a note from D5 member, Gretchen Eick: In March I worked with ArtsPartners Wichita to help five authors develop books for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders that would help reluctant readers enter the story and keep reading. Each book was related to one or more of the indicators of a healthy community. The authors were exceptional and the process quite a delight. Now their books are being worked on by local artists who are doing the illustrations in collaboration with the authors. What a delight it was to do this work of writing in the community!
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Featuring Dr. Reginald Jarrett and Dr. Gretchen Eick
The Peace Committee will host a book launch on Thursday, December 1, featuring two 2022 books by local authors that center on race. Thursday at 7 p.m. at 655 S. Lorraine, at the Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church in the sanctuary. Dr. Reginald Jarrett's book 31 Days [Nights]: Memoir of Living Black in America is a series of short essays about his life here in Wichita and across the U.S. A truth-telling book of interpersonal encounters among various ethnicities of Americans told by a gifted communicator, 31 Days will surprise readers and enlarge their understanding of how race functions in America. Jarrell is a professor at Southwestern University and a lawyer, pastor, and TV journalist who has lived across the U.S. but grew up in Wichita. This is his second book. Dr. Gretchen Eick's newest novel, Dark Crossings, takes place in 2019. An interracial family with two teens living in Evanston, IL, north of Chicago is devastated when a family member is murdered. The difficult journey through the survivors' grief nearly breaks them. The discovery through a DNA test of unknown family members connected to the Philadelphia police murder of 12 Black people on May 13, 1985, helps them reconstruct their lives. Eick is a professor of history emerita and teaches at WSU's Lifelong Learning program. This is her eighth book. The authors will read excerpts and discuss their books and what each adds to our knowledge of the role of "race" in today's U.S. Gretchen Eick Merit Award for Service to the Club October 22, 2022 Nominated by Tracy Million Simmons, D2 (Emporia) Gretchen Eick is an accomplished author, publisher, and educator. She joined our organization in 2016.
Gretchen has served District 5 as vice president and program manager. If you are curious, take a look at the terrific lineup of 2022 speakers on the D5 portion of our website. Gretchen service on the Committee to Restructure Kansas Authors Club, taking time out of a busy writing schedule to learn more about our organization. Gretchen's questions often brought about immediate improvement. Our website features several enhancements and/or clarifications that came about via discussions with Gretchen. I nominate Gretchen Eick for a merit award in service to Kansas Authors Club. -Tracy Million Simmons, D2 Member (Emporia) Gretchen Eick Merit Award for Service to the Club October 22, 2022 Nominated by Tracy Million Simmons Gretchen Eick is an accomplished author, publisher, and educator. She joined our organization in 2016.
Gretchen has served District 5 as vice president and program manager. If you are curious, take a look at the terrific line-up of speakers in 2022 on the D5 portion of the website. Gretchen served on the committee to restructure Kansas Authors Club, taking time out of a busy writing schedule to learn more about our organization and examine our processes and procedures. Gretchen's questions alone often brought about immediate improvements. Our website features several enhancements and/or clarifications that came about via discussions with Gretchen. I nominate Gretchen Eick for a merit award in service to the Kansas Authors Club. -Tracy Million Simmons, D2 member (Emporia) Wichita's indie press, Blue Cedar Press, has published 5 books in 2022, 4 by Kansas authors. Order from bluecedarpress.com, B&N online, or your favorite bookstore. ![]() 31 Days (Nights): Memoir of Living Black in America by Reginald D. Jarrell (Jarrell’s work as a TV and print news reporter and columnist, a university assistant professor, an attorney, and a janitor—and his experiences living across the Midwest, in California, D.C., and Mississippi inform his short, memorable essays.) ISBN: 978-1-7369112-7-3 (paper) ISBN: 978-1-7369112-8-0 (ebook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2022930901 ![]() Dark Crossings, a novel by Gretchen Eick (Prose Writer of 2021 for the Kansas Authors Club, author of 2 histories and 5 novels)--2nd in her Crossings series Richard and Keisha by 2019 are parents of two teens, professors living happily together until everything changes with an act of random violence, plunging their family into disfunction and despair. Extended family may not be enough to pull them through their grief. But DNA discovery of another branch of the family tree may at least distract them and lead them into the darkness of Philadelphia's attack on the MOVE community and another family murder. Aug. '22 ISBN: 978-1-958728-01-7 (paper) $20 ISBN: 978-1-958728-00-0 (ebook) $6.99 Library of Congress LCCN: 2022940932 ![]() Maybe Crossings, a novel by Gretchen Eick (Prose Writer of 2021 for the Kansas Authors Club, author of 2 histories and 5 novels)--1st in her Crossings series--2nd edition with a study guide Black and white young people meet in Mississippi in the Freedom Summer of 1964 to register voters and form the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party forging relationships that resume in 2003 through a series of coincidences that bring them and their children together. A novel about families lost and found, social change fought for and glimpsed, and generational differences that test understandings of commitment. Sept. '22 ISBN: 9781958728024 (paper) $18 ISBN: 978-1-958728-05-5 (epub) $5.99 LCCN: 2022945367 ![]() One-Match Fire, a novel by Paul Lamb (Paul Lamb's stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including The Adroit Journal, Aethlon, Foliate Oak, MOON Magazine, Halfway Down the Stairs, Magnolia Review (nominated for a Pushcart Prize), Little Patuxent Review, Platte Valley Review, and others.) For David the cabin evoked memories of his father. For his son it was family and sanctuary. All that was wrong was fixable when they were at the cabin. But would this weekend change everything? A story of fathers and sons and the work of loving despite profound differences.) Oct. '22 ISBN: 978-1-958728-04-8 (paper) $20 ISBN: 978-1-958728-03-1 (ebook) $6.99 LCCN: 2022945368 Why Does She Always Talk About Her Husband? poems by David Romanda (David Romanda is the author of I’m Sick of Pale Blue Skies, a limited-edition chapbook, and the broken bird feeder, a full collection. His work has been included in Best Canadian Poetry and published in 27 journals. Romanda lives in Kawasaki City, Japan.) This is minimalist poetry at its finest—quick, punchy, and deceptively spare. These are offbeat rebel-playful poems that beg to be read aloud and shared with others.) Coming Nov. '22
ISBN: 978-1-958728-06-2 (paper) $10 ISBN: 978-1-958728-07-9 (ebook) $4.99 LCCN: 2022947139 Countering Censorship by WritingRecently we’ve seen a movement to suppress what books schools and libraries readers can read. Books have been burned in Tennessee and a PEN study documented 1,145 unique book titles banned in 86 school districts in 26 states between July 2021 and April 2022. Kansas is among the states where such book bans have been imposed by school districts. There have been 713 instances of censorship in Texas, 456 bans in Pennsylvania, and 204 in Florida. As writers, how do we respond to these violations of our First Amendment rights? Gretchen Eick has taken up controversial issues in her two scholarly histories/biographies and five novels. She is committed to using the power of her pen (keyboard?) to fight this suppression. She encourages writers to do the same by including in their stories characters of diverse races, nationalities, religions, sexual identification, and classes, and in their historical fiction, by including what what was happening to people living with those different identities. How do you do that? Gretchen Eick is a professor of history emerita who now teaches in Wichita State’s Lifelong Learning program. She taught 20 years at Friends University and in Latvia and Bosnia and Herzegovina thanks to Fulbright Fellowships. ![]() Gretchen is scheduled to present at 10:15am-11:00am on Saturday, October 22. PRESENTATION BLOCK 1 – EXPANDING VIEWS AND PERSPECTIVES Saturday, March 26 at 7 pm a one-act, four-scenes play by Gretchen Eick about life in today's Turkey for peace activists will be performed at Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church, 655 N Lorraine, Wichita (2 blocks south of Kellogg and one block west of Hillside). It is free and appropriate for all ages. The play is performed by the Peace Committee of the church and especially relevant as we see the violations of human rights in Ukraine, Yemen, and elsewhere. Please come!
February 15, 2022 - 7:00pm (CST)
Join Newton Public Library for an online author talk and interactive Q&A with Gretchen Eick. Eick will discuss her 2007 book, "Dissent in Wichita: The Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest, 1954-72." To register and get the Zoom link, click here: https://us06web.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_WmU8FfrYS7WvhVyvnLm3Bg. The program will also be streamed live on the Newton Public Library Facebook page. Need help connecting? Please contact the library! About the Book: On a hot summer evening in 1958, a group of African American students in Wichita, Kansas, quietly entered Dockum's Drug Store and sat down at the whites-only lunch counter. This was the beginning of the first sustained, successful student sit-in of the modern civil rights movement, instigated in violation of the national NAACP's instructions. Based on interviews with over eighty participants and observers of this sit-in, Dissent in Wichita traces the contours of race relations and black activism in an unexpected locus of the civil rights movement, revealing that the movement was a national, not a Southern, phenomenon. About the Author: Dr. Gretchen Cassel Eick, a professor emerita of history at Friends University has received two Fulbright fellowships and was for ten years a professional lobbyist in Washington, D.C. 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. They Met at Wounded Knee: The Eastman's Story |
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. |
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.
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