Category: Kevin Rabas

Fall Newsletter: Convention Issue

12/16/2022

The Fall/Winter 2022 Newsletter is now available. It can be read online at Issuu, or downloaded as a PDF file. The newsletter is also archived on the Member Pages of our website.

Thank you to Curtis Becker for taking charge of our newsletter publication, and to Kevin Rabas for taking photos of our convention this year. Curtis has worked to make sure our newsletter has original content rather than just a recompilation of the news members get online and on Facebook.

Watch for news about 2023 publications for Kansas Authors Club. We have some exciting updates coming!

2022 Convention Entertainment: The Petroglyphs

10/1/2022

The Petroglyphs play original folk-rock music. Named after their day jobs, Randy Carlson (geologist/ “petro”) and Kevin Rabas (writer and teacher/“glyph”), the band has been performing steadily in Lawrence and surrounding areas since 1999 and held a monthly standing gig at Aimee’s Coffee for almost two decades. Carlson writes the music, sings, and plays guitar. Rabas plays drums and percussion. And the two are joined by Val Bontrager on bass.

Learn More and Register

The Petroglyphs will play from 5:00 to 6:00 pm on Saturday, October 22.

Members in Spring 2021 Issue of Flint Hills Review

8/10/2021

D5 member Robert L. Dean, Jr. has a poem in the new issue of Flint Hills Review, poem titled "Number of the Beast."

The journal also features an entry by Boyd Bauman of District 2.

Kevin Rabas (D2) is a consulting editor of the publication and layout and design of the publication was completed by Linzi Garcia (D2).

Members published in most recent issue of Thorny Locust

7/23/2021

D5 member Robert L. Dean, Jr., has a poem titled "Firekeeper" in the new issue of the print magazine "Thorny Locust," published out of Kansas City, MO, Silvia Kofler, editor.

Other members featured in this issue include:
Brian Daldorph (D2)
Beth Gulley (D2)
Kevin Rabas (D2)
Tyler Robert Sheldon (D2)
Maryfrances Wagner (D2)

More Than Words, by Kevin Rabas, District 2 Member

3/20/2021

At 7 p.m. on March 27, Meadowlark Press will be hosting a virtual book launch event, and you're invited! Kevin will read from the collection and will be answering your questions and chatting it up with you. Register for the event at tinyurl.com/MTWbooklaunch

A book supersedes being a simple collection of words when a poet gets a hold of them. More Than Words by Kevin Rabas is an intimate collection of poetry and micro-fiction that takes a conscientious look inward and closely around us through stages of growing up, connecting with music, navigating romance, interacting with nature, and persisting through social and personal maladies.

As Kansas Poet Laureate Emeritus, Rabas’s expertise and passion shows. He can write a poem about anything, and this collection displays his versatility. Each page is a surprise, with some poems educating the reader on historic jazz saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker and other poems ruminating on contemporary social and political issues, such as the death of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic. Rabas is creatively invigorated by everything from questions about our places in life to working from home.

Rabas often finds inspiration in conversation, such as in an exchange about beekeeping between him and his father. Conversations between lawyers and jazz drummers, bullies and the bullied, and a boy and his crushes let the reader live vicariously through some of the worst, best, and creative experiences these characters have.

Each poem and sketch guarantee a clever turn of phrase, strong imagery, and clear language. Rabas uses his jazz background to channel the direct, concise percussiveness of language. The pieces in this collection span the entire scale of literal to metaphorical, always leaving something more to think about at the end. With bite-size poems and prose sketches, this is the perfect book to read in one sitting or in pieces, whenever you need a little inspiration to look at the world in a fresh way.

"What do I need to know about ordering the book?"
All you need to know is that the book is available for preorder for at the Meadowlark Bookstore NOW!
All preorders will receive an extra special additional free, hand-made chapbook containing 16 new, unpublished Kevin Rabas poems.

We want to help you share your writing news!

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.

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.

Kellogg Press to Host Virtual Reading

12/3/2020

Topeka Based Kellogg Press will host a LIVE, virtual reading on December 4 at 4:00 pm CST featuring District 2 Members Kerry Moyer, Curtis Becker, Kevin Rabas, and Ronda Miller. The reading will be broadcast on facebook.com/kelloggpress. An archive of the event will be available shortly after the LIVE stream ends.

KAC members featured include Ronda Miller (D2), Kevin Rabas (D2), Curtis Becker (D2), and Kerry Moyer (D2).

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.

2020 Convention Workshop: Kevin Rabas

8/18/2020

Kevin Rabas
Writing and Performing to Music

Kevin Rabas supplies the prompts, and we will write and perform with live music, particularly drum. There is a long legacy of spoken word combined with music, stretching hundreds of years and across countless cultures, featuring scops, bards, troubadours, and more. (No experience necessary. Open to writers of both poetry and prose.)

Past Poet Laureate of Kansas (2017-2019) Kevin Rabas teaches at Emporia State University, where he leads the poetry and playwriting tracks and chairs the Department of English, Modern Languages, and Journalism. He has twelve books, including Lisa’s Flying Electric Piano, a Kansas Notable Book and Nelson Poetry Book Award winner. He is the recipient of the Emporia State President’s and Liberal Arts & Sciences Awards for Research and Creativity, and he is the winner of the Langston Hughes Award for Poetry.

Learn More

Congratulations to members published in the newest issue of the I-70 Review

10/23/2019

I-70 Review

The new I-70 Review is out! Congratulations to the following Kansas Authors Club members who were published in this issue: Roy Beckemeyer (D5), Robert Dean (D5), Kevin Rabas (D2), Tyler Robert Sheldon (D2), Wyatt Townley (D2).

Order your copy from the I-70 Review website!

Have we missed anyone? Please send an email if there are additional members who should be listed here.