Current News from the Kansas Authors Club

Convention Committee is seeking Proposals for Presenters and Workshops

1/30/2026

Deadline for Proposals: March 15, 2026

We invite you to play an active role in our 2026 Kansas Authors Club convention by submitting your proposals for speakers and workshops.

We are looking for 50-minute, participatory workshops on writing and/or discussion leaders on topics of interest to writers.

We are also looking for potential panelists for moderator-led discussions.

Presentations that explore the convention theme, "Writing Our History & Creating Our Future: Building Community Right," are particularly welcome.

A Kansas connection is appreciated but not required for consideration. Speakers will be paid, but there is a limited budget for travel expenses and housing.

The convention is being planned for in-person presentations. We are looking for an array of workshops that will address beginning writers through those with experience in writing and publishing. We will also plan for a balance of workshops covering fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Proposal Form Link

Save the Date

2026 Kansas Writing Convention
October 2-4, 2026

Rock Springs Ranch • 1168 KS-157
Junction City, KS 66441

0 Comments

Remembering Two Kansas Poets, February 7 at Watkins Museum of History

1/30/2026

0 Comments

William Stafford
and
Ronda Miller

Saturday, February 7, 2026
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Watkins Museum of History
1047 Massachusetts St.
Lawrence, Kansas

Following a long Lawrence tradition of celebrating the life of treasured Kansas poet, William Stafford and now, also remembering our cherished Lawrence poet, Ronda Miller, please join us at the Watkins Museum on February 7th for an uplifting afternoon of heartfelt words and inspirational music.

Former Kansas poet laureates, Kevin Rabbas, Huscar Medina and Eric McHenry will be joined by Macey Webb, Joe Herrington, Brian Daldorph, Duane Johnson, M. Palowski Moore, Linzi Garcia, Julie Brin, Ian Cook, Annette Billings, Christina Hauck, Thad Dugan, Beth Gulley, Ari Dishinger, Emily Rems, Diane Silver, Iris Craver, Micki Carroll and others sharing poems from Stafford and Miller. Chris Luxem from The Raven will provide musical interludes, as well as, performances by The Persisters.

This year, Bards Against Hunger is also sponsoring the event as a fundraiser for Just Food. The recently published Bards Against Hunger Anthology - Kansas City edition will be available for sale and cash donations will also be accepted for Just Food.
This free program will be held in-person and also livestreamed on the Watkins Museum Facebook and YouTube.

Link to Event on Facebook

Remembering Two Kansas Poets - Pg on KAC Website

0 Comments

Book Award Deadline Reminder

1/30/2026

0 Comments

This is a reminder to all members who have published books in 2025 that the deadline for entering our Book Awards Contests is March 1, 2026.

This is the contest for PUBLISHED books.

Review the complete guidelines for answers to your questions

Book Awards Guidelines

If you are looking for information about our Literary Contests (Writing Contests) (for all ages), that event OPENS for submissions on
April 1, 2026 and close on June 15, 2026.

For clarification:
Literary contest entries are for individual poems and shorter form prose entries that have never been published. The Book Awards contest is for books that were published (with a press or independently) in the previous year.

Writing Contests -- All Ages

0 Comments

Guidelines for 2026 Literary Contests are Now On Our Website

1/26/2026

0 Comments

The 2026 guidelines for our adult and youth writing contests are now available on the website. Review them today and mark your calendar for April 1, the opening day of the contest (no joke!)

Contest Highlights

The Annual Writing Contest is for unpublished work in prose and poetry.
Awards include certificates and cash prizes (1st through 3rd places) and honorable mentions.
This contest is open to non-member writers residing in Kansas and to all current members of the Kansas Authors Club, regardless of residence.
Fees are $5 per entry for current Kansas Authors Club members, and $8 per entry for non-members.

As with any contest, read the complete guidelines before submitting.

Annual Literary Contests

Are you looking for information on the 2026 Book Awards?

The deadline for entering the Book Awards (for published books) is March 1, 2026. Those guidelines can be found under "Book Awards" in the menu to the left, or the button below.

Published Book Awards

0 Comments

Meet Kevin Peterson, Salina Area Group

1/20/2026

1 Comment

Kevin R Peterson is a 4th generation Kansan (and Salinan) born on January 29 – Kansas Day. His affinity for poetry began in high school and grew as a result of a local writer’s group. He was fortunate enough to have many of his early works published by editors of numerous poetry magazines that were in print during the 1980s. During that period he published four poetry chapbooks.

In 1989 he authored a book which detailed the story of his daughter’s becoming one of the first children in the United States to receive a cochlear implant.

Kevin pulled away from creative writing for about thirty-five years as he was involved with technical writing: creating brochures, writing magazine articles, posting internet articles, and sharing hundreds of case histories that explained processes and solutions for products manufactured by companies he worked with.

Now retired, and settling back into “creative” writing, he recently published his newest chapbook A Poetic Wandering. He looks forward to becoming involved with, sharing, and meeting current writers of KAC.

1 Comment

New Book by Member Jim Gilkeson

1/19/2026

0 Comments

WHEN ENERGY HEALING
MEETS MEDITATION
—EIGHT LESSONS--
by Jim Gilkeson

"Jim Gilkeson has a clear, accessible, humble, and open-hearted approach to energy teaching. His meditations are practice-based and useful for human creatures at all phases of growth. Jim is a treasure."
~Jennifer Gouine, Davis, CA

“Jim delivers his work with gentle authority, joy, com passion, and a living spiritual awareness."
~Amrit Rai, Mill Valley, CA

When Energy Healing Meets Meditation is a guide to engaging with the energy field within and around our physical bodies for healing and personal growth. This book is accessible to all readers interested in deepening their meditative practice. The practices and perspectives offered here are not bound to any specific healing or meditation modality, but rather reflect universal principles that apply to a wide spectrum of practices. Each lesson is presented as a “trailhead” for gaining personal experience in such universal areas as grounding, centering, holism, and expression, all of which apply to your evolving practice, no matter the style of your inner and outer work. Whether this is your first foray into meditation practices or you are a seasoned inner astronaut, there is something here for you.

Publication: December 15, 2025
Published by Jim Gilkeson
Edited by Denise Low
Cover design by Aimee Eldridge
$12.95, Paperback
ISBN: 979-8-218-77428-8
For media inquiries and review copies:
Email: [email protected].
Web: www.jimgilkeson.com
Phone: (707) 696-2768

www.jimgilkeson.com

0 Comments

Welcome, Mace Thornton, to the KAC Topeka Group!

1/19/2026

1 Comment

Mace grew up on a farm north of Troy, Kan., in the Missouri River Hills. His journalism degree is from Benedictine College in Atchison. He has spent his professional life as a journalist (The McPherson Sentinel and Atchison Globe), organizational communicator and strategist working in agriculture and public policy (Kansas Farm Bureau, the American Farm Bureau and the United Soybean Board). Storytelling has always been central to his work—whether explaining complex issues, capturing the stories of real lives, or building fictional worlds grounded in historical truth. His last two works, West Bottoms and The Ghosts of Gumbo Flats, were published with the guidance of Anne Spry from Personal Chapters publishing.

Mace is the author of three works of historical fiction, all grounded in the American Midwest and shaped by a deep interest in place, character, and the moral choices ordinary people face during extraordinary times.

Jawbone Holler
His debut novel follows Perry Adams, a troubled young man whose life is reshaped by the Civil War. Set between Indiana and territorial Kansas from 1858 to 1864, the book explores personal growth and redemption, loyalty, and the hard realities of frontier life. Readers have described it as a fast-paced, immersive story with strong historical grounding.

The Ghosts of Gumbo Flats (my latest)
This stand-alone novel is also the continuation of the Jawbone Holler story. The novel leans heavily into Perry’s friend, Moses Watson, and his memory of family misplaced by slavery, devotion to the land and the lingering pull of past trauma. It’s a rescue mission that examines how history shapes families and communities, particularly in rural America, where tradition and innovation have always gone hand-in-hand.

West Bottoms
This novel is set against the backdrop of one of the Midwest’s most storied districts, Kansas City’s West Bottoms. Cowritten with his brother-in-law Rogers Brazier, it explores ambition, loss, and survival in a gritty landscape shaped by scandal, passion and commerce. It is a story rooted in relationships and reprisal set in the rugged, Depression-era streets of Kansas City.

Mace currently balances his fiction writing habit with a career in strategic communications and marketing at Stratovation Group, where he is a partner. His wife, Denise, is also a native Kansan, hailing from Wamego. The Thorntons have three adult children and one granddaughter. They live outside of St. Louis but visit their beloved home state as frequently as possible.

Mace's author website can be found at www.macethornton.com.

1 Comment

Q&A with Award-Winning Authors

1/18/2026

0 Comments

Five of our 2025 Book Awards winners joined us for the January program. This recording will remain available for viewing on our website and our YouTube Channel.

SAVE THE DATE
February 21, 2026, 1:30 p.m.

Program: Writing Letters & Using the Letter Form in Your Creative Work
Presented by Kevin Rabas

This session will explore how to use letters (and emails, posts, and texts) not only as their own creative art form, but as material and fuel for more formal creative works. We will also explore the "epistolary" (the letter form) as a structure in the poem, the narrative (fiction or nonfiction), as well as other genres and mediums, including film.

Past Poet Laureate of Kansas (2017-2019) Kevin Rabas teaches at Emporia State University. He is a seventh generation Kansan. He has sixteen 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. His plays and films have shown across the Midwest and on both coasts.

0 Comments

Welcome, Kim Hurley Andrews of the Newton Group

1/18/2026

0 Comments

Kim lives in North Newton. She started writing poems in middle school, studied creative writing at Washburn University with Tom Averill, then transferred to KU, where she earned a degree in journalism, emphasis in magazines and PR. This became the focus of her career, as she wrote for consumer and trade magazines, and worked in-house for an ad agency.

While she was editor of Wichita's city magazine, Kim received a call to the ministry. Since then, she's served ten congregations in central Kansas. A few years ago, she became ordained. She writes a new sermon each week.

Recently, Kim published her first book about a triple homicide that happened in her family, back in the 1920s. She started the project more than 20 years ago, originally collaborating with another writer, Lila McCabe. When the Leaves Began to Unfold: The Hurley Murder Mystery centers around Kim's great-aunt, Jennie, who was engaged to at least two men at the same time and owned a handful of engagement rings. People living near Perry Lake (Kan.), where this happened, continue to speculate about the circumstances of one night—and whether Jennie was in the farmhouse fire that claimed the lives of her father and brother, or somehow escaped.

She is married to Sam, who has written a couple of published books on the grain and railroad industry, and also has two grown sons. Being a part of the Kansas Authors Club's Newton group has inspired Kim to get back to writing poetry and start working on a new book about women in ministry. This will probably include inspiring stories of women preachers from the last two centuries, as well as her own journey.

0 Comments

New Groups Forming - News from Manhattan

1/14/2026

0 Comments

At least 21 different writers have found their way to the Groesbeck Meeting Room, the auditorium, or one of the study rooms at the Manhattan, Kansas, public library for meetings of the Manhattan KAC Writing Group. We meet from 5:30 to 7:00 every other Thursday evening.

Our meeting dates for 2026 are January 15 & 29, February 12 & 26, March 12 & 26, April 9 & 23, May 7 & 21, June 4 & 18, July 2, 16, & 30, August 13 & 27, September 10 & 24, October 8 and 22, November 5 & 19, and December 3 & 17.

If you contact me, I will send you an email before each meeting with room location and other pertinent information. (I keep email addresses private, even from regular attendees.)

Attendees generally number from 5 to 10, so we usually have sufficient time to share pieces (poetry or prose) and get input on various writing issues. I am constantly amazed how much I have learned from group members. Some come with complete novels to "test." Others come with ideas and snips, using the meetings as motivation to dig into projects they have been meaning to write.

Come join us if you're in Manhattan on a Thursday we meet!

- Kris Polansky

Where can I meet local writers?

How can I start a group in my area?

0 Comments

Member Michael D. Graves Publishes 6th Book in the Pete Stone Series

1/14/2026

0 Comments

Shadows Deep, the sixth mystery featuring Private Investigator, Pete Stone, is now available at Meadowlark Press or your favorite bookstore. Set during 1939, Shadows Deep features Hollywood characters on their visit to Kansas for the premiere of the movie, Dodge City. Published by Meadowlark Press; cover photo by Dave Leiker.

Learn More - Shadows Deep

0 Comments

Member Kim Andrews Published in Ceramics Monthly

1/13/2026

0 Comments

Kim Andrews wrote an article that was recently published in the December 2025 issue of Ceramics Monthly magazine. This was a feature about St. John artist Carol Long, who is known for her handmade tile and decorative pottery.

A longtime magazine editor and writer, Andrews entered the ministry about 15 years ago but was drawn to write about Long's pottery when she visited her studio one Christmas during an open house. She says her work was unlike anything she'd ever seen.

Read the Article

Kim's Website

0 Comments

New Groups Forming - News from Newton

1/12/2026

0 Comments

Newton Writing Group meetings will be held on the third Tuesday of the month from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Newton Public Library, 223 E. 7th Street, Newton.

Amy Kliewer is currently the group coordinator.

Where can I meet local writers?

How can I start a group in my community?

0 Comments

Join us for the first state program of 2026 -- January 17, 1:30 pm (Zoom)

1/11/2026

0 Comments

Link to Monthly Program - Sign-on Required

Program: Q&A With Award Winning Authors

Program Location: Zoom

Join us in conversation with Kansas Authors Club 2025 book award winners:

Ashley Donigan (Design for Children's Book)
Jim Gilkeson (2025 Coffin Nonfiction)
Abbi Lee (Children's Book)
Denise Low (Nelson Poetry)
Robert Rebein (2025 Coffin Fiction)

We will discuss writing, entering contests, and best practices for producing an award-winning book.

Ashley Donigan - 2025 Kansas Authors Club Book Design Award, Children's Category

Ashley Donegan lives in her childhood home in small-town Kansas, surrounded by family and a lively assortment of farm animals that inspire her storytelling. For Ashley, these animals are more than pets—they’re the heart of the sweet, imaginative tales she creates to make children feel safe, loved, and entertained.
Her creative journey is a true family affair, as she collaborates closely with her daughter—the real spark behind their stories. Together, they enjoy creating different kinds of art and dreaming up new ideas for future children’s books.
Ashley has self-published two titles, including their latest adventure, Pirate Chickens Under Attackkkkk!!!, co-written and illustrated by her 10-year-old daughter. The award winning book has been featured on KidLitTV, and was showcased at the prestigious Frankfurter Buchmesse book fair in Germany this past October. Pirate Chickens has currently been the proud recipient of two different awards.

One Mama's Heart
Instagram
Facebook

Jim Gilkeson - 2025 J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial Book Award in Nonfiction

Jim Gilkeson is a native of Wichita. He is the author of five books, two of which have received the Coffin Memorial Award for Non-Fiction. Stories and articles by Jim have appeared in Memoirist Quarterly, Invisible City, Meadowlark Reader, and Massage & Bodywork Magazine. After lengthy periods in Europe and the American Wild West, he lives, now for the third time, in Lawrence, Kansas.

Abbi Lee - 2025 Kansas Authors Club Award for Best Children's Book

Abbi Lee taught high school English and Social Studies before turning her full attention to writing. She now works as a copywriter for a marketing agency and has been published in multiple magazines. Her next book, Hometown Treasure Hunt, is the second novel in the Geocache Club trilogy and releases March 3rd, 2026. Outside of reading and writing, Abbi also enjoys making (and eating) no-bake cookies, geocaching for hidden treasures, and going on adventures with her husband and two daughters.

Website & Socials:
Website: abbileebooks.wordpress.com
Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram: @abbileebooks

Denise Low - 2025 Nelson Poetry Book Award

Denise Low, former Poet Laureate of Kansas, is author of Jigsaw Puzzling: Essays in a Time of Pestilence (Meadowlark Press, Coffin Non-Fiction Award); House of Grace, House of Blood, Nelson Poetry Book Award (University of Arizona Press); the memoir The Turtle's Beating Heart, and other books. Her other awards include a Red Mountain Press Editor’s Choice Poetry Award and four Kansas Notable Book Awards. The Academy of American Poets chose her as an editor for the 2026 Poem-A-Day series. Board memberships include Indigenous Native Poets (In-Na-Po), Write On Door County advisory board, and former AWP board member and president. She programs the Indigenous Voices series for The 222, an arts organization in Sonoma County, CA. and teaches online for Baker University. www.deniselow.net Her Ph.D. is in literature and MFA in Creative Writing.
Robert Rebein - 2025 J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial Book Award in Fiction

Robert Rebein grew up in Dodge City, Kansas, where his family has farmed and ranched since the late 1920s. A graduate of the University of Kansas and Washington University in St. Louis, as well as Exeter University in England, Rebein teaches fiction and creative nonfiction writing at Indiana University Indianapolis. He is the author of Dragging Wyatt Earp: A Personal History of Dodge City, Headlights on the Prairie: Essays on Home, and The Last Rancher (2025 J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Award and 2025 Kansas Notable)

Website

0 Comments

Member to Be Guest Editor for #PoemADay in 2026

1/5/2026

American Academy of Poets Announcement:

We’re thrilled to announce the twelve new guest editors for #PoemADay in 2026, who will each curate a month of poems: Geffrey Davis, Chris Abani, Danusha Laméris, Dorianne Laux, Hala Alyan, Sam Sax, Oliver Baez Bendorf, Charif Shanahan, Maya C. Popa, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Denise Low, and Edward Hirsch. Click the link to learn more: https://poets.org/announcing-2026-guest-editors-poem-day....

November: Denise Low

Denise Low is the author of more than forty books of poetry, essays, and criticism. Her most recent full-length poetry collections include House of Grace, House of Blood (University of Arizona Press, 2024), winner of the Nelson Poetry Book Award, and Wing (Red Mountain Press, 2021), a finalist for the Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award. Low’s works of prose include the memoir The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival (University of Nebraska Press, 2017) and Natural Theologies: Literature of the New Middle West (Backwaters Press, 2011), the first critical study of contemporary poets from the Mid-Plains. She also edited Kansas Poems of William Stafford (Woodley Press, 2010). Low is a founding member of the Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po) and has served on its national board since 2020. She is also a literary programmer for the arts nonprofit The 222. She served as poet laureate of Kansas from 2007 to 2009. From 2008 to 2013, Low was a board member of the Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and was its president from 2011 to 2012. She has taught at the University of Kansas, the University of Richmond, and for twenty-seven years at Haskell Indian Nations University where she founded the creative writing program. She currently teaches at Baker University’s School of Professional and Graduate Studies in Baldwin City, Kansas.

Convention Committee is seeking Proposals for Presenters and Workshops

Remembering Two Kansas Poets, February 7 at Watkins Museum of History

William Stafford
and
Ronda Miller

Book Award Deadline Reminder

Guidelines for 2026 Literary Contests are Now On Our Website

Meet Kevin Peterson, Salina Area Group

New Book by Member Jim Gilkeson

Welcome, Mace Thornton, to the KAC Topeka Group!

Q&A with Award-Winning Authors

Welcome, Kim Hurley Andrews of the Newton Group

New Groups Forming - News from Manhattan

Member Michael D. Graves Publishes 6th Book in the Pete Stone Series

Member Kim Andrews Published in Ceramics Monthly

New Groups Forming - News from Newton

Join us for the first state program of 2026 -- January 17, 1:30 pm (Zoom)

Member to Be Guest Editor for #PoemADay in 2026

Categories

Archives

William StaffordandRonda Miller

Categories

Archives

William Stafford
and
Ronda Miller