Category: Invitation To Attend

Bill Sampson Book Signings in Salina and Prairie Village

7/18/2023

You are invited to a book signing! D2 member, Bill Sampson, has two upcoming book events. Save the dates.

Wheat Fields . . . an alluring story of unexpected love and clashing cultures set in America’s rural heartland, Lawrence, Kansas, home of Kansas University and its celebrated NCAA Champion Jayhawk basketball team.

JULY 27

Red Fern Booksellers, Salina, KS - 106 S Santa Fe Ave, Salina, KS 67401
6:00 p.m.

AUGUST 25

The Made in Kansas City store at Corinth Square - 8231 Corinth Mall, Prairie Village, KS 66208
3:00-6:00 p.m.
In conjunction with “KU Kickoff,” Corinth Square’s annual KU pep rally hosted by KU Athletics and the KU Alumni Association

Visit Bill's Author Website

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.

Save the Date: The Kansas Book Festival Takes place on Saturday, September 16, at Washburn University in Topeka

7/17/2023

On Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, the 12th annual Kansas Book Festival will take place at Washburn University, hosted by the Mabee Library.

The 2023 Festival will bring an amazing line up of 50 authors. Their presentations cover fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s fiction. The festival will also feature outdoor performances, a book-art exhibit, food trucks, and exhibitor tents with 35 publishers, nonprofits, and individual authors.

This year, the headliner is Ling Ma, author of the new collection of short stories Bliss Montage, which won the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award, plus Severance, named a Best Book of the Year by NPR as well as one of the “Books We Loved” at the New Yorker. Other featured authors...

... read the rest at KansasBookFestival.com.

Note: Kansas Authors Club will have an informational table, but members who wish to display and sell their own books at the festival will need to reserve individual author tables.

Exhibitor Information

Early Bird Advertising - August 1 Deadline - gets you in the ZINE too!

7/14/2023

We are now accepting 2023 advertising sponsors for our fall event, our first state-wide Writing Retreat at Rock Springs Ranch. As with recent years, our event sponsors will enjoy the following:

Ads will be displayed on the Kansas Authors Club website throughout the year (home page and convention page with links through to the advertiser’s website).

Ads will be featured individually on Kansas Authors Club social media pages at least three times.

Ads will be printed in the 2023 Retreat Program.

Ads received by August 1 will be printed in the Writing from the Center Zine (new in 2023—first issue expected September 2023)

Ads will be printed in the 2023 Kansas Authors Club yearbook and remain a part of the 2022 convention online archives.

New in 2023: For $10 more, we will help you create your advertisement. Select "KAC Assistance" for your purchase option.

Final Deadline for 2023 Advertising = September 1

Learn More / Buy Today

Don't forget that we have an Early Bird deadline coming up for the retreat, as well. Register by August 1!

2023 Writing Retreat

D2 Members Invite You to a Double Book Launch Celebration

7/13/2023

Meadowlark Press Announces Double Book Launch Featuring Emporia Authors

EMPORIA, KS - Emporia’s Meadowlark Press will celebrate the release of Remembering Martha by Jerilynn Jones Henrikson and Human Shadow, by Michael D. Graves on July 26, 2023, at the historic Granada Theater, 807 Commercial Street, in downtown Emporia from 6-8 p.m.

Henrikson and Graves have written books inspired by their grandparents. As part of the launch, each author will read short selections from their new books. The audience will have some time to ask questions about their writing processes and inspiration.

Remembering Martha, a novella, is inspired by an interview Henrikson did with her grandmother for a class at ESU. Martha grew up in the small town of Neosho Rapids at the turn of the 20th century. This book captures the grueling life on the Kansas prairie, but does so with humor, as the reader follows Martha’s life amid its challenges and joys.

Emporia State University professor, Amy Sage Webb-Baza calls Henrikson’s book “a feast for the soul and the sense: hilarious, heartbreaking, rich with detail.”

Human Shadow by Mike Graves is book number five in the Pete Stone Private Investigator series. Stone is a private detective in 1930s Wichita. Oft-champion of the downtrodden, Stone takes on a case to prove the innocence of a shell-shocked war veteran accused of arson and murder. Graves created the Pete Stone character as a memorial to his grandfather. His first and third Pete Stone novels, To Leave a Shadow and All Hallows’ Shadows, were Kansas Notable Books.

Come to socialize, eat some apple pie, and celebrate family legacy, Kansas roots, and books with Jerilynn, Mike, and Meadowlark Press. Books will be available for purchase at this event. Learn more at www.meadowlarkbookstore.com.

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Click the cover image below to learn more:

Announcing Lawrence Transit Poet Laureate Program and Summer Ride and Write Workshop

6/23/2023

Lawrence Press Release

D2 Member, Iris Craver, shares this invitation with us:

Join us for a ride that will awaken your senses and creative spirit!

Friday, July 7 • 5:30 p.m. - 7 p.m. • Meet in the library lobby at 5:30 p.m.

Join Lawrence Transit, poet and professor Megan Kaminski and the Lawrence Public Library in our kickoff for Lawrence Transit’s new Poet Laureate program, a Summer Ride and Write.

For more information and to register: Summer Ride and Write | Events | Lawrence Public Library (bibliocommons.com)

We will travel through Lawrence via Route 10 on Lawrence Transit’s new electric bus and find inspiration together in the sights, sounds, and connections we make as we traverse the city. Guided by prompts to help us see our everyday lives through fresh eyes, we will write together and have opportunities to share our words. Participants will leave with a poem and prompts to inspire ongoing writing, as well as an invitation to submit poems for the Lawrence Transit poet laureate program. Led by poet and professor Megan Kaminski.

This event will be suitable for adults, teens, and youth alike!

“The library is thrilled to collaborate with Lawrence Transit and Megan Kaminski for Summer Ride and Write,” said Ruby, LPL Information Services Technician. “As librarians, our mission is to connect people to resources and inspiration, building relationships throughout our community. Reading, writing, and sharing our stories brings us all closer together - can't wait to see you on the bus!”

The Lawrence Transit Poet Laureate program offers the chance for local poets (of any age) and their poems to be featured on Lawrence Transit electric buses. To be considered, submit a transit related poem by November 1, 2023.

“Poetry doesn’t just live in books or in quiet rooms—it lives and breathes with us as we travel through our day,” said Kaminski. “By writing and sharing our words, we connect to each other, to ourselves, and to our larger communities. I’m excited to collaborate with the Lawrence Public Library and Lawrence Transit to make space for the beauty and poetry in our everyday lives.”

For more information, visit www.lawrencetransit.org or call (785) 864-4644. Find Lawrence Transit on Facebook: @LawrenceTransit and on Twitter: @TransitLawrence.

Contact: Adam Weigel, Lawrence Transit, (785) 832-3464

Save the Date: Saturday, July 15

6/19/2023

July 15, 2023, 1:30 pm
State Program
Presenter: Amy Sage Webb-Baza

The Power and Surprise of Flash Fiction
How does a writer achieve impact and surprise in as few as 500 words? Amy Sage Webb-Baza will introduce you to some of the ways flash fiction works, as well as resources for reading and writing in the form. The presentation will also share some growth of the form in nonfiction, or flash-CNF. Attendees can participate in a short, guided, flash-fiction writing prompt.

Amy Sage Webb-Baza is Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Emporia State University, where she was named Roe R. Cross Distinguished Professor and directs the Donald Reichardt Center for Publishing and Literary Arts. She is managing editor for Bluestem Press and Flint Hills Review. She publishes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, and is author of Your Own Life: Kansas Stories (Woodley Press, 2012).

2023 Writing Retreat Invitation

6/16/2023

JOIN US FOR
A MOMENT TO WRITE
THE 2023 FALL GATHERING
OF THE
KANSAS AUTHORS CLUB
—A WRITING RETREAT--

Registration Now Open

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

July 1 Book Release Event in Toronto, KS

6/7/2023

"Do Lizards Have Lips? And Other Tall Tales From Toronto Kansas" by Iris Craver - District 2

Book release and reading event on July 1st at noon at Lizard Lips in Toronto, Kansas, during Toronto Days Independence Celebration! Come enjoy all the festivities and check out this new book from a Kansas Authors Club member.

Live music by the Howard Mahan band!

Great Deli food at Lizard Lips!

153 US-54, Toronto, KS 66777

Hope to see you there!

Buy the Book at Ice Cube Press

June 3 Reading at Round Table Books in Topeka

5/28/2023

Reading Outside the Cultural Box
Award-winning authors K.L. Barron and Tim Bascom
Roundtable Books
Saturday June 3rd, 1:30-2:30pm

Please join us for a reading featuring landscapes and cultures of East and West Africa: the rugged mountains and plateaus of Ethiopia and the edge of the Sahara in Niger. Tim Bascom spent half his childhood in Ethiopia and will share both memoir and fiction detailing Ethiopian culture. K.L. Barron lived among the nomads of Niger for a time and will read from her novel Thirst, which captures the dominating desert landscape and some of the nomads’ endangered traditional culture including the Wodaabé men’s beauty contest where they wear elaborate makeup, shiny objects, feathers, and other adornments showing their charisma, dance moves, and charm.

Tim Bascom is a District 1 member of Kansas Authors Club.

How to Enter Kansas Authors Club Contests

5/27/2023

District 5 President, Sandee Taylor, has prepared a recording on how to submit books and writings to our contests, starting with where to find our guidelines and how to submit via submittable. This 26 minute video is very informative. Watch and enter! The deadline for entering our contests is June 15, 2023.

Thank you, Sandee!

May Program Recording Now Available

5/24/2023

Thank you to member Leonard Krishtalka for talking to us about the human condition in novel writing. This program is now available for members to watch via our Member Pages (log-in required).

2023 PROGRAMS take place on 3rd Saturdays of each month

Program Start Time: 1:30pm, expected to take approximately one hour per program (30- to 40-minute presentations followed by 15-20 minutes Q&A and announcements.

Districts and city groups/small writing groups are invited to incorporate these programs into their meetings as they see fit. For groups meeting on the 3rd Saturday of the month, the programs can be viewed live via Zoom as they are taking place. Program recordings will be available to district and group leaders for a period of one month for meetings held at other times.

All members will receive the link for zoom attendance to make watching from home a possibility. Attendance in person is recommended and encouraged, whenever possible!

Most meetings will be hosted by a KAC district on location and available to the rest of the state by tuning in on Zoom. Where applicable, we will list the location of the presenter so that members who would like to attend the presentation in person will be able to do so.

Anyone interested in writing may become a member of Kansas Authors Club. Come write with us today!

Join Kansas Authors Club

You are invited to attend a special book signing celebration for Bill Sampson’s new novel, WHEAT FIELDS:

5/24/2023

Bill Sampson's debut novel...
an alluring story of unexpected love and clashing cultures set in Lawrence, Kansas, home of Kansas University & the championship Jayhawk basketball team.

Visit Bill Sampson's Website

Kansas Authors Club Awards of Merit Nominations are due July 1.

5/15/2023

Awards for achievement in writing, service to Kansas Authors Club, or a special accomplishment are presented to deserving Kansas Authors Club members at the Annual Conference. Nominations should be sent no later than July 1st of the year to be considered. Forms may be sent either by e-mail or by regular postal mail. Award winners will be selected by ballot by a committee of Kansas Authors Club members chosen by the Awards Chair. The Awards Chair will present the names of those members nominated to a selection committee before reporting final results to the KAC board as soon as possible after the deadline for nomination.

Please give careful consideration to your reasons why the nominee is worthy of an award. If this person is to be considered for the achievement in writing award, then please list publications of the person’s writing, either published and/or self-published. For the service award, list what services were done both on the district and state level, how long the person held an office, etc. For the special accomplishment award, list when, where, and what this was, and describe the accomplishment. Contact the Awards Chair, Anne Shiever, if you have questions. Nominations may be made by any individual member of the Kansas Authors Club, by a group or a district.

May 20 State Program: Leonard Krishtalka

5/14/2023

May 20, 2023, 1:30 pm
Presenter: Leonard Krishtalka

Novel Writing: Excavating Layers of the Human Condition

This presentation will take place at the
Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont, lower level.

All members are welcome to attend this presentation in person.

The presentation will also be broadcast via Zoom.

Novels, no matter the genre, should tell a story that excavates the layers of the human condition. Many of those layers are conflicting and controversial. Many might prefer them to remain hidden. I write murder mysteries to excavate those layers. Three of my novels, in the Harry Przewalski series, feature a private detective who unearths the dirty underbelly of people’s lives, revealing love, loss, betrayal, treachery, fraud and murder buried beneath the art and science of petrified shards, skin and bones. My most recent novel, The Body on the Bed, is a historical fiction about a diabolical murder and sensational trial in 1871 that occurred amid the social upheaval of post-Civil War Lawrence, Kansas and the struggle for women’s independence and rights.

Leonard Krishtalka is the author of award-winning essays, the acclaimed book, Dinosaur Plots, and The Harry Przewalski Series. As a paleontologist, he has worked throughout the fossil-rich badlands of the American west, Canada, Patagonia, China, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Coming soon: “The Body on the Bed,” an historical murder mystery.

Visit Leonard's Website

Zoom Open Mic: Featured Reader Timothy Keane

5/5/2023

Districts 3 & 4 welcome you--all KAC members (and guests)--to a 7:00 p.m. Zoom on Tuesday, May 9th—an Open Mic Read-Around which will feature Dr. Timothy Keane, a three-time champion in the Kansas Cowboy Poetry Contest. Dr. Keane has won multiple events at the National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo, where he was overall reserve champion in 2016 and 2018. He describes himself as a green broke cowboy poet, although he has “slipped past various judges a few times.” (Green broke: has had a saddle on, been ridden a few times, has lots of vices, needs tons of work; is liable to spook, bolt, kick, rear, crow-hop, and refuse simple situations; basically unpredictable.)

Dr. Keane is Professor Emeritus (a term possibly comparable green broke) of Landscape Architecture and Distinguished Graduate Faculty, in the College of Architecture, Planning, and Design at Kansas State University, where he served starting in 1984. He lives with his wife, Sharon, and a couple of bird dogs in northwest Wabaunsee County.

He will read poems that show a side of him both in tune with and distinct from the persona of a cowboy poet—poems that show a deep appreciation of the Flint Hills; poems that have the power to entrance with gentle rhythms and subtle rhymes; poems that will touch your heart.

How does Open Mic work?
7:00-7:10pm – we check in, sign up to read, greet each other and celebrate victories.
7:10-7:30pm – our Featured Reader presents.
7:30-7:55 – Readers share in order of sign-up. Plan on 3 minutes. If there is plenty of time, attendees will get a 2nd opportunity to read.
Time: Tuesday, May 9, 2023, 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

District 7 Invites Adult and Youth Writers to enter District Writing Contest

5/1/2023

Note: This is a district-sponsored contest, not to be confused with the state contest. Entering one contest does not preclude a member from entering the other.

ADULT CONTEST

District 7 of the Kansas Authors Club is sponsoring a writing contest for all writers, 18 and older, living in Kansas or members of KAC living in another state. The contest runs from May 1 to August 15, 2023. You do not need to be a member of District 7 to enter the contest.

Writers should follow the Literary Contest rules on the website www.kansasauthorsclub.org and click on contests. The theme of the contest is “A Moment to Write.” Writers of prose or poetry are encouraged to follow the theme but do not have to adhere to it. There are only 4 categories for this contest: Prose Theme and Non-Theme, Poetry Story-form and Non-Story-form. Writers may not enter more than two entries in any one category.

The fee for each entry is $5.00 and only typed copies will be accepted; do not send e-mail. Prizes in the amount of $25, $15 and $10 will be awarded to first, second, and third place winners in each of the 4 categories. Honorable Mention in each category will receive certificates.

Mail entries to:
Sheryl Brenn, 892 Country Road O, Levant, KS 67743.

YOUTH CONTEST

District 7 of the Kansas Authors Club is sponsoring a writing contest for all children from Grades 5 through high school. The age categories are grades 5-6, 7-8, 9-12. The contest runs from May 1st through August 15th. Writers should follow the requirements for the Youth Literary Contest on the website www.kansasauthorsclub.org and click on contests.

The theme of the contest is “A Moment to Write.” Entries should be separated into these categories in each age group: Poetry, Fiction and Non-Fiction. Any youth should have no more than 3 entries.

There is no charge for entering but prizes in these amounts will be awarded $25, $15 and $10 will be awarded to the first, second and third place and Honorable Mention winners in each category. Only typed copies will be accepted. Do not send entries by e-mail.

Mail entries to:
Sheryl Brenn, 892 Country Road O, Levant, KS 67743.

April State Program

4/8/2023

April 15, 2023, 1:30pm
Presenters: Julie A. Sellers and Duane Johnson

In Conversation with the KAC 2022 Poet and Prose Writers of the Year

This presentation will take place in the Menninger Meeting Room, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, 1515 SW 10th Avenue, Topeka, KS 66604.

All members are welcome to attend this presentation in person.

The presentation will also be broadcast via Zoom.
Join the Kansas Authors Club's 2022 Poet of the Year, Duane Johnson, and Prose Writer of the Year, Julie A. Sellers, as they converse and share their thoughts about their creative approaches with examples from their own writing.

Julie A. Sellers was raised in the Flint Hills near the small town of Florence, Kansas. Those great expanses of tallgrass prairie and reading fueled her imagination, and Julie began writing at an early age. After living in several states and countries, Julie resides in Atchison, Kansas. Julie has published three academic books and a variety of articles. Her creative prose and poetry have appeared in publications such as Cagibi, Wanderlust, Unlost, The Write Launch, 105 Meadowlark Reader, and Kansas Time + Place. Julie was the 2020 and 2022 Kansas Authors Club Prose Writer of the Year. In the Kansas Voices Contest (Winfield), she was the Overall Poetry Winner (2022) and Overall Prose Winner (2017, 2019). Julie’s first book of poetry, Kindred Verse: Poems Inspired by Anne of Green Gables, was published by Blue Cedar Press in 2021. Her first novel, Ann of Sunflower Lane, was published by Meadowlark Press in 2022.

Duane Johnson is a retired journalist, who now primarily writes poetry. He has published one volume of poetry, Evolution's Promise. With the artist Lila Bartel, he has published a collection of poetry and watercolors entitled Living Expressions: As the Spirit Moves. He also has published a novel, Herald of the Resurrection. Johnson lives in Topeka and is married to a retired social worker. They have two grown children. He lives in a modest house with gray siding on a dead-end street with a chain saw, fishing gear and kayak in the garage. The near-by four hundred-acre lake is his laboratory.

Duane served as the president of District 1 in 2017-2018, state Vice President and book awards chair in 2019, and he took the helm as state President 2020-21.

Districts and city groups/small writing groups are invited to incorporate these programs into their meetings as they see fit. For groups meeting on the 3rd Saturday of the month, the programs can be viewed live via Zoom as they are taking place. Program recordings will be available to district and group leaders for a period of one month for meetings held at other times.

All members will receive the link for zoom attendance to make watching from home a possibility. Attendance in person is recommended and encouraged, whenever possible!

Most meetings will be hosted by a KAC district on location and available to the rest of the state by tuning in on Zoom. Where applicable, we will list the location of the presenter so that members who would like to attend the presentation in person will be able to do so.

Writing Contests Open April 1

3/29/2023

Kansas Authors Club holds annual contests for writers of all ages. All residents of the state of Kansas are invited to enter. Members of Kansas Authors Club may reside anywhere (and get a reduced entry fee). ALWAYS read the guidelines before entering writing contests. Our guidelines can be found at https://www.kansasauthorsclub.org/writing-contests---all-ages.html

We accept entries April 1 – June 15.

Yes, we do charge fees for our adult writing contests. We are a 501(c)3 organization and our fees go to cover awards, honorariums for judges, and youth contests (there are no fees for our young writers to enter our contests).

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