will never be able to relate the entirety and complexity of a life, I hope that some of my dad’s weird and wonderful personality shines through.”
 
From Laura Moriarty, author of The Chaperone: “With Gravedigger’s Daughter, Cheryl Unruh has created something so fresh and inviting—a memoir in lean vignettes. Each is moving on its own, and also part of a compelling portrait of a childhood in an isolated town with a dwindling population. Unruh’s details are too specific for sentimentalism, but places and people are observed with a loving gaze that also feels wise and honest. Her father, especially, emerges as both haunted and quietly heroic. What a beautiful book.” 
 
Fans of Cheryl’s two previous collections of vivid Kansas essays, Flyover People (2011 KS Notable Book) and Waiting on the Sky (2015 KS Notable Book), and Walking on Water, her collection of poetry, will delight in this memoir. Unruh hopes that the book will inspire readers to write their own stories “whether they write for their own pleasure or choose to share their stories with family and friends or perhaps even go on to publish their writing.” Unruh will be scheduling a series of memoir writing workshops starting in the spring of 2022.
 
Gravedigger’s Daughter is available for order through meadowlark-books.square.site and may be ordered through any bookseller. Learn more at www.meadowlark-books.com.
 
###

Hosted by Ad Astra Books & Coffee House
141 N Santa Fe Ave., Salina
Friday, November 12, 7:00pm
Click here for more information.

Dear Kansas Authors Club Members and Area Artists,
 
District 2 looks forward to hosting the 2022 Annual Writing Convention, and we need YOUR help. Design the winning logo and you will receive a $50 honorarium, as well as a featured spot in the convention program.
 
We will consider any type of artwork that can be submitted and translates well in JPG format. (If you paint or draw by hand, simply scan or photograph the image.)
 
The Theme for the event is--
 
The Write Way to the Future
 
Instructions for entering:
 

1. Design a logo/image/graphic incorporating the words, “The Write Way to the Future.” Save, scan, or photograph the design in JPG format.
2. Submit your logo via the Kansas Authors Club Submittable website: https://kansasauthorsclub.submittable.com/submit
3. Deadline for Entry: December 31, 2021.

 
 
Questions? Email the D2 Convention Team at KansasAuthorsClub@gmail.com. 

Tuesday, November 9, 2021, at 7:00 p.m., is “OPEN MIKE NIGHT” via Zoom. Kris Polansky will start off by reading the poems that made her “Poet of the Year” for Kansas Authors Club. There are six of them, but they are short. So we need many more readers. Come sign in at 7:00. Sharing is what writing is all about!
 
Do you have an award-winning entry to share from the 2021 KAC Literary Contest? Or one from an earlier contest? Or a “should-have-won” of which you are proud? Or something you are working on? We want to hear it!
 
This and other 2nd Tuesday Zoom Meetings jointly provided by KAC Districts 3 and 4 are open to all KAC members. The Zoom link has been sent to members via email through your district president or district email announcement list.

Join Julie A. Sellers, and other members of District 1, at the group's regular monthly meeting on Saturday, November 20 at 1 p.m.  This will be the first in-person meeting the district has held in more than a year. It will be held in the Menninger Room of the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library and is limited to only ten attendees due to social distancing requirements.

Sellers was named the 2020 Kansas Authors Club Prose Writer of the Year. She will be discussing The
Two I’s of writing: inspiration and intentionality. Julie will share tips for looking for inspiration (ideas), and techniques she uses to be intentional about writing. Attendees will have the opportunity to try out some of these techniques by participating in short writing activities.
 
Julie is the author of three academic monographs on Dominican music and identity, and her creative prose and poetry have appeared in publications such as 105 Meadowlark Reader, Cagibi, Wanderlust, The Very Edge, and Kansas Time + Place. Her collection, Kindred Verse: Poems Inspired by Anne of Green Gables (Blue Cedar Press) was released in 2021.

​Anyone wishing to join the meeting via zoom should email Anne Spry for the link.

Carolyn Hall, D2 Member, is one of 21 Kansas Authors Club members published in the second issue of 105 Meadowlark Reader: Kansas Travel Stories.

The journal of Kansas creative nonfiction can be purchased at "Partner Bookstores"  including Crow and Co Books (Hutchinson), Eighth Day Books (Wichita), Flint Hills Books (Council Grove), Raven Book Store (Lawrence), Russell Specialty Books & Gifts (Russell), and Watermark Books & Cafe (Wichita).

Subscriptions can also be purchased at Meadowlark Press.  

Ann Anderson (D2)

Curtis Becker (D2)

Sheryl Brenn (D7)

Annabelle Corrick (D1)

Gretchen Cassel Eick (D5)

Marie Baum Fletcher (D7)

Tammy Gilley (D6)

Michael D. Graves (D2)

Monica (Osgood) Graves (D2)

Carolyn Hall (D2)

Jerilynn Jones Henrikson (D2)

Sally Jadlow (D2)

Nancy Julien Kopp (D4)

Sandee Lee (D5)

Jim Potter (D6)

Julie A. Sellers (D1)

Mark Scheel (D2)

Tracy Million Simmons (D2)

Barbara Waterman-Peters (D1)

Brenda White (D2)

​Editor, Chery Unruh (D2) 

The journal is currently taking submissions for issue #3 to be published in the spring of 2022. 

Theme: True Bicycle Stories
Guidelines can be found on the
105 Meadowlark Reader website.

This starts Monday, November 1st!

Please join us each Monday for the month of November for NaNoWriMo  (1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and the 29th) for encouragement and ideas.  

We’ll meet in a private room at Perkins restaurant, 1711 W 23rd St., Lawrence, KS  66046, from 4 to 6 p.m.

Please rsvp by Sunday as I’ll need to let Perkins’ staff know how many of us to expect. 

I plan to send reminders each week. 

Do you have a friend who enjoys writing? Please invite them. 

You need not write a novel. Feel free to write whatever you’ve been wanting to. Our group will hold each other accountable, over pie no less! 

Not familiar with it? 
​
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-for-national-novel-writing-month-success


Sincerely,
Ronda Miller, District 2 Member