In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kansas Authors Club during the first weekend in October broke new ground when it hosted its first ever virtual writers convention.

The oldest statewide writers organization in the United States (chartered 1904) has held an annual writers convention almost every year since 1905. War intervened on two occasions. Disease now threatened to do the same.

Typically, the site of the convention rotates between KAC’s seven districts. This year’s convention, “Writing Across Kansas . . . A Sense of Place,” originally was planned by District 7 to take place in Colby.

“Instead, we met in the comfort of our members’ homes,” Duane Johnson, KAC president said.

As the deadly disease spread across the United States, Johnson realized in May that the convention might need to be cancelled.

“I was in close contact with convention planners, so I knew how hard they had worked to put together an impressive lineup of speakers and workshop leaders,” Johnson said. “I knew I would be letting them and the rest of our 250-plus members down unless I found an alternative.”

The solution—video-conferencing the event—Johnson said, was obvious. Figuring out how to do it was not.
He spent a month reading online articles and watching Zoom webinars on webinars. Then he assembled a four-member “zoom team” to host the convention. The team, Carol Yoho, Curtis Becker, and Tracy Million-Simmons, met each week to strategize, rehearse, and role-play. A mock webinar was held with as many of the workshop leaders as could attend. Team members then met with workshop leaders, who had various levels of experience with Zoom, in blocks of two or three to make sure everyone knew what to expect and were up to speed. They even hired a videoconference specialist from The WebiNerd.

“We were pioneering unfamiliar terrain, and we had to get it right the first time,” Johnson said. “No Mulligans allowed.”

All the while, they coordinated their efforts with the convention committee and contest managers.

A normal Kansas Authors Club conference consists of 12 to 15 workshops, some presented two or three times; keynote speakers; presentation of awards for children’s writing contests, adult writing contests, and newly released books in several categories; a state board meeting; annual members meeting; and an awards banquet.

“For the better part of two days, multiple events are going on simultaneously,” Johnson said. “How the devil were we going to duplicate that with a video-conference?”

The solution: purchasing not one, but two webinar add-ons to the group’s Zoom account. During the convention, the team split into two two-member teams on each webinar.

“We had to ditch the banquet and postpone the board and members meetings to the next weekend, but we got everything else in,” Johnson said. “We even set up a virtual bookroom for members to sell their books and a silent auction.”

The WebiNerd specialist recommended direct cable-to-computer connections to guard against the instability of Wi-Fi, and head-sets. As a result, each zoom team member had out-of-pocket expenses to go with the hours of time they contributed. At least one team member also had to purchase a web-cam.

Johnson said the convention, which featured Kansas Poet Laureate Huascar Medina and Academy award-winning playwright Kevin Wilmott, experienced a few minor glitches, but everyone seemed pleased with the outcome.
“My most terrifying moment came during Rich Hawkins’ “Writing for Radio” workshop when the lights blinked off for a second and I lost my connection,” Johnson said. “I went into panic mode until I realized that Carol was still supporting the webinar on her end. When I reconnected five minutes later, everything was fine. No one even knew I was gone.”

He said the best part of the experience for him was the bond the four zoom team members formed with each other as they trained each other.

​“We laughed a lot,” he said. “I think we all had a good time as we taught each other how to do something KAC has never done before. I look forward to when we can get together over a six-pack. And corn chips. And M&Ms. That’s an inside joke.” 

On any given day in any given year this century, Tracy Million Simmons can be found doing something that contributes to Kansas Authors Club. Whether it is working with Reaona Hemmingway, Carol Yoho and sometimes others to write our newsletters and create our annual yearbook—a monumental task in itself; or maintaining and coordinating work on the KAC website; or collaborating with contest managers to find judges and help them and all the rest of us in myriad ways prepare for our annual convention; or overseeing Submittable; or doing half a dozen other tasks that I’m forgetting about, Tracy distinguishes herself year in and year out as Kansas Authors Club’s most indispensable worker bee.

Sometimes I imagine that we will one day discover her dirty little secret, that she is actually identical twins.

But in this year of the Pandemic, Tracy has outdone even Tracy in utilizing her innovative skills to pioneer two more features that will become welcome and established components of Kansas Author Club from this point forward.

First, she has extended our use of Submittable account, which she pioneered, by utilizing it for convention registration, thus simplifying and streamlining the process.

Second, she has created a virtual book room for KAC members on the issuu.com website. Not only does this mitigate our inability to have a physical book room for this year’s convention, but it means that KAC members will be able to exhibit and sell their books online not just once a year but 24/7 into the foreseeable future.

And she did this, along with everything else she does, while also playing a key role along with Carol Yoho and Curtis Becker on the Webinar team that, together with this year’s convention committee, made it possible to hold this year’s annual convention.

By the sheer volume of the work she does year in and year out, Tracy would qualify for a special service award every year, but this year it would be a major oversight if we did not recognize her with a Special Award for Particular Accomplishment for her innovative work on convention registration and for creating KAC’s own virtual book room.

Presented by Duane Johnson, 2020 State President

Congratulations to our 2020 Award Winners!

Kristine A. Polansky, Poet of the Year

Julie A. Sellers, Prose Writer of the Year

It is with sincere appreciation that we acknowledge your dedication and contribution to Kansas Authors Club. Please accept this small token of our gratitude. We look forward to many more years of fellowship and growing our organization for the benefit of writers like you.
 

Length of Membership Awards
 
Fred C. Appelhanz – 15 years
Roy J. Beckemeyer – 10 years
Patricia Bonine – 10 years
Annabelle Corrick – 10 years
Edna M. Dyck – 50 years*
Pauline Fecht – 20 years
Marie Fletcher – 30 years
Jean Grant – 10 years
Yvonne Evie Green – 20 years
Reaona T. Hemmingway – 15 years
Kelly W. Johnston – 10 years
Carole Katsantoness – 10 years
Peg Nichols – 15 years
Kristine A. Polansky – 15 years
Cheryl Skupa – 10 years
Candace C. Sherman – 30 years
 
 
Octogenarians
Sylvia Colombo (2018)
Tom Mach

Duane Johnson (D1) has been a member of Kansas Authors Club since 2014. He served as the president of District 1 in 2017-2018, state Vice President and book awards chair in 2019, and he took the helm as state President this year, 2020. I know that Duane had a vision for Kansas Authors Club when he accepted the role of President. As an active board member, he’d been taking notes on ways to modernize our organization, but I don’t imagine he expected to take this giant step forward to a full virtual convention format in less than a year. It would have been very easy to say, “Sorry folks, no convention in the time of COVID-19.” Duane studied, recruited a crew, and hired a tutor to get us up to speed. His organizational skills helped us develop and define what you are experiencing here this weekend. Thanks to Duane Johnson, we’ve enjoyed an October weekend with our writing family. I submit Duane Johnson for a merit award for service to Kansas Authors Club.
 
-presented by Tracy Million Simmons

Jim Potter became a member of Kansas Authors Club in 2015. He became president of District 6 in 2019, and has recruited at least 28 members to the organization since that time. Jim led the way in transitioning to Zoom meetings in 2020, the first of our seven districts to do so. In fact, his district began meeting twice a month, once for a program and once for a read around. Jim has been a dedicated leader on behalf of his district and our state organization. I submit Jim Potter (D6) for a merit award for service to Kansas Authors Club.
 
-presented by Tracy Million Simmons

Maryann Barry (D2) has been of service to Kansas Authors Club since she became a member of the board in 2007. 
 
Maryann has served on the State Kansas Authors Club Board as Assistant Recording Secretary, Recording Secretary, and as the current 2020 State Vice President. Maryann has a quiet, yet observant nature and looks out on behalf of the entire membership. She is a faithful member of Kansas Authors Club, both an excellent song writer and poet, and steadfast friend to members fortunate enough to know her well.

-Presented by Ronda Miller (D2) 

As most of you are aware, Diane Wahto (D5) passed away on September 16, 2020. She suffered a stroke in the fall of 2019 and had a long rehabilitation from that event. Then, in the spring this year, she had another stroke and eventually succumbed to the effects of that. 

Diane was a teacher of English and Journalism most of her career years. She graduated cum laude with a BA in English from Western Michigan University. She went on to earn an MA in English at Pittsburg State University and an MFA in creative writing from Wichita State University. She taught high school English and Journalism in Winfield, Kansas for nine years, and taught English composition at Butler Community College until her retirement in 2009.

Diane’s passion was poetry, though she confessed that she never wrote a poem before she reached middle age. She has written hundreds of poems; many have been published in various journals, and her awards include the American Academy of Poets Award.  In 2018, The Sad Joy of Leaving, her first book of poetry, was published by Blue Cedar Press, followed in 2019 by a second book, First, the Reflexion. She has been co-editor of “365”, an anthology of poetry from people who dedicate to write a poem a day for 365 days.

Diane first became a member of Kanas Authors Club in 2014, as did I. She became President of District 5 in 2017 and continued through 2019, including chairing the Convention Committee for the 2019 Convention in Wichita hosted by District 5. I served as District 5 secretary under Diane, and succeeded her as President of D5 when she retired at the end of 2019, and also helped to co-chair the Convention Committee when Diane’s health declined. She also had been the State Awards Chairperson from 2015-2020.

Diane gave of her time and talents freely to Kansas Authors Club, and still continued to strive for her own writing best. She was an encouraging and enthusiastic mentor and she will be greatly missed by all of us. I am so glad that she was able to be aware when her son, Geoffry presented this Award of Service to her.

Presented by Connie Rae White, D5 President

We have made our selection for the Kansas Authors Club Book of the Year.  We were impressed with the quality of the books submitted for review.  

After careful deliberation we have chosen I Love the Child, by Ronda Miller. First, the size and feel of the book would make it easy to read to a small group of children. The illustrations beautifully matched the poem on the page. There was diversity of ethnicity, physical condition, and gender. The Spanish co-text should make it appealing to a wide range of children. We could identify characteristics of children we have raised and known, and think that older children could see themselves in some of these characters. We think the book could be used with a wide age range. The cooking section expands the number of activities that could be used with the book. This is a book that we would like to give to important young people in our lives.

Thank you for asking us to be a review panel. We enjoyed the process and for the opportunity to read these books.

Allison and Gary Haworth

Judges Allison and Gary Haworth have two adult daughters: Mary Kate and Becky. Allison is a graduate of the University of Kansas and taught early elementary school in the Lawrence school district prior to having children. Raising her own children instilled a passion for young children. Allison has been a preschool teacher for the Lawrence Arts Center for the past 20 years. Gary Haworth is an elementary curriculum PhD graduate of the University of Iowa. He has taught at the elementary school level and was a central office and elementary school administrator. He is now retired. 

The design of Birds, Bones and Beetles by Chuck Warner, effectively evoked the era of Kansas naturalist Charles D. Bunker, subtly suggested the subject matter through its use of front cover photographs and historical typeface. I appreciated the use of black and white photographs throughout the text and the straight-forward layout. To me, a good book design does two things simultaneously; it draws attention to the book while not distracting from the essential character of its narrative.

Judge Rick Mitchell has been a professional artist/photographer since 1974. He was professor of photography at Rutgers University for eighteen years and has taught at other institutions including Baker University and the University of Kansas. He is a former Director of the Exhibition Program at the Lawrence Arts Center where he was, for five years, the publisher of Cottonwood Literary Magazine in cooperation with the University of Kansas Department of English, and a founder of the Committee on Imagination & Place and the I&P Press. 

The Martin Kansas History Book Award goes to Chuck Warner for his book, Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker.
 
“While reading Chuck Warner’s book, I felt myself being transported back in time and seeing life through the eyes of Charles Bunker. Birds, Bones, and Beetles tells the story of naturalist Charles Bunker's life from his early years in Illinois in the late 1800s through his long career at the University of Kansas. Much like Charles Bunker, the book itself is unassuming and down to earth. Warner takes care to not only reveal Bunker's strengths but also his flaws. Yet, the book is more than a biography. Warner ties Bunker into a larger world that include his relationships with his colleagues and family, developments within the University of Kansas, and the natural history of the state. This well written and well researched book is not only a treat to read but is a valuable contribution to the history of Kansas.”

Though born in Canada, Thomas C. Percy has lived in Kansas since 1990.  He received his B.A. in History and a B.Ed. from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. Inspired by several outstanding history professors, he continued with higher education acquiring his M.A. in history from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
 
During a seminar at the University of Kansas, Percy researched and wrote a paper on the origins of the Kansas State Fair. The topic proved fertile ground and Percy expanded the paper into his dissertation, “A History of the Kansas State Fair, 1863-2006.” As chance would have it, Percy found a position teaching history at Hutchinson Community College, the permanent home of the Kansas State Fair.  
 
While Percy has enjoyed teaching at Hutchinson Community College since 1994, he has also published Images of America: Kansas State Fair in 2014 and has reviewed books in the Canadian Journal of History/Annales canadiennes d’histoire, Teaching History: A Journal of Methods and Kansas History.
 

Jon Kelly Yenser's, The News as Usual, published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2019.
 
Of all our poets, he seemed most attentive to the wonders of language in his evocation of Kansas. My inadequate commentary on his superlative and complex book of poems follows.
 
The title for Jon Kelly Yenser’s 2019 collection of poems, The News as Usual, accurately and profoundly describes his poetry although the “usual” here is shown to be startling and wondrous and occasionally wry and subtly humorous. Yenser writes from the ground up in choosing both his words and the subjects for his poems, reflecting his recognition that the "news," that is, ordinary life during all seasons in Kansas—in fields, in the backyards of its small towns, and in friendships—can be astonishing.
 
Neither idealizing nor prettifying his Kansas, Yenser chooses language precisely and astonishingly. He creates metaphors that make the familiar spring wondrously into new life, thereby making the usual news become unusual. Thus, in one poem he may refer to “the burnt umber of milo” and in another to “rusty milo.” Attuned to the seasonal, he refers to summer’s “frenzied raspberries” and to spring’s forsythia as “ornate as art deco, . . . offering us gild antennae.” Literary allusions intersect with astonishing, commonplace words such as “kerflooey” or newly generated words such as “zitty,” playful and humorous. 
 
The “news” which Yenser’s poetry focuses on most frequently is seasonal and temporal in addition to his friendships with dogs and his dying and stalwart neighbor Fred. He keeps his eye peeled for owls. A journey to Guatamala, however, proves largely distracting. Throughout this collection, Yenser is most consistently aware of seasonal changes close to home, to the simultaneous wonder and tenuousness of life close by. His news is expressed in language nuanced, multi-faceted, often punning, playful, and surprising. Through his stunning choice of words, his “usual” becomes imbued with the unusual and memorable, the ordinary with the extraordinary and surprising. Thus, in a brief poem, he contemplates Fall: “What’s done is done / almost now almost /all the dun leaves / have come undone.” In the conclusion of a long poem, titled “Cleaning Up in October,” Yenser’s description of an owl—“quiet as a moth/ over the soccer fields, listening/for the click/ of the smallest teeth/ all over town, from love, habit,/ and the coming cold”—evokes all beings as they persist in ongoing life. Yenser’s poetry--his incisive choice or words, his incise wit--makes me aware of how the usual becomes wondrous, the ordinary memorable and amazing. In his poetry, the usual news in Kansas becomes astonishing and memorable.”
 

About the Judge: During her 34 years of teaching English at the University of Kansas, Beth was known as a scholar of African American literature and of Herman Melville. She also wrote two collections of essays, one focused on Kansas and the other on her summer community in northern Michigan. From 1958-1961, she taught English at the high school and junior college levels in Osaka, Japan. She taught as an American Literature Fulbright-Hays lecturer from 1970 - 1974 and as a Fall 1992 American Literature and Culture lecturer at 7 universities, Africa at the Universities of Ibadan, Makerere, Dar es Salaam during the summer of 1972, Russia, where she taught a New York University summer session at the University of St. Petersburg, and China.  In 2007, she traveled to the Beijing Foreign Studies University in China as a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer. There she offered courses on American Women Writers and the very first Ecocriticism course to be offered at a Chinese university. Other awards she has been honored with include the John Masefield Prize for Fiction, Wellesley College 1958; the Major Hopwood Award for Fiction, University of Michigan 1962; the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship for Graduate Study, University of Michigan 1967; and the National Endowment for Humanities Fellowship in Historical, Social, and Cultural Studies of US Ethnic Minorities, 1974-1975. 
 
Following her retirement in 2001, she turned to writing poetry, and in the last twenty years has published numerous chapbooks as well as five collections of poetry (Conversations, Her Voice, Mrs. Noah Takes the Helm, The Sauntering Eye, and Water-Gazers). 

 

In All Hallows’ Shadows, Michael D. Graves serves up both homage and an original take on the hard-boiled detective genre. The mean streets of the novel are historic Wichita, Kansas, which Mr. Graves renders impeccably, edging in a history lesson with his mystery. Graves, an evident baseball fan, hits through the cycle of the genre’s tropes but does so in a manner entirely his own, realizing a style entirely his own. Out of a field of strong competition, my choice for the J. Donald Coffin Book Award is Michael D. Graves’s All Hallows’ Shadows.

Judge William Sheldon lives with his family in Hutchinson, Kansas where he teaches and writes. He took his BS and MA in English from Emporia State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Wichita State University. His poetry and prose have been published widely in such journals as Blue Mesa Review, Columbia, Flint Hills Review, New Letters, and Prairie Schooner. He is the author of two books of poetry, Retrieving Old Bones (Woodley, 2002) and Rain Comes Riding (Mammoth, 2011), as well as a chapbook, Into Distant Grass (Oil Hill, 2009). Retrieving Old Bones was a Kansas City Star Noteworthy Book for 2002 and is listed as one of the Great Plains Alliance’s Great Books of the Great Plains. He plays bass for the band The Excuses.

​Fiction: Grades 1-2
 
1 - Jacob Carver - Falling in a Lake
 
Fiction: Grades 3-4
 
1 - Addison Buck - Life on the Prairie
2 - Adain Smith - A Kind of Spooky Story
3 - Kinsley Scholl – D5 Member - The Magic Twins: Chapter 3
HM, Amulya Kotipalli – D2 Member - The Show and Tell
 
Fiction: Grades 5-6
 
 
1 - Amy Beth Wilson - The Plush Pig Plan
2 - Amy Beth Wilson - Llama Saves the Day
3 - Arielle Li - Castle of the Abused
HM - Garrett Li - Eternal Life
 
 
Fiction: Grades 7-8
 
 
1 - Allison Moddelmog - Lexie & Jackie
2 - Jentry A. Sears - Together Again
 
 
Fiction: Grades 9-12
 
1 - Morgan Sinsel - Hungry
2 - Bryson Brownlee - 7:14
3 - Penelope (Penny) Duran - The Waiting Room
HM - Isobel Li - Could’ve
HM - Morgan Sinsel - Gone
HM - Tyler Norsworthy - I’m Sorry
 
 
Nonfiction: Grades 3-4
 
1 - Adain Smith - Airport Sleep Over Day
2 - Avery Cao - The Skype playdate
3 - Albert Wang - Kiwi Bird
HM - Albert Wang - Exercising Life
 
 
Nonfiction: Grades 5-6
 
1 - Amy Beth Wilson - Rain Porch
2 - Amy Beth Wilson - Sparkling in the Sunshine
 
 
Nonfiction: Grades 7-8
 
1 - Susannah Wilson - Porch mornings
 
 
Nonfiction: Grades 9-12
 
1 - Morgan Sinsel - Sunrise
2 -  Isobel Li - Some Xuzhou Fever Dream
3 - Juliet Nisly - A Flamboyant, Accidental Revolution
 
 
Poetry: Grades 1-2
 
 
1 - Ronin Rohrback - I Love You So Much
2 - Jacob Brunson - Green
 
Poetry: Grades 3-4
 
1 - Ferris Olson - A Day In My Bedroom
2 - Adain Smith - Life is Great
3 - Zach Chen - A Free Verse Poem
HM - Adiva Mittal - Dream, Oh Dream
HM - Adain Smith - NATURE
HM - Harper Lynne Falls - Corona Virus
 
 
Poetry: Grades 5-6
 
1 - Aarav Rajput - Save the Earth
2 - Garrett Li – D2 Member - Rain
3 - Garrett Li – D2 Member - Forest
HM - Amy Beth Wilson - Mystery
HM - Amy Beth Wilson - A.D.D.
HM - Kadi Bledsoe - Autumn
HM - Kadi Bledsoe - Spring
HM - Mira McInnes - don’t want you (a song)
 
Poetry: Grades 7-8
 
1 - Audrey Caleb - One Person
2 - Blaine McVey - Silence
3 - Brogan Meier - Dear Mother
HM - Sarah Ye - A Chaotic Tale
 
 
Poetry: Grades 9-12
 
1 - Niki Wood - Dead Breaths of Sobibor
2 - Bryson Brownlee - The Field
3 - Morgan Sinsel - Prejudice
HM - Isobel Li - you are the greens
HM - Penelope (Penny) Duran - March of the Resilience
HM - Chloe Pontious - For Dear Life
 
Bajaj Award Winner
Amy Beth Wilson

​Thank you to our Judges
 
Ann McWhite was born and raised in Marysville, Kansas, and moved to Colorado in 1969. She finished college in Denver and then worked as a nurse at P/SL from 1975 to her retirement in 2014. She enjoys attending writing book club, paddle boarding, astronomy, gardening, reading, climbing in the mountains with her son Joe, baking, and just being with other retired friends keeping friendships open.
Judged Fiction Grades 1-2, and Non-Fiction Grades 1-2
 
Jolene Haas grew up in Southeast Kansas listening to the many stories of her extended family members. Some stories were true, but most were creatively told with twists and turns in the events, depending on who was telling the story. As a young girl, she began writing her own stories. She continues to love to read and to write middle grade and young adult fiction. Jolene has taught students in PreK-eighth grade for twenty-seven years. She has served Kansas Authors Club as the 2017 Youth Writing Contest Manager and as Publicity Chair. She is a member of Kansas Authors Club and Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Judged Non-Fiction Grades 3-4
 
Curtis Becker teaches 8th Grade English at Holton Middle School. He Watched and Took Note, Becker’s collection of poetry and short fiction, was released in August of 2018. In addition to his teaching and writing, he operates Kellogg Press, which has published three poetry collections in 2019. Becker earned a BA in English from ESU and an MA in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. He is a proud member of Kansas Authors Club and the Emporia Writers Group.
Judged Fiction Grades 3-4
 
Louise Brown has lived most of her life in Colorado, currently Arvada. She treasured her chance, years ago, to take adult education classes from Colorado poet Carolyn Campbell which launched her efforts in writing poetry. She has been a member of Columbine Poets of Colorado, a branch of National Federation of State Poetry Societies, for many years. Most recently she participates in Hard Times Writers at the Arvada Library. Louise has a 16-year-old granddaughter and a 13-year-old grandson, Jason. She is a retired preschool teacher whose favorite part of the job was reading to the children. She loves reading novels, poetry, and a variety of non-fiction. Jason continues to help his grandmother review the KAC youth contest entries. She values his insight, comments, and teen POV.
 
Note from Louise Brown: “Suggestions for all writers: Share your work with family, friends, and teachers; listen to their comments about what worked well. Be careful with adjectives; look them up to be sure the word has specific meaning you want, including colors. Writers write. Keep at it. Every entry shows potential, keep writing!”
Judged Fiction & Non-Fiction Grades 5-6, Grades 7-8
 
Jane Lewis was born and raised in Marysville, Kansas.  She moved to Colorado and raised a family while working for one of the largest HMOs serving as a construction project manager and in-house art consultant. Writing has always been a constant in her life. Jane is currently focusing on writing memoir stories. 
 
“It was a pleasure to serve as a judge again this year. Though I reside in Colorado, Kansas will always be my home. The writing submissions this year were phenomenal!”
Judged Fiction & Non-Fiction Grades 9-12
 
Kari Heide, M. Ed is a State Trainer for Kansas MTSS & Alignment, following six years as a second-grade teacher in both Lawrence and Eudora, Kansas. She lives in Eudora with her husband where they are raising three children, ages 19 (at KU), 17, and 15. In brief moments of spare time, Kari loves to garden, cook new recipes, and read books about adventurous people doing fantastic things. Most of all, she loves enriching the lives of children through exceptional instruction and genuine care.
Judged Poetry Grades 3-4
 
Marie A. Shepard is a graduate of the University of Utah with degrees in History and Education.  She has taught in Alternative School in Salt Lake City.  She volunteered at KRCL Listener's Community Radio in Salt Lake City and read books over the air.  She also has worked with disable youth in Manhattan Kansas. At the present time she is raising two great grand niece and nephews.
Judged Poetry Grades 5-6
 
Seth Heide is a husband, father, and school administrator in Eudora, Kansas. He has two high school aged daughters and a son at the University of Kansas. He has most recently taught 2nd and 4th grades before becoming assistant principal at Eudora Elementary School in 2013. Previously, he taught middle school Spanish and Social Studies, as well as serving as children’s ministries director at his church prior to teaching in Eudora. Seth enjoys time with his family, running, and Cubs baseball.
Judged Poetry Grades 7-8
 
Lindsay Frank is a 5th grade teacher in Eudora, Kansas. She’s a proud Jayhawk who just finished her master’s in curriculum and instruction at the University of Kansas. In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing the piano, going on walks, drinking coffee, playing sports, crafting, and spending time with her family and her dog. She’s excited to be a part of this process and read the excellent poetry submitted by students!
Judged Poetry Grades 9-12

 

Chris McKitterick
Science Fiction Futures: Writing Transformative Change
 
Science fiction is the literature of the human species encountering change, whether it arrives via scientific discoveries, technological innovations, natural events, or societal shifts. In this workshop, Chris will talk about writing fiction set after the world-shaking changes we'll soon see (if civilization makes it…).

When writing in a world more than 10 years into the future – especially more than 20 years – you must account for three fundamental areas of technological change that will utterly alter what it means to be human. Chris will discuss the power of science fiction in responding to the transformative changes we will see in our lifetime, and how you can write work set in the near future that doesn't immediately feel obsolete. Afterward, he'll send everyone home with links to lots of SF-writing resources created especially for attendees.
 
Chris McKitterick has lived in seven states and two countries but calls Lawrence—where he teaches science fiction and writing at KU—home. His newest short fiction, “Ashes of Exploding Suns, Monuments to Dust,” won the AnLab Reader’s Award for best novelette. His debut novel was Transcendence. Current projects includeAd Astra Road Trip, Empire Ship, Stories from a Perilous Youth, and more. He’s a popular speaker, Campbell Award juror and chair, and Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction director. He sees surviving his youth as evidence of quantum realities.  

Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter | Christopher-McKitterick.com


updated 9/30/2020

Mark Wentling
Memoir Writing: Born in Kansas, Made in Africa
 
Wentling shares his experiences as a Kansan spending half a century in Africa. He provides information about the complex continent of Africa and of 54 of its countries. Wentling has published a three-volume Africa Memoir. (Link to Mark’s book on YouTube.)  
 
Mark Wentling obtained his bachelor’s degree from Wichita State University. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, Togo, Gabon, and Niger. In 1977, he began working for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Niger and later served as its principal officer in Guinea, Togo/Benin, Angola, Somalia and Tanzania. Following retirement from the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, Mark continued to work as an advisor for the Great Lakes Region, then with USAID Missions in Zambia, Malawi, Guinea and Senegal. 
 
His many jobs and travels in Africa, visiting all 54 African countries, contributed to the completion of his latest book, Africa Memoir: 50 Years, 54 Countries, One American Life. Those who know him well say he was born and raised in Kansas but made in Africa.
 

Barbara Waterman-Peters
Your Story and My Art: A Collaboration
 
Explore different methods by which the author and the artist/graphic designer, working in tandem, can create an attractive literary product. With so many options today there is no reason for a book with poor visual appeal. Whether you have written fiction, non-fiction, a memoir, a children’s book, or a collection of poems, your book can be a source of pride.
 
Barbara Waterman-Peters, (BFA, Washburn University, MFA, Kansas State University, Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, Washburn University) whose award-winning work is in museum, corporate, and private collections. She was a founding member of the Collective Art Gallery (1987-2014) and is a charter member of Circle of 7. She has shown regionally, nationally and internationally in over 275 solo, invitational and juried exhibitions. Waterman-Peters taught at Washburn and Kansas State Universities as well as for Lassen Community College in California. She was the staff artist for the Washburn University Theater from 1999 until 2016. In 2010 she founded STUDIO 831, an artists’ space and gallery in the North Topeka Arts & Entertainment District (NOTO).
 
She is co-founder of Pen & Brush Press with author Glendyn Buckley. She and Glendyn each received a Children’s Book Award from Kansas Authors Club for their work on their second book, Bird. She writes articles about art and artists for TOPEKA Magazine and other publications.
 

Kevin Rabas
Writing and Performing to Music
 
Kevin Rabas supplies the prompts, and we will write and perform with live music, particularly drum. There is a long legacy of spoken word combined with music, stretching hundreds of years and across countless cultures, featuring scops, bards, troubadours, and more. (No experience necessary. Open to writers of both poetry and prose.)
 
Past Poet Laureate of Kansas (2017-2019) Kevin Rabas teaches at Emporia State University, where he leads the poetry and playwriting tracks and chairs the Department of English, Modern Languages, and Journalism. He has twelve books, including Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano, a Kansas Notable Book and Nelson Poetry Book Award winner. He is the recipient of the Emporia State President’s and Liberal Arts & Sciences Awards for Research and Creativity, and he is the winner of the Langston Hughes Award for Poetry.