Category: Chuck Warner

Don't forget to register for our next Author Talk: Chuck Warner, author of Birds, Bones, and Beetles...

2/15/2021

The improbable career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker

Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here

University Press of Kansas has agreed to offer members of KAC a 30% discount on copies of Warner's book. Beginning today, this offer is good through March 31, 2021, and applies only to online purchases from University Press of Kansas using the Promo Code KAC30. (https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2773-8.html)

Winner:
2020 Martin Kansas History Book Award
&
2020 "Looks Like A Million" Design Award

“While reading Chuck Warner’s book, I felt myself being transported back in time and seeing life through the eyes of Charles Bunker. Birds, Bones, and Beetles tells the story of naturalist Charles Bunker's life from his early years in Illinois in the late 1800s through his long career at the University of Kansas. Much like Charles Bunker, the book itself is unassuming and down to earth. Warner takes care to not only reveal Bunker's strengths but also his flaws. Yet, the book is more than a biography. Warner ties Bunker into a larger world that include his relationships with his colleagues and family, developments within the University of Kansas, and the natural history of the state. This well written and well researched book is not only a treat to read but is a valuable contribution to the history of Kansas.”

-Thomas C. Percy, PhD, judge, 2020 Martin Kansas History Book Award

February Author Talk, Chuck Warner, winner of the 2020 Martin Kansas History Book Award

1/30/2021

February Author Talk: Chuck Warner

Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker

Winner:
2020 Martin Kansas History Book Award
&
2020 "Looks Like A Million" Design Award

Tuesday, February 23, 7pm
Click here to register (must register to attend).
University Press of Kansas has agreed to offer members of KAC a 30% discount on copies of Warner's book. Beginning today, this offer is good through March 31, 2021, and applies only to online purchases from University Press of Kansas using the Promo Code KAC30. (https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2773-8.html)

“While reading Chuck Warner’s book, I felt myself being transported back in time and seeing life through the eyes of Charles Bunker. Birds, Bones, and Beetles tells the story of naturalist Charles Bunker's life from his early years in Illinois in the late 1800s through his long career at the University of Kansas. Much like Charles Bunker, the book itself is unassuming and down to earth. Warner takes care to not only reveal Bunker's strengths but also his flaws. Yet, the book is more than a biography. Warner ties Bunker into a larger world that include his relationships with his colleagues and family, developments within the University of Kansas, and the natural history of the state. This well written and well researched book is not only a treat to read but is a valuable contribution to the history of Kansas.”

-Thomas C. Percy, PhD, judge, 2020 Martin Kansas History Book Award

March Author Talk: Michael D. Graves

All Hallows' Shadows

Winner:
2020 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award

Tuesday, March 23, 7pm
Click here to register (must register to attend).

"In All Hallows’ Shadows, Michael D. Graves serves up both homage and an original take on the hard-boiled detective genre. The mean streets of the novel are historic Wichita, Kansas, which Mr. Graves renders impeccably, edging in a history lesson with his mystery. Graves, an evident baseball fan, hits through the cycle of the genre’s tropes, but does so in a manner entirely his own, realizing a style entirely his own. Out of a field of strong competition, my choice for the J. Donald Coffin Book Award is Michael D. Graves’s All Hallows’ Shadows."

-William Sheldon, judge, 2020 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award

April Author Talk: Ronda Miller

I Love the Children

Winner:
2020 Kansas Authors Club Childrens' Book Award

Tuesday, April 27, 7pm
Registration Link to Come (must register to attend).

Coming 2021: Author Talks

1/16/2021

Kansas Authors Club will host a monthly “Author Talk” featuring an award-winning writer, with first priority given to authors who have won KAC book awards. The author will talk about an aspect of writing, publishing, or marketing (author's choice). The presentations are expected to last an hour to an hour and a half and will include time for questions and answers.

These events are being planned via Zoom, to take place on the 4th Tuesday of each month. The event will be open to all Kansas Authors Club members. A recording of the event will be made available to members who cannot attend live.

You must be a Kansas Authors Club member to attend an Author Talk. Not a member? Join today!

January Author Talk: Jon Kelly Yenser

The News as Usual

Winner: 2020 Nelson Poetry Book Award

Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here

The News as Usual is available from Twice Told Tales Bookshop, and wherever you buy books! Support Kansas literature by supporting a Kansas Author!

"The title for Jon Kelly Yenser’s 2019 collection of poems, The News as Usual, accurately and profoundly describes his poetry although the “usual” here is shown to be startling and wondrous and occasionally wry and subtly humorous. Yenser writes from the ground up in choosing both his words and the subjects for his poems, reflecting his recognition that the "news," that is, ordinary life during all seasons in Kansas—in fields, in the backyards of its small towns, and in friendships—can be astonishing.

"Neither idealizing nor prettifying his Kansas, Yenser chooses language precisely and astonishingly. He creates metaphors that make the familiar spring wondrously into new life, thereby making the usual news become unusual."

--Elizabeth A. Schultz, judge, 2020 Nelson Poetry Book Award

Tuesday, February 23, 7pm
Click here to register (must register to attend).

March Author Talk: Michael D. Graves

All Hallows' Shadows

Winner:
2020 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award

Recording Available for Viewing by Members - Click Here

"In All Hallows’ Shadows, Michael D. Graves serves up both homage and an original take on the hard-boiled detective genre. The mean streets of the novel are historic Wichita, Kansas, which Mr. Graves renders impeccably, edging in a history lesson with his mystery. Graves, an evident baseball fan, hits through the cycle of the genre’s tropes, but does so in a manner entirely his own, realizing a style entirely his own. Out of a field of strong competition, my choice for the J. Donald Coffin Book Award is Michael D. Graves’s All Hallows’ Shadows."

-William Sheldon, judge, 2020 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award

2020 “It Looks Like a Million” Book Design Award

10/3/2020

Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker,
by Chuck Warner

The design of Birds, Bones and Beetles by Chuck Warner, effectively evoked the era of Kansas naturalist Charles D. Bunker, subtly suggested the subject matter through its use of front cover photographs and historical typeface. I appreciated the use of black and white photographs throughout the text and the straight-forward layout. To me, a good book design does two things simultaneously; it draws attention to the book while not distracting from the essential character of its narrative.

Judge Rick Mitchell has been a professional artist/photographer since 1974. He was professor of photography at Rutgers University for eighteen years and has taught at other institutions including Baker University and the University of Kansas. He is a former Director of the Exhibition Program at the Lawrence Arts Center where he was, for five years, the publisher of Cottonwood Literary Magazine in cooperation with the University of Kansas Department of English, and a founder of the Committee on Imagination & Place and the I&P Press.

2020 Martin Kansas History Book Award

10/3/2020

Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker,
by Chuck Warner

The Martin Kansas History Book Award goes to Chuck Warner for his book, Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker.

“While reading Chuck Warner’s book, I felt myself being transported back in time and seeing life through the eyes of Charles Bunker. Birds, Bones, and Beetles tells the story of naturalist Charles Bunker's life from his early years in Illinois in the late 1800s through his long career at the University of Kansas. Much like Charles Bunker, the book itself is unassuming and down to earth. Warner takes care to not only reveal Bunker's strengths but also his flaws. Yet, the book is more than a biography. Warner ties Bunker into a larger world that include his relationships with his colleagues and family, developments within the University of Kansas, and the natural history of the state. This well written and well researched book is not only a treat to read but is a valuable contribution to the history of Kansas.”

Though born in Canada, Thomas C. Percy has lived in Kansas since 1990. He received his B.A. in History and a B.Ed. from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. Inspired by several outstanding history professors, he continued with higher education acquiring his M.A. in history from Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.

During a seminar at the University of Kansas, Percy researched and wrote a paper on the origins of the Kansas State Fair. The topic proved fertile ground and Percy expanded the paper into his dissertation, “A History of the Kansas State Fair, 1863-2006.” As chance would have it, Percy found a position teaching history at Hutchinson Community College, the permanent home of the Kansas State Fair.

While Percy has enjoyed teaching at Hutchinson Community College since 1994, he has also published Images of America: Kansas State Fair in 2014 and has reviewed books in the Canadian Journal of History/Annales canadiennes d’histoire, Teaching History: A Journal of Methods and Kansas History.

Don't forget to register for our next Author Talk: Chuck Warner, author of Birds, Bones, and Beetles...

The improbable career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker

February Author Talk, Chuck Warner, winner of the 2020 Martin Kansas History Book Award

Coming 2021: Author Talks

2020 “It Looks Like a Million” Book Design Award

2020 Martin Kansas History Book Award

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