Category: K.L. Barron

J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial Book Award Winners Housed at Council Grove Public Library

8/29/2024

2023 Coffin Book Award winners were donated to the Council Grove Public Library. The winner in fiction was Thirst, by K.L. Barron. The winner in nonfiction was Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays in a Time of Pestilence, by Denise Low.

The J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award was established by Mrs. Bertha Coffin to honor the memory of her husband, a long-time member and officer of KAC, after his death on September 6, 1978. The J. Donald Coffin Award is intended to honor the best published book written by a member of Kansas Authors Club, excluding Kansas history, Kansas memoir, poetry, and children’s books, which have their own contests. Since 2022, this contest provides two awards, one in fiction and one in nonfiction. The collection of Coffin Award winning books is housed at the Council Grove Public Library. The books are available to the public for circulation.

January Program Recording Available to Members

1/21/2024

The recording of the January program is now available for viewing by members at this link. (Member sign-on required.) This video will be available until replaced by the February program recording.

We had a lovely program to kick off 2024 featuring three award-winning authors. K.L. Barron, Laura Lee Washburn, and D.L. Winter shared thoughts on their writing processes, entering contests, and advice they would give to authors just beginning the process of publishing.

On Writing Groups:

"Knowing that I had to show up with something new every two weeks guaranteed at least one thing, and often I would write it that morning."

-Laura Lee Washburn
Author of The Book of Stolen Images

Support a Kansas Author! Read a book. Buy a book. Recommend your local library buy the book. Leave a review for the books you love!

A stunning betrayal forces a young woman to flee a relationship and forge a new life in one of the most brutal landscapes on earth. Gradually adapting to her new surroundings, she becomes aware of the impending dissolution of an entire culture. A diverse cast of displaced Westerners, local nomads, and djinn converge as everyone scrambles to survive and everything comes undone. Winner of the 2023 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award in Fiction.

K.L. Barron is a writer of place: poetry and prose. Her prize-winning fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction has been published in New Letters, The Bennington Review, Little Balkans Review, terrain.org, ChickenBones (Library of Congress), among others, and in several anthologies. She earned an MFA from Bennington in 2005 and taught writing and literature at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas for nearly 20 years. She lives and writes in the Flint Hills.
Her debut novel Thirst came out in November 2022 from Sea Crow Press.

In a fantastical neo-classical sense, The Book of Stolen Images speaks novelly toward culture, politics, and collective humanity. This poetry collection recognizes personal yet relatable ordinary and existential experiences, particularly in a timely contextual fashion regarding modern social issues--what makes us feel alive, imperfect, concerned, and inspired to do better. Unique imagery and diction flavor each poem and set this collection apart from other offspring of fairy tales and social commentaries. Winner of the 2023 Nelson Poetry Book Award.

Laura Lee Washburn is the Director of Creative Writing at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, and the author of This Good Warm Place: 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition (March Street), Watching the Contortionists (Palanquin Chapbook Prize), and The Book of Stolen Images (Meadowlark Press, 2023). Harbor Review’s chapbook prize is named in her honor, and she’s the president of Small Harbor Publishing’s Board of Directors. Her degrees are from Old Dominion University, where she interned for the Associated Writing Programs Newsletter, and Arizona State University. Born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, she has also lived and worked in Arizona and in Missouri. From her home in Pittsburg, Kansas, she edits The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative.

Armed with his trusty birch wand and protective shield, young apprentice wizard Alistur Grimaldi believes he can wield his powers with the same determination and results as his beloved mentor, his Great-grandfather Balthazar. His amusement quickly turns to anguish when his inexperience triggers a chain of disastrous events, putting him-and others-in dire circumstances. Mere hours after the most important event in his fourteen years, Alistur must find the courage to face the catastrophic proof of his foolish actions and make things right . . . if he can. From the coast of the Azlyn Sea to the depths of the Crystal Caverns-befriending magical and mystical creatures along his way-Alistur must learn the journey to becoming a wise and responsible wizard will not be walked alone. Winner of the 2023 "It Looks Like a Million" Design Award.

D.L. Winter was raised in Kansas and spent her adult life in Northern California. Many years ago, on her first trip abroad, inspired by the nostalgic allure of legends, lore, and architectural wonders of the Mediterranean region, the concept for Alistur’s story was born. However, crafting the fable would have to wait. Plotting adventures in the fictitious Kingdom of Fleurbania would be among the creative projects of her retirement. After a corporate career, D.L. now resides in her home state of Kansas once again, telling tales and enjoying life with family members.

January State Program: Q&A With Award Winners

12/30/2023

Join us in conversation with Kansas Authors Club Members K.L. Barron (2023 Coffin Fiction Award), Laura Lee Washburn (2023 Nelson Poetry Award), and D.L. Winter (2023 "Looks Like a Million" Design Award). We will discuss writing, entering contests, and best practices for producing an award-winning book!

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2023 Coffin Memorial Book Award for Fiction - Thirst, by K.L. Barron

10/14/2023

K.L. Barron
Member from Alma, Kansas

Order Thirst

K.L. Barron is a writer of place: poetry and prose. Her prize-winning fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction has been published in New Letters, The Bennington Review, Little Balkans Review, terrain.org, ChickenBones (Library of Congress), among others, and in several anthologies. She earned an MFA from Bennington in 2005 and taught writing and literature at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas for nearly 20 years. She lives and writes in the Flint Hills.
Her debut novel Thirst came out in November 2022 from Sea Crow Press.

Learn More - Coffin Memorial Book Award

Judge: Andy Farkas, Washburn University professor. Andy teaches beginning and advanced fiction writing and advanced college writing and holds a BA from Kent State, a MA from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a MA from the University of Alabama. He holds a PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Andy is the author of a novel, The Big Red Herring (KERNPUNKT Press 2019) and two collections of short fiction, Self-Titled Debut (Subito Press 2009) and Sunsphere (BlazeVOX [books] 2019). His work has appeared in The Iowa Review, North American Review, The Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. He has been nominated six times for a Pushcart Prize, with one Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XXXV and one Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2013. His novel was a finalist for the 2019 Big Other Fiction Award, a finalist for the 2019 Foreword INDIES humor award, and was on the Entropy Magazine Best Fiction Books of 2019 list. He is also the fiction editor for The Rupture (the re-brand of The Collagist).

Thank you to our 2023 Youth Contest Judges

9/22/2023

Kansas Authors Club is grateful to our member volunteers who gave the gift of time to judge our youth contest entries. We couldn't have done this without them! Please help us thank these individuals. Get familiar with their work. Share your appreciation!

Fiction Grades 3-4
Onalee Nicklin is best known for her fantasy or “storybook” pencil drawings, often depicting children as mermaids, elves, or characters in a story. She works mostly with graphite pencils, colored pencils, and sometimes does a little mixed media. “I hope my work inspires people to use their imagination, to dream, to read,” she says.

Onalee lives in a small cottage on a farm near Emporia, Kansas, with her husband, two cats, and numerous species of wildlife. She is the illustrator of the Kansas Notable Book (2022), Ava: A Year of Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet, story by Mandy Kern, and the author/illustrator of To Hide a Hazelnut (2023).

Fiction Grades 5-6
Lisa D. Stewart is a commercial writer in Prairie Village, Kansas, who writes magazine articles, feasibility studies, business plans, grant writing, and marketing. Between 1984 and 1999, she and her former husband created and grew Ortho-Flex Saddle Company, after a three-thousand-mile horse-back trip that taught them about the relationship between saddles and the biomechanics of the horse. The couple produced and sold patented saddles and tack in more than thirty countries. She has published more than one hundred articles on the topic of saddle fit. Lisa lives with her husband, Robert Stewart, editor emeritus of New Letters magazine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is the author of The Big Quiet: One Woman's Horseback Ride Home. (2020)

iction Grades 7-8
K.L. Barron is a writer of place: poetry and prose. Her prize-winning fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction has been published in New Letters, The Bennington Review, Little Balkans Review, terrain.org, ChickenBones (Library of Congress), among others, and in several anthologies. She has taught writing and literature at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas for nearly twenty years and lives and writes in the Flint Hills.

Her debut novel Thirst came out in November from Sea Crow Press.

Note from K.L. about the youth submissions:
I enjoyed reading the 7th and 8th grade fiction contest submissions and I applaud KAC for encouraging creativity in young writers and offering a supportive space to share it.

Fiction Grades 9-12, Non-Fiction Grades 9-12, and Poetry Grades 9-12
Curtis Becker, a Topeka-based writer, editor, and publisher, teaches English at Washburn University and Emporia State University. He is also a licensed Realtor® with Keller Williams One Legacy Partners, serving the Topeka and Emporia areas. Becker is the editor of Kansas Authors Clubs “Writing from the Center” literary zine. Most recently, his article “Giving Effective Feedback to Young Writers” appeared in Kansas English, a publication of the Kansas Association of Teachers of English. Becker is also a member of the Emporia Writers Group and The Writers Place of Kansas City. He is a frequenter of open mics, coffee shops, and bookstores across Northeast Kansas.

Curtis is the author of He Watched and Took Note (2018).

Non-Fiction Grades 3-4
Jolene Haas grew up in Southeast Kansas listening to the many stories of her extended family members. Some stories were true, but most were creatively told with twists and turns in the events, depending on who was telling the story. As a young girl, she began writing her own stories. She loves to read and write middle grade and young adult fiction. Jolene has taught students in Pre-K through eighth grade for thirty years. She is a member of Kansas Authors Club and Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Non-Fiction Grades 5-6
Ronda Miller is a Life Coach and published author of five books of poetry. She teaches The Importance of Voice for Trauma Transformation in concert with Johnson County Library, School of Trades and The Department of Corrections. Miller sits on the board of The Writers Place and is a former state president of Kansas Authors Club, 2018 - 2019. She is the poetry editor for zine, The Write Bridge. Ronda is the author of To Love the Child (2019) and three books of poetry.

Note from Ronda about the youth submissions:
I was impressed with the submissions I had the opportunity to judge. Each one was interesting and well written. I was especially impressed with the depth of research, passion and knowledge that was shared. My decisions were difficult to make.

Non-Fiction Grades 7-8
Carolyn Hall is an award winning author and her book Prairie Meals and Memories was named to one of the top 150 books on Kansas. Her writing has appeared in several Chicken Soup for the Soul books, The Christian Science Monitor, several anthologies, the Kansas City Star, Produce Merchandizing Magazine, and The Best Times.

Poetry Grades 3-4 and 5-6
Jerilynn Henrikson has spent her life in Emporia, Kansas, which she considers her front porch to the rolling Flint Hills and expansive skies of East Central Kansas. Here she and her veterinarian husband Duane have raised four kids, who also love being half way to everywhere. Jerilynn has loved teaching English, collecting friends, and telling tales. Remembering Martha is her favorite, so far.

Poetry Grades 7-8
Linda Heggestad started writing poetry at about the age of the 7th and 8th grade poets in our contest. Her first volume of poetry, Cloud & Wind, was completed in 2020. Her second volume of poetry, Blooms & Glory, came out in July.

She loves poetry for its unique ability to capture a moment, a feeling, an image, an unforgettable experience. There is such freedom in this unique art form that is suspended between words and pictures, song and story.

Note from Linda about the youth submissions:
I want to celebrate each of you young artists and your efforts here. There were so many powerful images you have created in your poems – snakes wrapping around their next meal stealing the very life from it; being treated like trashy contraband; feeling trapped in a school situation from which you long to escape. There’s a girl in a mysterious castle exquisitely drawing maps, and someone lying awake at night hearing the songs of the stars in the sky. You’re doing beautiful work. Please keep writing. Please keep going in the struggles that you are experiencing now. It will get better, the road will widen, you will have other opportunities and fresh air. Just keep going, don’t give up. And lean into your writing: keep writing the beautiful things and the hard things and the things that are wrong and unjust and that hurt, and also the things that make it wondrous to be alive. Keep writing them – and keep living.

Click Here for 2023 Youth Results

K.L. Barron Invites you to An Evening with Bombino

9/21/2023

For Immediate Release

The Volland Foundation, 24098 Volland Road, Alma, Kansas

Saturday, October 14, 2023
Concert at 7pm | Doors at 5pm
An Evening with Bombino
Tickets at Eventbrite | $25 www.vollandfoundation.org

Tuareg guitarist Bombino's folk-rock, blues music has long brought people together around its distinct sound. Marrying the guitar-focused music he gravitated to in his teens - Dire Straights, Jimi Hendrix, and others - with local inspirations like Tinariwen and Ali Farka Toure, plus Berber rhythms, Bombino's music is enthralling and abiding.

His acoustic concert at Volland comes at an exciting time for the "Sultan of Shred," who's latest album Sahel - one of the artist's most politically minded and personal works yet - arrives in mid-September. Born in a nomadic Tuareg encampment in 1980, Bombino's early life was shaped in large part by the political upheaval happening in the Sahara Desert. By the mid-90s Bombino was showing real promise as a guitarist. "Working as a herder in the desert near Tripoli, Libya, [he] spent many hours alone watching the animals and practicing his guitar." In the late 2000s and early 2010s he hit the international stage, recording in the United States, participating in documentaries, and sharing the blues, all while witnessing another period of conflict among tribes in his homeland.

The concert at Volland will be the final US performance on Bombino’s 2023 World Tour.

The concert begins at 7pm at The Volland Ruin, 24098 Volland Road, Alma, Kansas. Doors open at 5pm with food trucks and the Manhattan Caravan Co. bar truck. Setting the tone for the evening, live camels will make an appearance on the grounds, and Flint Hills camel rancher Valeri Crenshaw will be available to talk about camels and answer questions.

Inside the gallery, local author K.L. Barron will be available for conversation about her first novel, Thirst. Set in the Sahel Desert and informed by her time in Niger with the Peace Corps, Thirst is the inspiration for bringing Bombino to Volland. Books will be available for purchase and signing by the author.

Make sure to bring a lawn chair and dress for the weather. The concert will be outside at the Ruin. No outside food or drink and no pets. Admission is $25 + tax. Tickets are limited and may be purchased through a link at www.vollandfoundation.org.

Inside the gallery, local author K.L. Barron will be available for conversation about her first novel, Thirst. Set in the Sahel Desert and informed by her time in Niger with the Peace Corps, Thirst is the inspiration for bringing Bombino to Volland. Books will be available for purchase and signing by the author.