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.

From Judge, Robert Rebein:
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This year’s field of entries featured outstanding books in multiple genres, including adult fiction (including historical fiction), young adult fiction, memoir, and biography. The sheer variety of submissions made the contest particularly difficult to judge. Indeed, I could easily have picked a separate winner from each other above categories. For this reason, I have chosen to name not only an overall winner but also the three finalists from which the winner was selected. Feel free to recognize all three or just the winner, as you see fit.
 
My three finalists are:
 
They Met at Wounded Knee by Gretchen Cassel Eick
The Big Quiet by Lisa D. Stewart
Opulence, Kansas by Julie Stielstra
 
Gretchen Cassel Eick’s They Met at Wounded Knee tells story of Charles Ohiyesa Eastman, a Dakota physician, and Elaine Goodale Eastman, a teacher and supervisor of education among the Sioux, who met while witnessing the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre and subsequently married and raised six children, even as they worked tirelessly on behalf of citizenship and equal rights for Native Americans. The book is meticulously researched and written and makes important contributions to the fields of biography, history, and Native American Studies. It succeeds not only as a portrait of two complex people and their equally complex marriage, but also as a portrait of a turbulent era in American history—roughly the last decade of the 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th century—that has much in common with the times in which we live now.
 
On the basis of its contributions to multiple fields and its daring exploration of form as a double biography, I have chosen to recognize Gretchen Cassel Eick’s They Met at Wounded Knee as the winner of this year’s J. Donald Coffin Award.
 
Please extend my congratulations to the . . . winner of this year’s award.
 
Thanks again and best wishes,
Robert Rebein
2021 Coffin Memorial Book Award Judge

Judge:
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Robert Rebein was born and raised in Dodge City, where his family has farmed and ranched since the late 1920s. Rebein received his BA in English from the University of Kansas. His subsequent degrees include an MA from Exeter University in England and an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of two award-winning memoirs about growing up in Kansas, Dragging Wyatt Earp: A Personal History of Dodge City (Swallow, 2013) and Headlights on the Prairie: Essays on Home (Kansas, 2017), as well as a work of literary criticism, Hicks, Tribes, & Dirty Realists: American Fiction after Postmodernism (Kentucky, 2001). His unpublished works include a novel-in-progress entitled The Last Rancher. Rebein teaches creative writing at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in downtown Indianapolis.

Kansas boasts an amazing array of talented and dedicated independent book publishers. Their owners are the folks who promote and publish the poetry and prose of talented wordsmiths who might never land or seek a contract with any of the big New York publishers. Meadowlark, Blue Cedar, One Voice and Spartan are all racking up some impressive title inventories and many of them are KAC members’ books. How and why do these small publishers deal with the little fish? What is their vision for their companies and the talented authors they recruit? Do they accept submissions? What do they charge?
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The members of this panel will give us a brief history of their dedicated service to Kansas authors. They include:

Tracy Million Simmons of Meadowlark–
Owner/Publisher of Meadowlark Press, enjoys reading and writing about the people and places of her home state of Kansas, both real and imagined. She started Meadowlark Books in 2014 with the publication of Green Bike, a group novel, with Kevin Rabas and Michael D. Graves. Since that time, Meadowlark has published books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, including the 2016 Kansas Notable Book, To Leave a Shadow by Michael D. Graves, the 2020 Kansas Notable Book, Headwinds, by Edna Bell-Pearson, and the 2021 Kansas Notable Book, All Hallows' Shadows, by Michael D. Graves. Opulence, Kansas, by Julie Stielstra was the winner of the 2021 Midwest Book Award in YA fiction.

Gretchen Eick of Blue Cedar–
After fourteen years as a foreign and military policy lobbyist in Washington, Gretchen Eick became a professor of history. Awarded two Fulbright Scholar awards (to Latvia and Bosnia and Herzegovina) and a Fulbright Hays travel grant to South Africa, she is the author of seven books, two scholarly histories, four novels, and a book of short stories. Her books include  
Dissent in Wichita: The Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest, 1954-1972 (U of IL Press, 2001/2007) and They Met at Wounded Knee: The Eastmans’ Story (University of Nevada Press)

Blue Cedar Press published its first books in 2015. Michael Poage, the founder, wanted to start a press that would focus on poetry written by new voices that he believed should be published and heard. His wife, Gretchen Eick, a published writer of nonfiction, had begun writing novels and wanted the press to publish fiction and nonfiction from new voices also, particularly the voices of today’s “other America”—people of color, immigrants, young people, people of nontraditional sexual orientation, as well as people from other countries.

Jason Ryberg of Spartan Press–
Jason Ryberg is the author of fourteen books of poetry, six screenplays, a few short stories, a box full of folders, notebooks and scraps of paper that could one day be (loosely) construed as a novel, and a couple of angry letters to various magazine and newspaper editors. He is currently an artist-in-residence at both The Prospero Institute of Disquieted P/o/e/t/i/c/s and the Osage Arts Community, and is an editor and designer at Spartan Books. His latest collection of poems is Are You Sure Kerouac Done It This Way!? (co-authored with John Dorsey, and Victor Clevenger, OAC Books, 2021). He lives part-time in Kansas City, MO with a rooster named Little Red and a Billy goat named Giuseppe and part-time somewhere in the Ozarks near the Gasconade River, where there are also many strange and wonderful woodland critters. 
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Will Leathem founded Spartan Press in the late 1990s as a vehicle to bring awareness to the stunning writing talent Kansas City has to offer. As part-owner of Prospero’s Books, he has been an endless champion for small presses and local and national poetry, hosting hundreds of events.

Jan Gilbert Hurst of Author’s Voice–
In her business--Author’s Voice Publishing—Jan’s mission is to help aspiring writers become published authors. She provides all the services needed to shepherd manuscripts through editing, design, production, and print, to become polished books that authors are proud to present to the world. She appreciates one adoring husband, two grown sons, and three delightful grandchildren. Her spare time overflows with volunteering as a leader in Outdoor Ministry. She sporadically works on her own historical novel, regularly attends MacNovelists, a writers’ group in McPherson, and enjoys meeting new people as a member of the Kansas Authors Club. 

Gretchen Eick will be speaking on a panel at the Kansas Book Festival about writing books that treat controversial subjects and/or historical material that is little known by the general public. She will be using her latest book as her case in point: They Met at Wounded Knee: The Eastmans' Story (University of Nevada, 2020).

She has had two articles accepted for publication in the first two issues by 105 Meadowlark Reader: A Kansas Journal of Creative Nonfiction.

She is revising the sequel to her historical novel Maybe Crossings for publication in early 2022. The sequel is set in 2019 with a working title When the Road Splayed.

She will be speaking to the District 5 KAC group Saturday, October 16 at 1:30 on researching and writing historical fiction and nonfiction.
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Julie A. Sellers’ Kindred Verse: Poems Inspired by Anne of Green Gables (Blue Cedar Press, June 15, 2021) takes readers on a whimsical stroll through early 20th Century Canada, but also through the places and people they discovered within the covers of books and fell in love with when they were young. Her encounters with Anne of Green Gables shaped who Julie became, giving her courage and confidence to be her own unique and original self, courage to see with the eyes of imagination.

I am a newcomer to Anne of Green Gables. I am now reading the 8 books by L.M. Montgomery, the Canadian author who spun beautiful, vivid stories of the highly intelligent orphan girl who shares her way of seeing with those she meets. Anne is quirky and literate beyond her years. Her yearnings are to learn as much as possible, to lift herself from the drudgery of her orphan life with imagination, to see beauty and wonder, and to become someone who makes a difference.

Julie visited Prince Edward Island, Canada, on her honeymoon and returned with a folio of photos and a mind abuzz with words and phrases uniquely hers that she lavishes on her readers. Whether they are familiar with Anne or not, readers find this special place and special girl haunting and kindred.

Read this book and give it to those you love. Let Julie’s beautiful photos and poems so gracefully presented in this book thanks to designer Jay Wallace stir your emotions, your memories, and remind you of your dreams.​

Purchase Kindred Verse at Blue Cedar Press. Also available wherever you buy books.

The following Kansas Authors Club members had essays selected for publication in the first issue of 105: Meadowlark Reader, a Kansas journal of creative nonfiction. Issue #1, with the theme of "beginnings," is expected to be delivered to subscribers in early May, featuring 35 essays, including the following:

Gretchen Eick - D5
Marie Fletcher - D7
Beth Gulley - D2
Miriam Iwashige - D6
Nancy Julien Kopp - D4
Sandee Lee - D5
Don Marler - D5
Ruth Maus - D1
Julie Nischan - D1
Kevin Rabas - D2
Mark Scheel - D2
Julie Sellers - D4
Tyler Sheldon - D2
Julie Stielstra - D6
Barbara Waterman-Peters - D1
Jon Yenser - D7
Gloria Zachgo - D5
Ginger Zyskowski - D6

Cheryl Unruh (D2) of Quincy Press is the editor of the new journal, and Tracy Million Simmons (D2) of Meadowlark Press is the publisher. Readers are encouraged to subscribe before March 1 to take advantage of introductory pricing. 

For those interested in submitting essays for issue #2, the theme will be "Kansas Travel Stories" and they will begin collecting those submissions in May and June of 2021

See 105meadowlarkreader.com for complete details.

Book Event Announcement from Gretchen Eick:

January 27th 6-7:30 PM, the Wichita Public Library will have a virtual discussion of my 2019 near-future book The Hard Verge: Britain 2025. 

Gretchen Eick of District 5 is the author and will be present for the discussion. The library has copies so no one needs to purchase the book. If people register, they will receive the Zoom address 24 hours in advance. Call 688-9580 or visit wichitalibrary.org/events to register online:  https://wichita.evanced.info/signup/eventdetails?EventId=11744


The novel is about asylum seekers in London in the post-Brexit years of an Ultra Right party's dominance of British politics. When a Syrian woman journalist disappears, her partner's search for her leads into the legal and illegal refugee community and to a small group of Members of Parliament willing to investigate what is happening in the privatized detention centers. Investigations that ensue uncover disturbing activity at Poton Downs, a top secret British weapons laboratory, and the Ultras' alarming increase of surveillance.  Is she still alive? Will Ana be found? What about the tens of thousands of others seeking asylum? And their children? 

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. ​

Congratulations to D5 member, Gretchen Eick, and the following Kansas Authors Club members who were published in this anthology: Ronda Miller (D2), Jim Potter (D6), Mark McCormick (D5), Judy Keller Hatteberg (D5), Robert Dean (D5), Michael Poage (D5), Julie Baker Brinn (D7), Mike Graves (D2), Ruth Maus (D1), Julie Stielstra (D6), Mark Scheel (D2), Miriam Iwashige (D6), Najiyah Maxfield (D6), Janet Stotts (D1), and Diane Wahto (D5).

PRESS RELEASE
September 20, 2020

The Death Project: An Anthology for These Times is now in print and available to order at your favorite bookstore and Amazon.

This book is a 205 page anthology of stories, poems, mini memoirs, and factual pieces about the various ways we lose loved ones to death and how we grieve and heal. It is a collaboration by 36 writers from across the US, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Britain, Turkey, etc. who contributed their writing to help others suffering from grief or anticipation of grief. It is intended to expand readers' thinking, feeling, and imagining about this universal, often-hidden experience brought relentlessly to the world's consciousness in 2020.

The writers are Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Bah'ais, atheists, and New Age, and of different races and ethnicities. Some write of family loss including suicide, others of war or devastating illness, of COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter. Others share rituals that helped them recover.

Published by Blue Cedar Press (Wichita, KS) and edited by Dr. Gretchen Eick and Cora Poage, proceeds from the sales of The Death Project after the cost of publication and shipping will go to an assortment of international organizations fighting COVID-19. $12 paperback, $7 ebook (epub and Kindle).

​For more information contact:
Gretchen Eick, 316-682-8818
eickgc@gmail.com

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. ​

KAC D5 member, April Pameticky, has put together a powerful issue of River City Poetry that assembles Kansas Poets’ responses to the events of June 2020.
Members who have poems in this issue include Roy Beckemeyer, Dixie Brown, Arlice W. Davenport, H.B. Berlow, Robert L. Dean Jr., and Gretchen Eick.