The Kansas Authors Club is grateful to our volunteer judges this year for their time and contributions to our youth activities. We couldn't have done this without them! Help us give thanks to these individuals.
Fiction Grades 3-4 and
Nonfiction Grades 3-4
Lydia Montgomery is a paraeducator at Overbrook Attendance Center. She is a Kansas native, having spent most of her life in Emporia, Kansas and currently living in Burlingame, Kansas. She lives with her partner, four adorable cats, a big fluffy dog, and a sassy bearded dragon. She has been an avid reader her whole life, and she is very passionate about encouraging young minds to love reading and foster their creativity through writing.
Nonfiction Grades 3-4
Lydia Montgomery is a paraeducator at Overbrook Attendance Center. She is a Kansas native, having spent most of her life in Emporia, Kansas and currently living in Burlingame, Kansas. She lives with her partner, four adorable cats, a big fluffy dog, and a sassy bearded dragon. She has been an avid reader her whole life, and she is very passionate about encouraging young minds to love reading and foster their creativity through writing.
Fiction Grades 5-6 and
Poetry Grades 5-6
Kennedy Eyberg is a student at Emporia State University, studying English with a concentration in Creative Writing. She enjoys reading, writing, sewing, and playing guitar and clarinet in her free time. She has been published in Quivira and the Flint Hills Review.
Poetry Grades 5-6
Kennedy Eyberg is a student at Emporia State University, studying English with a concentration in Creative Writing. She enjoys reading, writing, sewing, and playing guitar and clarinet in her free time. She has been published in Quivira and the Flint Hills Review.
Fiction Grades 7-8 and
Nonfiction Grades 7-8
Michelle Young was born and raised in Abilene, Kansas. She attended Emporia State University and studied English Education until December 2023 when she received her Bachelor’s degree. During her time at ESU, she worked as an AVID Tutor and fell in love with teaching middle schoolers. Post-student teaching and graduation, Michelle discovered her purpose and enjoyment through serving at her church, reading, listening to podcasts, spending time with friends and family, spoiling her two cats, and spending time outdoors. She is live, laugh, loving in Lawrence, Kansas, and will begin her first year teaching as a 7th grade English Language Arts teacher in the fall of 2024.
Nonfiction Grades 7-8
Michelle Young was born and raised in Abilene, Kansas. She attended Emporia State University and studied English Education until December 2023 when she received her Bachelor’s degree. During her time at ESU, she worked as an AVID Tutor and fell in love with teaching middle schoolers. Post-student teaching and graduation, Michelle discovered her purpose and enjoyment through serving at her church, reading, listening to podcasts, spending time with friends and family, spoiling her two cats, and spending time outdoors. She is live, laugh, loving in Lawrence, Kansas, and will begin her first year teaching as a 7th grade English Language Arts teacher in the fall of 2024.
Fiction Grades 9-12
Tracy Million Simmons is the owner/ publisher of Meadowlark Press, celebrating ten years in business in 2024. Meadowlark has published more than 70 titles, including six Kansas Notables. Meadowlark books have been recognized by the High Plains Book Awards, Midwest Book Awards, and Kansas Authors Club book awards.
Tracy is the author of Green Bike (with Kevin Rabas and Michael D. Graves), A Life in Progress and Other Short Stories, and Tiger Hunting, the 2013 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award winner from the Kansas Authors Club. Tracy currently serves as the Executive Director of the Kansas Authors Club.
Note from Tracy Million Simmons: This was a very strong set of entries. Overall, there was not a single piece that was not award worthy. I was very impressed with the writing. I was impressed that these entries were well-written and grammatically clean. It made the job of judging them both a pleasure and difficult. In the end, I had to walk away from reading the pieces for a few days and contemplate which stories lingered in my mind after reading. Those that I found myself returning to in memory, thinking about the characters or the author’s particular descriptions, are the stories I eventually sorted into the top rankings. I want the authors to understand that this process of judging stories is objective only to a point. You’ve done the job well by polishing your writing, submitting it free from grammatical errors and typos. Personal taste certainly has an impact on the final standing, but I sorted the stories first with an eye to plot, structure, and flow. Given the constraints of a limited word count, I felt the selected stories did a particularly good job of telling a complete story.
Tracy Million Simmons is the owner/ publisher of Meadowlark Press, celebrating ten years in business in 2024. Meadowlark has published more than 70 titles, including six Kansas Notables. Meadowlark books have been recognized by the High Plains Book Awards, Midwest Book Awards, and Kansas Authors Club book awards.
Tracy is the author of Green Bike (with Kevin Rabas and Michael D. Graves), A Life in Progress and Other Short Stories, and Tiger Hunting, the 2013 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award winner from the Kansas Authors Club. Tracy currently serves as the Executive Director of the Kansas Authors Club.
Note from Tracy Million Simmons: This was a very strong set of entries. Overall, there was not a single piece that was not award worthy. I was very impressed with the writing. I was impressed that these entries were well-written and grammatically clean. It made the job of judging them both a pleasure and difficult. In the end, I had to walk away from reading the pieces for a few days and contemplate which stories lingered in my mind after reading. Those that I found myself returning to in memory, thinking about the characters or the author’s particular descriptions, are the stories I eventually sorted into the top rankings. I want the authors to understand that this process of judging stories is objective only to a point. You’ve done the job well by polishing your writing, submitting it free from grammatical errors and typos. Personal taste certainly has an impact on the final standing, but I sorted the stories first with an eye to plot, structure, and flow. Given the constraints of a limited word count, I felt the selected stories did a particularly good job of telling a complete story.
Poetry Grades 3-4 and
Nonfiction Grades 5-6
Phyllida Porter: I'm a sunflower—born in Emporia, January of 1934. From the very beginning I was surrounded by artists of all disciplines; family, friends, and colleagues. Anything I tried to create was encouraged and critiqued. As a result, words don't scare me nor do I shrink from new techniques and ideas.
I have written children's stories, poems, and my version of the "great American novel,” none of which have been published, as yet. (I am hopeful.)
I graduated from Denver University with a BA in Mass Communications; I had an on-air program on the Voice of America, Public Affairs Manager with the Bureau of Land Management, Air Force technical training, and lastly was Assistant Director of Education at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico. I was an Emergency Medical Technician and have a Certificate in Gerontology from D. U. My poetry and my writing have grown, re-formed, skewed and stewed, become more lyrical and more blatant not to mention—odd, quirky, questionable, hopeful, demanding and unabashedly my own self in words.
I write because I must.
Nonfiction Grades 5-6
Phyllida Porter: I'm a sunflower—born in Emporia, January of 1934. From the very beginning I was surrounded by artists of all disciplines; family, friends, and colleagues. Anything I tried to create was encouraged and critiqued. As a result, words don't scare me nor do I shrink from new techniques and ideas.
I have written children's stories, poems, and my version of the "great American novel,” none of which have been published, as yet. (I am hopeful.)
I graduated from Denver University with a BA in Mass Communications; I had an on-air program on the Voice of America, Public Affairs Manager with the Bureau of Land Management, Air Force technical training, and lastly was Assistant Director of Education at Kirtland AFB in New Mexico. I was an Emergency Medical Technician and have a Certificate in Gerontology from D. U. My poetry and my writing have grown, re-formed, skewed and stewed, become more lyrical and more blatant not to mention—odd, quirky, questionable, hopeful, demanding and unabashedly my own self in words.
I write because I must.
Nonfiction Grades 9-12 and
Poetry Grades 9-12
Felicity Wenger is an Emporia State University graduate with a BSE in English. She is currently a childcare worker but has plans to further her English horizons. She has been working various childcare jobs over the last four years with such corporations as Boys and Girls Clubs of South Central Kansas, Summerscapes in Emporia, KS and Camp Shine in Ottawa, KS. She also has a year of student teaching experience with grades 7-11. Felicity currently lives in Ottawa, KS with her younger brother and her cat. In her spare time, Felicity enjoys reading, listening to music, and being in nature.
Poetry Grades 9-12
Felicity Wenger is an Emporia State University graduate with a BSE in English. She is currently a childcare worker but has plans to further her English horizons. She has been working various childcare jobs over the last four years with such corporations as Boys and Girls Clubs of South Central Kansas, Summerscapes in Emporia, KS and Camp Shine in Ottawa, KS. She also has a year of student teaching experience with grades 7-11. Felicity currently lives in Ottawa, KS with her younger brother and her cat. In her spare time, Felicity enjoys reading, listening to music, and being in nature.
Poetry Grades 7-8
Olivia Benoit is going into her 3L year at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. She graduated from the University of Kansas in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies, with a minor in National Security & Intelligence. She currently works at a criminal defense firm in Kansas City. She plans to practice criminal law after she graduates and takes the bar. Someday, she would like to become an English teacher. She is on track to complete her Goodreads challenge for 2024, which is to read 45 books!
Note from Olivia Benoit: Please feel free to send me your work in the future if you keep writing or edit any of your pieces! Great work writers!
Olivia Benoit is going into her 3L year at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. She graduated from the University of Kansas in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies, with a minor in National Security & Intelligence. She currently works at a criminal defense firm in Kansas City. She plans to practice criminal law after she graduates and takes the bar. Someday, she would like to become an English teacher. She is on track to complete her Goodreads challenge for 2024, which is to read 45 books!
Note from Olivia Benoit: Please feel free to send me your work in the future if you keep writing or edit any of your pieces! Great work writers!
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