The Fall/Winter 2022 Newsletter is now available. It can be read online at Issuu, or downloaded as a PDF file. The newsletter is also archived on the Member Pages of our website.  

Thank you to Curtis Becker for taking charge of our newsletter publication, and to Kevin Rabas for taking photos of our convention this year. Curtis has worked to make sure our newsletter has original content rather than just a recompilation of the news members get online and on Facebook. 

Watch for news about 2023 publications for Kansas Authors Club. We have some exciting updates coming!

Curtis Becker
Merit Award for Service to the Club
October 22, 2022

Nominated by Cheryl Unruh

Judge: Curtis Becker
Fiction: Grades 3-4 and Grades 5-6
 
Curtis Becker is a teacher, editor, and publisher living in Topeka, KS. His work has appeared in anthologies, literary journals, and magazines. He has presented on writing and teaching at academic conferences and to small groups. Becker’s book, He Watched and Took Note, was released in 2018. An educator for over fifteen years, Becker currently teaches at Holton Middle School in Holton, KS. He sponsors the yearbook and coaches scholars bowl at HMS. Additionally, he coaches debate and forensics at Holton High School. Becker earned a Bachelors and Masters in English and Creative Writing and holds professional licensure in Kansas, highly qualified in English Language Arts and Speech Communications.
 
 
FICTION: GRADES 3-4

1st A Beautiful Day, Julia Z. Jiao, Member District 1

2nd Chinese Checkers, Julia Z. Jiao, Member District 1

3rd Halloween Maze, Julia Z. Jiao, Member District 1

 
FICTION: GRADES 5-6

1st Fields of Blue, Laurel Stancil, Member District 2

2nd Victor Frankenstein, Adain Smith
 
3rd An Amazing Day, Adain Smith
 
Honorable Mention: Freedom’s Call, Addison Buck
 
Honorable Mention: The Distinguished Fire, Avery Cao
 
Honorable Mention: The Haunted Hotel, Eli Sun

​Judge Jared Vaughn                                
Fiction: Grades 7-8 and Grades 9-12
 
Jared Vaughn is the author and publisher of the acclaimed novels The Longest Time, Another Time, and the upcoming Lost in Time. His company, Time Honored Productions, has also published the Free Time Tales anthology series, Shoshanna Aaliyah and Raymond Burrows’ smash hit children’s book Tobias’ Travels, Lynn Main’s Zombie Waltz Trilogy, and Karis Ens’s Piano Boy series and A Girl and Her Cat. Dannielle Byard, Izzy Dorner, Sarah Mason, J.S. Spencer, Jay Sylvester, and Makenzi Wigner are also members of the THP team, each providing talents in writing, art, acting, music, and award-winning cosplay. The team can be found at many midwestern events dressed as a variety of your favorite sci-fi and comedy characters. Along with Shoshanna, Karis, and Lynn, Jared is also an active member of the Kansas Authors Club and is a frequent event panelist and workshop speaker. His next big project will be adapting The Longest Time into a TV series.
 
 
FICTION: GRADES 7-8
 
1st Another Day Infinity, Jethro Tang
 
2nd Insomnia, Ariel Li
 
3rd The Sound of it All, Annabelle Hansard
 
Honorable Mention: The Fairy Who Couldn’t Fly, Madeline Male
 
 
FICTION: GRADES 9-12
 
1st Ovum, Isobel Li

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.

Kris Polansky
Poetry Grades 3-4 and Grades 5-6
 
Kristine A. Polansky wrote puppet plays and some poetry as a child but her dream was to write and publish short stories. She took a fiction writing class from James Gunn at the University of Kansas and went on to teach middle school English and social studies ten years before returning to school and obtaining a law degree. Wanting a creative outlet but pressed for time while practicing law, she started writing poems. She experiments with different poetic forms and studies how content and form shape each other. Four of her poems were published in Tallgrass Voices edited by Gary Lechliter. Her poem, “Turning Points” won the 2016 Martin Luther King, Jr. Art and Writing Contest, adult division, Manhattan, Kansas. She has received numerous awards from KAC for her poetry and was named KAC Poet of the Year twice, most recently October 2020.  
 
Roy Beckemeyer
Poetry Grades 7-8 and 9-12
 
Roy Beckemeyer is a past-President of the Kansas Authors Club and was KAC Poet of the Year for a number of years. He has four books of poetry published and his poems appear in poetry anthologies as well as in print and online poetry and literary publications. He is a retired engineer and scientific journal editor and has studied fossil insects for over 20 years.
 
Krista Reed
Fiction Grades 3-4 and Grades 5-6
 
Krista Reed graduated from Pittsburg State University with a degree in Elementary Education,  and went on to receive her Master's Degree in Education from Baker University.  She has more than 25 years of experience teaching grades 2-8.  Her passion is watching children develop to their fullest potential, both  educationally and emotionally.  In her free time, she enjoys camping, reading, and spending time with her family.  Her newest title as "Gammy" is most rewarding and cherished.
 
 
Curtis Becker
Fiction Grades 7-8 and 9-12
 
Curtis Becker is a teacher, editor, and publisher living in Topeka, KS. His work has appeared in anthologies, literary journals, and magazines. He has presented on writing and teaching at academic conferences and to small groups. Becker’s book, He Watched and Took Note, was released in 2018. An educator for over fifteen years, Becker currently teaches at Holton Middle School in Holton, KS. He sponsors the yearbook and coaches scholars bowl at HMS. Additionally, he coaches debate and forensics at Holton High School. Becker earned a Bachelors and Masters in English and Creative Writing and holds professional licensure in Kansas, highly qualified in English Language Arts and Speech Communications.
 
 
Robin Clasen Wunderlich
Non-Fiction Grades 3-4 and 5-6
 
Robin Clasen Wunderlich is the editor and publisher of the Eureka Herald and President of the Kansas Press Association Board of Directors.  Robin is the daughter of the late Dick and Rachel Clasen. Dick Clasen was a KPA president and member of the Kansas Newspaper Hall of Fame, as was his father, George H. Clasen II.  Robin and her husband, Wes have two children and live south of Eureka, Kansas.
 
 
Anna Curry
Non-Fiction Grades 7-8 and Grades 9-12
 
Anna Curry is a mother of four busy children on a ranch in east central Kansas.  She enjoys sharing stories about her children and their rural life on her blog as a way to not only preserve cherished memories but also advocate for agriculture.  Anna has always enjoyed writing as a creative outlet as well as woodworking.  She obtained her bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University and master’s from Texas A&M. 

Writer, teacher, editor, and publisher, Curtis Becker, has been a member of Kansas Authors Club (D2) since 2018 and has maintained the District 2 Website since 2019. In 2020 he was a member of the team that produced the online state convention and in 2021 he will be managing the state newsletter. He is also the vice-president of District 2. He is a member of the Emporia Writers Group and gives readings/hosts open mics in the area. He writes poetry, short fiction, memoir, and magazine articles.
 
With almost fifteen years in the classroom, students at the middle school, high school, and college levels have studied writing and literature with him. He has sponsored school yearbooks, newspapers, and scholars bowl teams and has presented on educational issues at regional conferences. Becker has edited sixteen books including Watch Your Head 2 by Kevin Rabas (October 2020) and, as Kellogg Press, published ten, including KAC's Childrens Book of the Year (2020), I Love the Child by Ronda Miller.
 
Becker grew up in Goodland and earned a BA in English from Emporia State University. He also has a Masters in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. A lifelong learner, Becker loves to attend workshops and continue to grow as a writer/teacher.
 
Recent Highlights:
 
Published in
Walt Whitman Collaborative Project, 2020
Spotlight Magazine, 2020
Great Plains Traverse, 2020
Bards Against Hunger, 5th Anniversary Edition, 2019
 
Books
He Watched and Took Note (Poetry/Short Fiction Collection) 2018
 
www.curtisbeckerbooks.com
www.kelloggpress.com
 

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.
​

Topeka Based Kellogg Press will host a LIVE, virtual reading on December 4 at 4:00 pm CST featuring District 2 Members Kerry Moyer, Curtis Becker, Kevin Rabas, and Ronda Miller. The reading will be broadcast on facebook.com/kelloggpress. An archive of the event will be available shortly after the LIVE stream ends.

KAC members featured include Ronda Miller (D2), Kevin Rabas (D2), Curtis Becker (D2), and Kerry Moyer (D2).

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.” 

Sept. 15, 2020 - President Duane Johnson is pleased to announce that the Kansas Authors Club was selected as a recipient of The Literary Arts Emergency Fund grant, awarded by by the Academy of American Poets, the Community of Literary Magazine & Presses, and the National Book Foundation. Johnson applied for the grant when it became apparent that, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the in-person, annual convention would not be able to take place as usual.

Johnson spearheaded a committee of four to train to host the convention online. With Curtis Becker, Tracy Million Simmons, and Carol Yoho, the organization's October convention will take place virtually, via Zoom webinars, for the first time.

Kansas Authors Club was one of 282 literary organizations that received funding from this grant. The funds are provided to support the software licensing, support services, and training the committee has undergone to bring the convention to members throughout the state of Kansas and beyond.

More about the award can be found at The Literary Hub.