Category: Julie Stielstra

D6 Members Enjoy Signing Event in Wichita

12/12/2022

Several members of District 6 made appearances this weekend at an author event hosted by At The Market! in Wichita. This retail and development center hosts an annual event for the community which connects local authors to readers and each other with independent booths and readings throughout the day.

This year's event featured eight authors including D6 members Jared Vaughn, Karis Ens, Melody Cole, Julie Stielstra, and Cat Webling. The day's event was held in collaboration with a local bookstore event for children.

Those looking for more information about the event and future events can visit At The Market!'s website.

2022 Coffin Memorial Fiction Book Award Winner

11/10/2022

J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial
Fiction Book Award

Opulence Kansas
by Julie Stielstra

Note from Judge Varnadore:
I have been very impressed with the exceptionally high quality of the work represented by this year’s authors across such different genres as crime fiction, historical fiction, and young adult fiction. This has made the job of judging this year’s winner quite a task but also a genuine pleasure. As the novels represented so many different genres, my approach was to evaluate each work according to the conventions of those genres as well as execution of craft and finally, readability. Based on these criteria, I am pleased to select Opulence Kansas by Julie Stielstra as my choice for the J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial Award for Fiction.

Stielstra’s 15-year-old protagonist Kate, reeling from the suicide of her father and the subsequent investigation into his shady financial dealings, leaves her high-rise Chicago condo for rural Kansas, to stay with her father’s estranged older brother and his wife. This relocation seems to be the respite Kate needs from the chaos back in Chicago and she settles in well, observing her new surrounds through the lens of her burgeoning talent for photography. As her relationship with her newfound family blossoms and she becomes more deeply embedded in the small-town community, she begins to appreciate a slower pace and living close to the land. Katie also meets Travis, a young man with a troubled past, who seems initially stagnate and destined to see life pass him by; however, Kate and Travis, with the help of her family and the local community, begin to heal their personal traumas and find redemption from the sins of their fathers.

Stielstra writes with humor and compassion, and her characters are subtle and layered. The tone of the work manages to be uplifting but never sentimental or saccharine. The prose is witty and energetic, and the world she creates is beautifully observed. In Stielstra’s capable hands, rural Kansas itself takes on a vivid character of its own.

Heather Varnadore
2022 J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial
Fiction Book Co-Judge

Heather Varnadore was born and raised in Atlanta but currently lives in the Flint Hills of Kansas with her family. She received her M.A. in English from Kansas State University in 2008 and her M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 2012. She has previously taught at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and currently teaches at Kansas State University. She is the recipient of the Seaton Fellowship for Creative Writing, the Umass MFA Fellowship for Poets and Writers, the Cara Parravani Memorial Award in Fiction, the Delaney Fellowship for Fiction and multiple teaching awards. She is currently finishing work on a novel.

Coffin Memorial Book Award Winners

Note from Contest Manager:
Due to the number and heft of this year’s fiction entries, I divided them between two co-judges. Judge Varnadore and Judge Strnad both identified contenders for the award from the books they read. Tie-breaker judge Linda Knupp made the final decision. After 20 years of service, Knupp retired a year ago as director of the Manhattan Public Library and the North Central Kansas Library System. She remains active with the state-wide Friends of Kansas Libraries (FOKL) and urges all of you to join your local library’s Friends group as well as groups like the Kansas Authors Club. Judge Knupp was impressed with the clear narrative structure of Opulence Kansas, which takes the main character through a summer of changes and revelations after the tragic death of her father. “Thoughtful and resilient characters deal with a number of challenges during this time without losing their compassion for others, hope for the future, and their appreciation for the small rural community of Opulence.” According to Judge Knupp, author Julie Stielstra “certainly has a future in the wide field of YA literature.”

Finding Markets for Publication

10/20/2022

Member Julie Stielstra, author of Opulence, Kansas, and Scratched, shared this note today on our Facebook page.

We thought it was worth passing along. (Shared with Julie's permission.)

Some sites I've found very helpful:

1) duotrope.com (annual fee optional for best functionality) - searchable data repository with links to publishing sources and literary agents, lots of stats, interviews with editors, submission tracker for your work.

(2) Submittable.com (free to use) - widely used submission tool, but under the "Discover" heading lists lots of calls for submissions, contests, etc. Only tracks submissions done through this platform.

(3) Newpages.com (free) - includes info for calls for submissions, contests, workshops, conferences, and more.

I check all three of these sites for opportunities to submit, and track my submissions on Duotrope and/or Submittable. Beats handwritten sheets! :-)

D6 Member, Julie Stielstra, Publishes New Youth Novel

8/10/2022

SCRATCHED
The Kid on the Backstretch: New Youth Novel on the Other Side of Horse Racing
by Julie Stielstra

ISBN: 9781088055786 (pbk., $10.00) - 99 pp.
ISBN: 9781088055854 (ebk., $4.99)
Publication: August 15, 2022
Intended Audience: Ages 12-18
Distribution via Ingram, Amazon, IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, bookshop.org

[LYONS, IL, August 2022] Fifteen-year-old Luis Romero has lived his whole life on the back side of horse racing. Seven days a week, undocumented people like his mother Blanca live and work to feed, groom, exercise, care for, and clean up after the high-strung horses with long pedigrees. It's not just your job - it's your home, your life, your community. Lose the job, and you lose everything. A cheap trainer with a pill habit entices Luis to help her take care of her horses, pulling him deeper into a future on the track... but when Blanca takes up with a security guard with another agenda, it may all fall apart. Luis has to decide, for the sake of his family and his life, what race he really wants to run.

Julie Stielstra divides her time between the Chicago area and rural Kansas. Her family has been involved in thoroughbred horse racing for many years, as trainers, riders, and in services to backstretch workers. She is the author of nearly three dozen published short stories and essays. Minerva Rising Press named her historical novella Pilgrim the winner of their 2016 novella contest, and in 2021, her novel Opulence, Kansas from Meadowlark Press won gold medal awards for Young Adult Fiction from the Midwest Independent Publishers Association and the High Plains Book Awards.

Visit her at https://juliestielstra.com.

Order at Bookshop.org

District 6 Meeting Invitation - Saturday, May 22, 2021

5/17/2021

Cover of Issue #1 - 105 Meadowlark Reader, A Kansas Journal of Creative Nonfiction Cover photo by Dave Leiker

If you want to learn about writing, editing, or publishing, then you’re invited to attend Saturday’s (May 22, 2021 - 1:30pm) District 6 meeting of the Kansas Authors Club. It’s free and open to the public.

The Zoom meeting will have five speakers. Tracy Million Simmons, founder of Meadowlark Press, and Cheryl Unruh, editor of 105 Meadowlark Reader: A Kansas Journal of Creative Nonfiction, will share their vision of gathering true Kansas stories. The first issue of the journal highlights 35 talented Kansas writers from 25 counties.

Virtual attendees will also meet the other three prolific writers, all Kansas Authors Club members, and learn how they created their essays for submission for the spring issue. Each story is an authentic Kansas experience. The speakers, their home base, and essay titles, are: Miriam Iwashige, Partridge, “A Pandemic Privilege”; Julie Stielstra, Ellinwood/Chicago, “Barton County”; and Ginger Zyskowski, Seattle (formerly Hutchinson), “A Kansan and His Machines.”

There will be time for questions and answers.
105 Meadowlark Reader may be purchased at your local book store or at 105 Meadowlark Reader.

To join the 1:30 PM (CST) meeting, or to become a part of a community of Kansas writers, contact Jim Potter, president of District 6, at jim@copintheclassroom.com or 620-899-3144.

Three Members Make 2020 Midwest Book Awards Finalists list

4/27/2021

Three Kansas Authors Club members were named finalists in the 31st annual Midwest Book Awards. The awards program, which is organized by the Midwest Independent Publishers Association (MiPA), recognizes quality independent publishing in the Midwest.

Michael D. Graves, District 2, made the Fiction: Mystery/Thriller list with All Hallows' Shadows, the 3rd book of the Pete Stone, Private Investigator series.

Jerilynn Jones Henrikson, District 2, made the Fiction: Young Adult list with A Time for Tears.

Julie Stielstra, District 6, made the Fiction: Young Adult list with Opulence, Kansas.

All three titles are published by Meadowlark Press of Emporia, Kansas, owned by Tracy Million Simmons (D2).

The 31st annual Midwest Book Awards was open to books published and copyrighted in 2020 in MiPA’s 12-state Midwestern region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

This year’s competition garnered 241 entries in 35 categories, submitted by 74 independent publishers and judged by a panel of nearly one hundred librarians and booksellers from throughout the Midwest.

Historically, an awards gala is held in Minneapolis to announce the winners, but this year, as in 2020, winners will be announced and celebrated online, first in a Zoom webinar open to MiPA members and finalists, and shortly thereafter in a social media premiere that can be shared with friends and family. A period of book giveaways and winner highlights will accompany the social media premiere.

“This shift to celebrating online has enabled us to engage with a larger publishing community throughout the Midwest,” said Jennifer Baum, executive director of MiPA. “The number of entries received in 2020 grew by about 25% compared to the prior year, which can be attributed to our greater online presence.”

Following the conclusion of the gala celebrations, winners will be encouraged to participate in MiPA’s second season of the Virtual Reading Series, a limited series launched last year on MiPA’s YouTube channel.

Finalist books will also be for sale in MiPA’s affiliate shop on Bookshop.org, a website that shares proceeds with independent booksellers. Buyers can opt to select which independent store will receive the commission, or to leave it in a general pool to be distributed among independent booksellers.

For a complete list of finalists, visit www.mipa.org/midwest-book-awards. Follow @MIPAMidwestBookAwards on Facebook for updates on the gala’s social media premiere and book giveaways.

Kansas Authors Club Members to be Published in Inaugural Issue of 105: Meadowlark Reader

2/14/2021

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.

Windy City Reviews publishes review of D6 Member Book

12/22/2020

This note just in from Julie Stielstra, D6 member:

This lovely review of my youth novel, Opulence, Kansas, just came out Dec. 21 in Windy City Reviews, associated with the Chicago Writers Association. What a delightful Christmas gift - and maybe of the “grand planetary conjunction” we watched tonight.

"When I finish a book, I try to select a word that encapsulates ending my reading experience—gratified, informed, indignant, breathless. The word I chose when I closed the book Opulence, Kansas by Julie Stielstra, after reading it in two sessions, was “hopeful.” Hopeful that, despite terrible tragedies and loss, people can recover and find joy in the world. Hopeful that there are uncles and aunts like Len and Maggie, waiting to love and restore value to teens who need them. Hopeful that the next generation will value relationships like Katie and Travis. And hopeful that self-centered, inconsiderate people can be transformed into mindful allies."
--Barbara Belford, Windy City Reviews

Read the entire review here.

Publisher: Meadowlark (June 2020)
ISBN (print): 978-1-742477-0-1
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-7342477-1-8
Language: English
Retail: $9.95 (paperback), $5.95 (eBook)
Pages: 179

Available wherever you buy books.

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.

Member contributions in anthology published by blue cedar press

9/20/2020

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

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Invitation to D6 Virtual Meeting

6/24/2020

Julie Stielstra (D6), author of YA novel, Opulence, Kansas, will be the speaker at D6's virtual Zoom meeting on Saturday, June 27 at 1:30 p.m. Julie will discuss writing her novel and be open for questions. If you're interested in participating in the meeting, contact Jim Potter at jim@copintheclassroom.com or 620-899-3144 to request the Zoom meeting link.

Publisher: Meadowlark (June 2020)
ISBN (print): 978-1-742477-0-1
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-7342477-1-8
Language: English
Retail: $9.95 (paperback), $5.95 (eBook)
Pages: 179

Julie Stielstra's YA Novel available in June

5/19/2020

Chicago Gold Coast Meets Small-Town Kansas in New Youth Novel Opulence, Kansas, by Julie Stielstra (D6 member)

[Emporia, Kansas, June 2020] Daughter of privilege, private-school student Katie Myrdal’s world is rocked when her finance-wizard father is found dead in his Porsche—a suicide. There’s more wreckage to clean up than she could have imagined. Katie escapes to the Kansas farmstead of her barely-known aunt and uncle near the small town of Opulence. Plummeting from a high-rise, big city condo to a tree-shrouded, yellow house on the prairie, Katie discovers other kinds of richness—the wealth of friendship, hidden gifts, tragic secrets, and how the balm of time will help her turn her life in a new direction.

What people are saying about Opulence, Kansas:

"Julie Stielstra captured the essence of an adolescent from Chicago who visits a small Kansas community ... Stielstra explores the dynamic and complicated connections among people ... Opulence is complete with heartache, romance, conflict, and resolution. Unpredictable events exhilarate the reader with delightful developments."
--Carmaine Ternes, Librarian, Author, Presenter, and Book Reviewer

"Opulence, Kansas has good tension and keeps the reader turning the pages. It’s a heartwarming book of a girl who learns to look for opportunities in the world around her and begins to create a life of her own."
--Cheryl Unruh, Flyover People Essayist and Kansas Book Enthusiast

Julie Stielstra’s short fiction has appeared in a dozen literary journals and collections. Her historical novel, Pilgrim, was published by Minerva Rising Press as the winner of their 2016 novella contest. Like her protagonist, Stielstra inhabits the Chicago area where she works as a professional librarian, but fell in love with the Kansas prairie, and now spends her time between the two. Visit her at juliestielstra.com.

Reserve your copy at Watermark
Books in Wichita!

Order now at the Meadowlark Bookstore

Pre-order at Barnes & Noble.
...
ISBN (print) 978-1-7342477-0-1
ISBN (Ebook): 978-1-7342477-1-8

Available where you by books!