Category: Denise Low

J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial Book Award Winners Housed at Council Grove Public Library

8/29/2024

2023 Coffin Book Award winners were donated to the Council Grove Public Library. The winner in fiction was Thirst, by K.L. Barron. The winner in nonfiction was Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays in a Time of Pestilence, by Denise Low.

The J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award was established by Mrs. Bertha Coffin to honor the memory of her husband, a long-time member and officer of KAC, after his death on September 6, 1978. The J. Donald Coffin Award is intended to honor the best published book written by a member of Kansas Authors Club, excluding Kansas history, Kansas memoir, poetry, and children’s books, which have their own contests. Since 2022, this contest provides two awards, one in fiction and one in nonfiction. The collection of Coffin Award winning books is housed at the Council Grove Public Library. The books are available to the public for circulation.

2023 Coffin Memorial Book Award for Nonfiction - Jigsaw Puzzling, by Denise Low

10/14/2023

Order Jigsaw Puzzling

Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays in a Time of Pestilence

Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate 2007-09, won a Red Mountain Press Award for Shadow Light: Poems. Other publications are The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival (University of Nebraska Press); Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays (Meadowlark); Wing (Red Mountain); and Casino Bestiary (Spartan). Forthcoming is House of Grace, House of Blood, docu-poetry from the University of Arizona Press, Suntracks series. She teaches for Baker University’s School of Professional and Graduate Studies. Low is a founding board member of Indigenous Nations Poets, former board president of AWP, and literary co-director of The 222 arts organization. At Haskell Indian Nations University she founded the creative writing program. She lives in California’s Sonoma County, homeland of Pomo people. www.deniselow.net

Learn More - Coffin Memorial Book Award

Judge: Andy Farkas, Washburn University professor. Andy teaches beginning and advanced fiction writing and advanced college writing and holds a BA from Kent State, a MA from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a MA from the University of Alabama. He holds a PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Andy is the author of a novel, The Big Red Herring (KERNPUNKT Press 2019) and two collections of short fiction, Self-Titled Debut (Subito Press 2009) and Sunsphere (BlazeVOX [books] 2019). His work has appeared in The Iowa Review, North American Review, The Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. He has been nominated six times for a Pushcart Prize, with one Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XXXV and one Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2013. His novel was a finalist for the 2019 Big Other Fiction Award, a finalist for the 2019 Foreword INDIES humor award, and was on the Entropy Magazine Best Fiction Books of 2019 list. He is also the fiction editor for The Rupture (the re-brand of The Collagist).

20 Memoirs by Kansas Authors

6/19/2023

A LIST OF BOOKS BY KANSAS AUTHORS CLUB MEMBERS, PAST AND PRESENT

Inspired by the June program by Denise Low, "Embellishing Prose and Poetry with Memoir," we pulled books by Kansas Authors Club nembers that illustrate the many and varied techniques of memoir writing.

If you have examples of member books to add (your own or a friend's) please put your addition in the comments section.

Members - View June Program

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Posts of a Mid-Century Kid, by Ann Vigola Anderson (Anamcara Press, 2021)

Anderson takes us on a journey to 1950s and 60s Kansas and treats the reader to hometown cooking in her tasty memoir Posts of a Mid-Century Kid. With humor and richly crafted details, she chronicles her mid-century childhood, offering a sampling of another era. This delightful and mischievous memoir advocates coloring vividly outside of the lines!

Headwinds: A Memoir by Edna Bell-Pearson (Meadowlark, 2019)

When World War II made her way to southwest Kansas, Edna Bell-Pearson’s life was forever changed. After meeting her husband Carl Ungerer—a pilot stationed in Liberal for the war— Edna’s moved to the opposite corner of the state, and she became one of the first private female pilots in Kansas. Her story takes place over the course of five years and tells of Ungerer Flying Service, a family-owned and operated business stationed in Marysville. As the business is born and takes on the challenges of life, Edna learns to appreciate the importance of the little things: hunting and fishing trips, a good housekeeper, and crisp, autumnal days without wind.

Running Out of Footprints, by Cathy Callen (2013)

Running Out of Footprints is the true story of three generations of the Neff family, who arrived on the scene in Kansas City in the late 1800s full of energy and potential, contributed as political, business, religious and medical leaders in the city, and then gradually disappeared into obituaries and census data. The author, a fourth generation Neff herself, came into possession of a metal box full of old letters, documents and photographs after her father's death. The questions she asked about these keepsakes and the answers she sought and found, led to writing this collection of biographies.

Lovers, Dreams & Thieves, by Marcia Cebulska (Flint Hills Publishing, 2023)

"With a novelist’s eye for detail and a poet’s gift for language, Cebulska has written a visceral knockout of a memoir packed with vibrant, unforgettable family members and unexpected happenings. Cebulska is a brilliant, big-hearted, and luminous storyteller who can capture a world in a short vignette. I was entirely captivated by these intimate and moving family portraits that have shaped the author's life and work.” -Harriet Lerner, author of The Dance of Anger and Why Won’t You Apologize?

High Plains Homestead, by R. Kent Crawford (Post Rock Press, 2023)

Scorching heat. Bitter cold. Relentless wind. No trees. Scarce water. That’s what settlers faced on the Kansas plains. Crawford grew up on a farm in Russell County that his great grandparents homesteaded in 1879. Tales of hardship, humor, and grit merge with details of the enormous changes in mechanization, economics, and political forces as the country transitioned from a mostly rural nation to a mostly urban one. Crawford's personal story coupled with meticulous research on the evolution of farming from the homestead years to the recent prairie fires describe the birth and transformation of his family farm. The narrative concludes with a thought-provoking discussion of the future of rural communities, the options for farmers, and High Plains farming.

In the Shadow of the Wind, by Ann Christine Fell (2014)

Following a series of tragic losses, thirty-year old Ann Fell struggles alone in a strange and frightening world. The young widow and bereaved mother retreats to the wilderness for comfort and healing. Planning to stay forty days, she sets up a solitary camp on the river bank of her family’s abandoned farm homestead. Marooned by rising flood waters after only a few days, she faces her own mortality.

And I Cried, Too, by Mike Hartnett (Meadowlark Press, 2020)

Mike and his wife, Barbara, moved to Lincoln, Illinois, in 1972. The town of 17,000 was charming, friendly, and safe. As employees of Lincoln College, a small, private junior college, they quickly grew to enjoy the subtle pleasures of small-town living. Then the campus was hit with a series of burglaries and a student disappeared. Finally, the murders began. This is Mike Hartnett’s personal story, memories that have taken him more than forty years to write. This is not a true crime exposé or a who-dunnit mystery. This is simply a story about one man on the periphery of a series of events that devastate a community for a time. It is a story about the guilt that lingers and the questions that remain.

31 Days (Nights), by Reginald Jarrell (Blue Cedar Press, 2022)

Reginald D. Jarrell’s book of essays is a thoughtful exploration of experiences that molded him as a Black man growing up and raising his family primarily in Kansas. Mr. Jarrell also lived in Mississippi, Iowa, California, and Washington, D.C. As a pastor, lawyer, communications professional, and university professor, Mr. Jarrell is first of all a truth teller.

The Art of Listening to the Heart, by James Kenyon (2016/ 2022)

In this memoir collection, retired veterinarian James Kenyon recalls his days in veterinary practice. From heartwarming to heartbreaking and everything in between, Kenyon writes of his care for beloved family pets, livestock, and their human caretakers. His memories illustrate a true devotion and love for veterinary work, as well as a passion for people and local history. Each chapter relates a specific memory of working with a quirky, loyal, and loveable animal, as well as the quirky, loyal, and lovable humans who owned them. The work offers not just insight into the work of a veterinarian, but to human nature and the manner in which people relate to and care for each other, as well as their animals.

Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays in a Time of Pestilence, by Denise Low (Meadowlark Press, 2022)

Writer of poetry, essays, memoir, and fiction—Denise Low did what so many of us did in the spring of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic sent us to spending long days at home. Denise’s jigsaw puzzling went well beyond pictures put together piece-by-piece, however. The 15 essays in this book document the pestilence that impacted our entire world. In them, Low explores the very culture of jigsaw puzzles while providing poetic lessons in art, geography, history, and more.

Diary of a German War Bride, by Trudy McFarland (2006)

"Trudy McFarland's telling of her mother's story in diary form, from her parents' 'love at first sight' meeting in post World War I Germany to 1988 when her mother's very full life ends, is a remarkable account of family relationships, historical events, and the characteristics which make a family strong and memorable. It is a fascinating read!"
--Evie Green, Coordinator of Write Stuff

My Flint Hills Childhood, by Gail Lee Martin (Blurb, 2009)

A childhood on the Kansas prairies in the 1930s springs vividly to life in the detailed memories of Gail Martin. Her simple accounts of long ago school days, celebrations and family life are a treasure. Travel back in time to life in the Flint Hills during the Great Depression and the time leading up to World War II. The memories include her father's work in the oil field, trips to town in the family's Model A, raising her pet badger, fishing on the Cottonwood River, and wearing dresses made from feed sack material. The book also explores her family's role in early Kansas history with details of covered wagons, homesteading, the Civil War and fledgling industries. These range from Tyro to Teterville to Eureka.

Courtesy Boy: A Memoir of Addiction, by Mike Matson (Flint Hills Publishing, 2021)

“Thirty years after my last ingestion of chemicals, I inventoried the traits and behaviors connected with my addiction, chronicled my early adult life, and wrote a book. My motivation is to help those suffering and their loved ones connect the dots between the destructive traits and behaviors—and the potential for addiction. In so doing, infuse some fresh air into the oppressive stigma that clings to addiction and mental health.

The Sky Begins At Your Feet, by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg (Ice Cube Press, 2009)

I cannot figure out who I am as a body these days, writes Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg in this powerful, tender and humorous memoir about resiliency and love in the face of cancer. Mirriam-Goldberg braves breast cancer, the breast cancer genetic mutation and the loss of a parent by connecting with an eclectic Midwest community, the land and sky, and a body undergoing vast renovation.

Cop in the Classroom, by Sgt. Jim Potter (Sandhenge Publications, 2007)

Learn how kids and cops connect at school. You will enjoy 33 personal stories about one officer's professional career as a deputy sheriff and school resource officer. Cop in the Classroom gives an insider's look at the emotional experiences behind the badge--and life lessons for us all.

I've been fighting this war within myself, poetry by Antonio Sanchez-Day (Meadowlark Press, 2023)

Even though he was often vastly outnumbered by enemies on the outside and by demons on the inside, Antonio Sanchez-Day took on life. He fought against racism as a boy, fought against family troubles, and fought as a street soldier for his gang which was the “family” he’d always wanted. Then he had to fight simply to survive 13 years of incarceration. Inside the walls, Antonio found his main weapon, his pen. He wrote brilliantly, and with pen in hand, he turned his life around. The 123 pages of new, unpublished poetry in this book was put together by Antonio’s friend and mentor, Brian Daldorph, to “cement [his] legacy” (Antonio’s words).

The Big Quiet: One Woman's Horseback Ride Home, by Lisa D. Stewart (Meadowlark Press, 2020)

At 54, Lisa Stewart set out to regain the fearless girl she once had been, riding her horse, Chief, 500 miles home. Hot, homeless, and horseback, she snapped back into every original cell. On an extraordinary homegoing from Kansas City to Bates and Vernon Counties in Missouri, Lisa exhausted herself, faced her past, trusted strangers, and stayed in the middle of her frightened horse to document modern rural America, the people, animals, and land.

Gravedigger's Daughter, by Cheryl Unruh (Meadowlark Press, 2021)

Gravedigger's Daughter: Vignettes from a Small Kansas Town is more than a story of the author and her father. It is a reminder of the relationships we all have, more than skin deep, an examination of the complexities of the people we love and care for. It is a love letter to the individuals who always exist at our very core.

It's All Showbusiness, by Connie Rae (Page Publishing, 2019)

Lee Edward Atterbury was born September 1, 1924, into the Atterbury Circus family. He was the fifth of seven children born to Robert L. and Rose Atterbury. By the time Lee was old enough for school, his older siblings were accomplished aerialists and his mother was a slack wire walker. The Atterbury Circus was a road circus, traveling the highways of rural America from Iowa and the Dakotas to Texas throughout the years of the Great Depression. (written by Connie Rae White)

Memoirs of the Dysfunctional? by Joann Garrity Williams (Meadowlark, 2018)

Memoirs of the Dysfunctional depicts the unconventional, but necessary lifestyle, and results, of a family forced to live a somewhat nomadic existence because the father, who was blinded as a child, had no means of support other than working as a street musician. The author, Joann Garrity Williams, is the oldest child of Ethel and Francis Garrity. She served for four years as state president of the Kansas Authors Club. This is the first time many, including family members and close friends, will learn the truth about Joann’s unique childhood and upbringing.

Reminder: Saturday, June 17 Program with Denise Low

6/16/2023

June 17, 2023, 1:30 pm
State Program
Presenter: Denise Low

Embellishing Prose and Poetry with Memoir
This presentation will take place via Zoom.

Program Description:
Louise Gluck wrote: “We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.” We will learn ways to transform memory into memoir using focus, invention, and deeper explorations. In the workshop, plan to write, edit, share, and discuss (or not—auditors are welcome). Bring a short poem or prose paragraph about any subject for experimentation.

Denise Low, the 2nd Kansas Poet Laureate, is a founding member of Indigenous Nations Poets. Her memoir Turtle’s Beating Heart: A Lenape Family Story of Survival will be released in a new edition, 2023, and her Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays (Meadowlark, 2022) is part Covid memoir and part lyrical essays—with some poems braided in. She has awards from the Kansas Center for the Book (4), Red Mountain Press, National Endowment for the Humanities, and others. Low teaches for Baker University and now resides in Sonoma County, California.

Click on the cover image below to learn more about books by Denise Low..

All members who have opted to receive "monthly news" should have received a link to attend this program. Links were also distributed via District presidents.

If you did not receive a link, please fill out the form below.

June Program News: Denise Low

6/7/2023

NOTE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, this program will take place via zoom on June 10 at 1:30pm AND as regularly scheduled on June 17 at 1:30pm. Only the June 17 program will have the post-program break-out rooms and district gatherings.

Any member is welcome to attend on either date. Members will receive the link via the monthly newsletter or may request it from your district president. It is also available through the members-only pages of this website (sign-in required).

Denise Low, the 2nd Kansas Poet Laureate, is a founding member of Indigenous Nations Poets. Her memoir Turtle’s Beating Heart: A Lenape Family Story of Survival will be released in a new edition, 2023, and her Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays (Meadowlark, 2022) is part Covid memoir and part lyrical essays—with some poems braided in. She has awards from the Kansas Center for the Book (4), Red Mountain Press, National Endowment for the Humanities, and others. Low teaches for Baker University and now resides in Sonoma County, California.

Denise is a member of Kansas Authors Club, District 2.

Click the cover image below to learn more about recent books by Denise Low.

Visit Denise's Website

Congratulations to the Kansas Authors Club Members Published in 105 Meadowlark Reader, the Animal Issue

5/29/2023

The spring 2023 issue of 105 Meadowlark Reader features the following essays by Kansas Authors Club members:

A Cryptid Sighting in Kansas
by Denise Low (D2)

Love Bears All Things
by Amy D. Kliewer (D5)

Nocturnal Nuisance
by Elizabeth R. Schmidt (D5)

The Right Man for the Job
by Brenda L. White (D2)

Little Owl
by Lindsey Bartlett (D2)

My Heron
by Michael D. Graves (D2)

You Dirty Bird
by Jerilynn Jones Henrikson (D2)

Blessed is the Peacemaker
by Cheryl Suzanne Heide (D2)

Introducing the Black Tornado
by Cynthia Schaker (D5)

Buddy the Bookstore Beagle
by Linda Crowder (D6)

Princess With an Attitude
by Thomas N. Holmquist (D4)

Skiing in Kansas
by Boyd Bauman (D2)

Not a Playmate
by Carolyn Hall (D2)

Broken Heart
by Ann Vigola Anderson (D2)

I Did. I Saw a Camel!
by Marilyn Hope Lake (D2)

Invaders Via My Pre-vet Roommate
by Annabelle Corrick (D2)

Somewhere Over the Rainbow
by Pamela Yenser (D7)

This Is Not About Dogs
by Julie Ann Baker Brin (D5)

Congratulations to our members! 105 Meadowlark Reader is currently (through June 30, 2023) taking submissions on the theme of Landmarks.

Submission Guidelines

Subscribe to 105 Meadowlark Reader

DENISE LOW TO ZOOM SPEAK SATURDAY, MARCH 27 FOR D6

3/24/2021

Denise Low, a former Poet Laureate of Kansas, will speak on Zoom this Saturday, March 27 @ 1:30 PM (CST).
Whether you write poetry or prose, Professor Low will read poetry from her newest book, Wing, and explain how the two genres are alike and different in order to show and tell.
Denise Low, Ph.D., has taught creative writing at the University of Richmond and the University of Kansas, and she founded the creative writing program at Haskell Indian Nations University, where she taught 25 years.
Denise will be joining the meeting from her home in Healdsburg, CA.
If you're interested in attending this free virtual event, contact Jim Potter, [email protected] or 620-899-3144.

Kansas Authors Club Members in the new issue of I-70 Review

10/16/2020

The new issue of I-70 Review (issue date September 28, 2020) has pieces by several Kansas Authors Club members.

Congratulations to:
Boyd Bauman (D2)
Robert L. Dean, Jr. (D5)
Kelly Johnston (D5)
Denise Low (D2)
Kevin Rabas (D2)

If you have news of writing events that would be of interest to all Kansas Authors Club members, or if you are a member (dues current) who would like to announce an achievement, please submit your news via this form.