Category: Curtis Becker

Fall Newsletter: Convention Issue

12/16/2022

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!

2022 Convention: Curtis Becker Service Award

11/21/2022

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

Nominated by Cheryl Unruh

The first time I heard the name Curtis Becker, it was in 2017 I believe, from Marcia Lawrence at her Ellen Plumb bookstore in Emporia. She mentioned that Curtis Becker was moving bookshelves for her, and had been doing other handy chores for her in her shop. Who is this Curtis Becker? I asked. Where did he come from? Marcia told me that he taught English at Northern Heights High School.

Eventually, I did meet this man of mystery when he joined the Emporia Writers Group. He shared his writing with us, poetry and short stories. He then published a book of his work, and he published books for other poets. He also takes charge of organizing a formal spring and fall reading for the group at the William Allen White Library.

I am nominating Curtis for this merit award for service for his dedicated and enthusiastic leadership in the Kansas Authors Club and in District 2.

Curtis has been a member of Kansas Authors Club since 2018. Curtis has served as State Newsletter Editor (2021-present), D2 Vice President (2021), and D2 Website Manager (2020-present). Curtis was one of the four-member team that made our 2020 Virtual Convention possible. He has volunteered each year since joining as a judge for our youth writing contests.

Curtis is currently serving as Chair of the Convention Planning Committee. We’ve had monthly zoom meetings and if he announces a 35-minute limit for a meeting, Curtis keeps the meeting at 35 minutes. How he accomplishes that is something of a mystery, but somehow everything gets covered and no one feels rushed. That’s good leadership.

Curtis has a good heart. He is friendly, has a great sense of humor, and makes a point to look for the positive side of things. And like those days he helped out at Emporia’s bookstore, he’s willing to jump in and help out at other writing events and gatherings - such as being the chief wrangler for this convention. Curtis Becker is a friend, a leader, a man of mystery, a man of many talents.

--Cheryl Unruh, D2 member (Emporia)

2022 Youth Contest Results - Fiction

11/19/2022

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

Our annual contests for youth and adults open April 1 of each year and close on June 15. Guidelines are updated each year, so be sure to check for any updates after the first of the year before entering.

Contest Guidelines

Members Published in 105 Meadowlark Reader, Issue #2

11/2/2021

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.

Kansas Authors Club members featured in this issue include:

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.

Thanks to our Members and Friends Who Took the Time to Help Judge our Youth Contests

10/9/2021

Many thanks to those
who volunteered their time and expertise
to judge the 2021 Kansas Authors Club
Youth Writing Contests.

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.

Meet the Officers: Curtis Becker

5/4/2021

Kansas Authors Club is run by an all-volunteer board. Officers from across the state devote time monthly to everything from district programming to our annual writing contests and convention. Visit with your district representative about how you can contribute

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

Call for Newsletter Articles: Deadline March 22

3/13/2021

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.

Kellogg Press to Host Virtual Reading

12/3/2020

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).

Writers Group Responds to COVID Crisis with Virtual Convention

11/16/2020

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.”

Published in the Emporia Gazette 10/17/2020

Convention Webinar Team: Carol Yoho (D1), Tracy Million Simmons (D2), Curtis Becker (D2), and Duane Johnson (D1).

Kansas Authors Club Receives Grant from The Literary Arts Emergency Fund

10/2/2020

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.