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The recording of the January program is now available for viewing by members at this link. (Member sign-on required.) This video will also remain publicly available on our YouTube channel. Our next program will be on Saturday, February 15, starting at 1:30 p.m. The presenter will be Mary-Lane Kamberg talking about Grand Openings.
January 18, 2025 - 1:30 p.m. Program Location: Zoom  Current members receive an link to the monthly program on Zoom via the monthly e-newsletter. The link is also available using the button above which takes you to our members-only pages. Sign-on is required. Join us in conversation with Kansas Authors Club 2024 book award winners Jim Gilkeson (Coffin Nonfiction), Marilyn Hope Lake (Coffin Fiction), Jerilynn Henrikson (Martin KS History), Lisa Hase-Jackson (Nelson Poetry), and Ann Vigola Anderson (Design). We will discuss writing, entering contests, and best practices for producing an award winning book. Panel moderated by Anne Spry (Design Award Winner & State President).  From the opening poem of Lisa Hase-Jackson's impactful collection, Insomnia in Another Town, we learn that "There is no small grief...all are interconnected." These poems, cloaked in memory and the unmaking and re-making of family, travel us through the harvest of a poet's life. Like the farms she made grow, this book tills the soil of a human soul and all the many experiences that make it. In pantoums, free verse, and prose poems, Hase-Jackson demonstrates the way that every lived experience weaves into a root system that bears unique fruit, singular as our heartbeats, our winding fingerprints. -Ashley M. Jones, poet laureate of Alabama Winner of the 2024 Nelson Poetry Book Award  Jim Gilkeson takes you on a storyteller's journey into three tiny, experimental subcultures in the U.S. and Europe. Told in a series of short interlocking vignettes spanning the years from 1949 to 2015, Gilkeson traces his unlikely path from his conventional upbringing in the Midwest, down the psychedelic rabbit hole of the late 1960s, to his years as a brother in an order of modern mystics and a practitioner and teacher of energy healing at a clothing-optional retreat center. Three Lost Worlds: A Memoir of a life Among Mystics, Healers, and Life-Artists is an insider's account of life in the Holy Order of MANS, an esoteric spiritual order founded in San Francisco in the 1960s; an apprenticeship in energy healing with an Irish clairvoyant, the late Bob Moore; and a fourteen-year stint as a healer at Harbin Hot Springs in Northern California, which comes to an abrupt and devastating end in the wildfires of 2015. Three Lost Worlds is set in part against the backdrop of cults and the paranoia surrounding them in the wake of the Jonestown mass suicides in the late 1970s, but it tells a different kind of story, one of spiritual and personal growth through the eyes of an insider. In the process, Three Lost Worlds offers the reader a reflection on an era in American spiritual history, the heartfelt journey of a modern spiritual seeker. Winner of the 2024 J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial Book Award for Nonfiction.  Our Mothers' Ghosts, by Marilyn Hope Lake: Forced to extremes in order to escape women’s accepted societal roles, the protagonists in this short story collection—the women of one midwestern river town family—overcome hardship and heartbreak, pain and pressure, in order to burst the bonds that hold them and bring forth a better future for their daughters and sons. Their struggles comprise a panorama of women’s issues that span the twentieth century: social injustice, sexism, discrimination, and racism. These ordinary women experienced it all, and the unique ways in which they dealt with these issues illustrate a past we should all hope to leave behind. Winner of the 2024 J. Donald & Bertha Coffin Memorial Book Award for Fiction.  Remembering Martha turns family history and lore into story. Martha grew up in the small town of Neosho Rapids, Kansas, at the turn of the 20th century. This book is an invitation to explore prairie life, its glories and its tragedies, through one woman whose indomitable spirit lives on through generations of grandchildren, including and especially, the author, Jerilynn Henrikson. This novella is a work of fiction inspired by an interview with the author's grandmother. Winner of the 2024 Martin Kansas History Book Award.  When the world shut down in March 2020, Author Anne Spry shut down emotionally ... until she had the time to really notice and appreciate her surroundings. She began taking photos of sunsets, sunrises, clouds and flowers. Poetry flowed out of her soul when she saw what the camera had captured. Now she is sharing her inspirations in hopes that this perspective on a largely negative era in our history will result in more universal gratitude. Winner of the 2024 "It Looks Like a Million" Design Award.  In the Adventures of Bottle Calf, author Ann Vigola Anderson takes us back in time to her grandparents’ farm where Bottle Calf was born during an early spring blizzard. With illustrations by the talented Sara Long, this gorgeous book will be your go-to for holiday gift giving and beyond. Grab a copy to reminisce or to share the stories and gorgeous art with your kids and grandkids. You are going to love Bottle Calf! Reconized - 2024 "It Looks Like a Million" Design Award We are working on an amazing lineup of state programs in 2025! Click here to check on our progress and SAVE THE DATES on your calendar!
 "This is a book that is not only beautiful, but also uplifting. Even though the author does not consider herself a photographer or poet, she has an eye for capturing the small day-to-day things about life in 2020. This all comes together in a well-designed book." - Judge Randi Stones, Washburn Rural HS Journalism Teacher  Anne Garrett Spry was selected as the 2024 "It Looks Like a Million" Book Award recipient.
Also recognized:  "This is a book for everyone. Young and old alike. "The illustrations are vivid and bright. I could have looked at the pictures forever. Even my teenage son thought it was a beautiful book and that is high praise." - Judge Randi Stones, Washburn Rural HS Journalism Teacher
 At the Annual Meeting of the General Membership, held via Zoom on October 19, 2024, a Service Award was presented to Anne Spry. Awards are presented to members for achievement in writing (A), service to the club (S), and special award for particular accomplishment (SP). "Anne served as president of District 1, doing an exemplary job as Kansas Authors Club has transitioned to its present statewide focus. She produced an attractive and informative quarterly newsletter for District 1. In addition, she has live-streamed our Words in the Wind open mic event. Anne did all of the formatting and publishing of D1's 2023 anthology, All Over the Map. "Anne was one of the committee who worked diligently to make sure our state convention in Topeka could be held virtually. All of this besides running her own publishing company and being part of Sweet Adolines Acapella Chorus. Now moving on to be state president of Kansas Authors Club, Anne has proven over and over again her devotion to Kansas Authors Club." Nomination by Barbara Waterman-Peters  Prose Contest Manager - K.L. Barron  Kristine A. Polansky, Anne Spry, and Janice Lee McClure Prose Theme Contest: Words Take Flight: Choose Your Own Adventure (15 entries) First Place: “The Cave” by Janice Lee McClure, D7 Second Place: “Up La Luz Trail With Penny” by Janice Lee McClure, D7 Third Place: “Encountering Hunger, Death, and Adventure in the Peace Corps” by Anne L. Spry, D1 Honorable Mention: “Bridge Over Cimarron” by Amy D. Kliewer, D5 Honorable Mention: “You Just Never Know” by Kristine A. Polansky, D4  Sandra Lou Talyor and S.L. Brown Stories Written for Young Readers (14 entries) First Place: “Catfish” by S.L. Brown, D2 Second Place: “Be Brave Bertie” by S.L. Brown, D2 Third Place: “Areon” by Sandra Lou Taylor, D5 Honorable Mention: “A Treasured Glow” by Abbi Lee, D5  Joe Bollig, S.L. Brown, and Julie A. Sellers Short Story (14 entries) First Place: “Sunflower State of Mind” by Julie A. Sellers, D1 Second Place: “Ficklin, Kansas” by S.L. Brown, D2 Third Place: “At the Roadside” by Robin St. James Honorable Mention: “Just Another Day” by Ashley Masoni Huber, NM Honorable Mention: “Dick Banal, Private Eye: Sticky Situation” by Joe Bollig, D2  Cynthia Mines, Janice Lee McClure, and Hazel Hart Memoir/Inspiration (29 entries) First Place: “Last One on the Line” by Don Money, D3 Second Place: “Students on a Stick” by Roger Heineken, D2 Third Place: “Breathe In, Release” by Cynthia Mines, D5 Honorable Mention: “Someone Else” by Hazel Hart, D2 Honorable Mention: “Idaho, 1950” by Janice Lee McClure, D7  Gretchen Cassel Eick and Julie A. Sellers Humor (16 entries) First Place: “Waiting for Daddy” by Kimberlee Bethany Bonura, D2 Second Place: “Local Professor Jailed for Crime of Fashion” by Julie A. Sellers, D1 Third Place: “The Brain Trade” by Gretchen Cassel Eick, D5 Honorable Mention: “How Gemma Changed My Life” by Margaret McKay, D5 Honorable Mention: “Brotherly Affection” by Amy D. Kliewer, D5  Sandra Lou Taylor, Hazel Hart, S.L. Brown, and Julie A. Sellers Flash Fiction (8 entries) First Place: “Distant Grief” by Kimberlee Bethany Bonura, D2 Second Place: “What She Ordered” by Hazel Hart, D2 Third Place: “Outlook” by Gretchen Burch, D2 Honorable Mention: “My Big Chance” by Sandra Lou Taylor, D5 Honorable Mention: “A Word Edgewise” by Hazel Hart, D2 Honorable Mention: “Deja New” by S.L. Brown, D2 Honorable Mention: “The Good Mood” by Julie A. Sellers, D1  Jerilynn Henrikson and Mike Graves (above her in the Zoom window) First Chapter of a Novel (17 entries) First Place: “The Yellow-Wellie Incident: An Inspector Wigford “Wiggy” Thorpe Mystery” by Kathleen E. Kaska, D2 Second Place: “A Mystery in Two Voices” by Michael D. Graves and Jerilynn Henrikson, D2 Third Place: “Birth of a Warrior” by Elmer Fuller, NM Honorable Mention: “Shadows Deep” by Michael D. Graves, D2 Honorable Mention: “A History of Madness” by Alisha Davis, NM  Tracy Million Simmons and Julie A. Sellers Playwriting (4 entries) First Place: “The Magic Lamp” by Julie A. Sellers, D1 Second Place: “Community Meeting Chaos” by Cynthia Schaker, D5 Third Place: “The Heavenly Lounge” by Tracy Million Simmons, D2  S.L. Brown and Julie Ann Baker Brin Prose Rural Voices (11 entries)
First Place: “Salt Plant” by Amy D. Kliewer, D5 Second Place: “Buried Treasure” by Julie Ann Baker Brin, D5 Third Place: “Stealing Dinner” by S.L. Brown, D2  Follow your heart to a place of friendship and inspiration on Oct. 4-6 at Rock Springs Ranch. I wanna be defined by the things that I love, not the things I hate. Not the things I’m afraid of. Or the things that haunt me in the middle of the night. I just think that you are what you love.–Taylor Swift Pardon me for quoting from a pop culture icon, but what Taylor says resonates even more than seeing her PDAs with Travis Kelce. We truly are what we love, and if you happen upon this blog on the Kansas Authors Club website, you must love writing. I sure do. And maybe even more than writing, I love my writing friends. I’m so looking forward to the October 4-6 convention at Rock Springs Ranch. I hope you’ve already registered, but if not, it’s not too late. I’m going early, on Thursday, to get in some personal writing time. At last year’s retreat, I was able to make some progress on a memoir I’ve spent the last ten years working on. Maybe I’ll be able to see an end in sight after this year’s event. I’ve only been a KAC member for five years, but in that short time I’ve collected fond memories of previous conventions, district meetings, and programs. I especially enjoyed the convention in Lawrence. I was able to connect with several young writers there who had only been virtual friends previously. They energized me so much. It also energizes and motivates me when I can connect in person with a few writer friends over lunch. That happened last week when I let Google Maps wind me over back roads (avoiding road construction, I assume) to Emporia. I met with Tracy and Lindsey for an executive session at Radius. Over some tasty pizza, we got a lot of business accomplished, along with some visioning for the future of KAC. During our discussion, we concluded that writers are a weird but lovable bunch of folks. Most of us are introverts but when we’re with other writers, we blossom and do extroverted things like tell S’mores- fueled ghost stories on the back patio of the Lodge at Rock Springs Ranch. You’ll have your own chance to do that if you join us for the convention…guaranteed! As state president, I’ll be pretty occupied during the convention, but I’m determined to pick up some motivation and writing tips from the pros we have on the schedule. Be sure to take a look at the fantastic lineup of workshops and professional caliber speakers we have slated for the weekend. I’d like to go to every single session but will have to rely on the replays, which will be available to everyone who buys a convention ticket. And even if you have a conflict with dates for the convention or don’t want to drive that far from the hinterlands of Kansas, don’t forget that we have a virtual option that will let you learn from the comfort of your recliner via a laptop or smartphone. All you have to do is register for a virtual ticket, then watch the livestream of some of the workshops in real time, and links to the recordings of all of the workshops will be delivered to you via email a week or two after the convention. You will be able to watch all of the workshops on your own time. Now here’s a quote from a non-pop icon who wrote this in 49 CE (Common Era, in case you, like me, weren’t familiar with this little abbreviation). His name was Seneca and this appeared in On the Shortness of Life. Nothing delights the mind so much as fond and loyal friendship. What a blessing it is to have a heart that is ready and willing to receive all your secrets in safety, with whom you are less afraid to share knowledge of something than keep it to yourself, whose conversation soothes your distress, whose advice helps you make up your mind, whose cheerfulness dissolves your sorrow, whose very appearance cheers you up! I believe I’ll find the delight Seneca references at the Kansas Authors Club Convention. How about you? Anne Spry, President
Kansas Authors Club  Anne Spry, Kansas Authors Club President (2024) Anne Spry joined the Kansas Authors Club soon after moving from Kansas City to Topeka and immediately found a group of like-minded friends who loved reading and writing. She became president of District 1 and helped coordinate and host the 2021 virtual state convention. She served as head of District 1 through 2023 when she was elected state KAC president.
Anne arrived in Kansas as a so-called retiree, having spent 27 years as a weekly newspaper editor and publisher. Upon selling her newspaper in Hamilton, MO, she started helping authors publish their books after compiling her own memoir in 2014. In 2016, following the death of her second husband, she formed Personal Chapters LLC to promote memoir writing products developed with her business partner. That expanded into a hybrid publishing company that has now published more than two dozen titles and is growing each year. Her own titles include Letters from Home: A Newspaper Column and a Memoir (by Anne Tezon); Tripping Down Main Street: The Fun and Funny of Community Journalism; Rebuilding Your Life After the Death of Your Spouse (with Craig Battrick); Searching for Summer: A Solved but Unresolved Missing Persons Case (with Brandy Shipp Rogge); and Finally Noticing: Poems and Photos Prompted by a Pandemic. Anne and husband Wayne live south of Topeka near Wakarusa on land that has been in her father’s family for many generations. Before 2023 gets too far behind us, we wanted to take a moment to thank the individuals who make our community possible. Starting with those who serve on our Kansas Authors Club State Board of Directors, we are thankfulf for the time and talents that each of you have shared with the Kansas literary scene.  2023 Kansas Authors Club Officers President, Kristine A. Polansky Vice President, Anne Spry Secretary, Ann Vigola Anderson Financial Officer, Chuck Warner (not pictured) Departing from the Board this year:  Kristine A. Polansky Manhattan, Kansas As a writer, Kris Polansky, is best known for her poems, four of which were published in Tallgrass Voices edited by Gary Lechliter. She experiments with various poetic forms, studying how content and form shape each other. She grew up in Western Kansas (short grass country), writing puppet plays and short stories. She took a fiction writing class from James Gunn at the University of Kansas and went on to teach middle school English and social studies ten years before returning to school, the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas, where (she jokes) she learned to write creative nonfiction. She has been named KAC Poet of the Year three times, most recently October 2021. Her poem, “Turning Points” won the 2016 Martin Luther King, Jr. Art and Writing Contest, adult division, Manhattan, Kansas. She has served KAC for four years (2010-13) as Youth Contest Manager, 2021 & 2022 as KAC Financial Secretary, 2023 as State President, multiple years as District 4 Treasurer, and continues as coordinator of Manhattan KAC Writing Group and host of KAC's 2nd Tuesday Open Mic (via Zoom). She also serves as a frequent judge for our annual youth contest. Kristine has a how-to write poetry book as well as a collection of poetry coming out in 2024.  Chuck Warner
Lawrence, Kansas Chuck Warner is a lifelong Kansan. After growing up in Wichita, he has lived in Lawrence since first attending the University of Kansas in the 1960s. With business and law degrees, he embarked on a nearly forty-year career in business and banking. After he retired in 2008, he began writing about his maternal grandfather and in 2019 Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker was published by the University Press of Kansas. In 2020 his book was recognized as a Kansas Notable book, and also won awards for the best Kansas history and best book layout from the Kansas Authors Club, and was a finalist in the High Plains Book Awards. Chuck joined Kansas Authors Club in 2019, and agreed to serve on the State Board as our first Financial Officer under the restructuring changes. Chuck's contributions to our financial picture have been much appreciated as he used his time and talent to help us streamline and bring more efficiency to our practices. October 21, 2023 An estimated 47 members were present via Zoom. Thanks to our 2023 Executive Board Kris Polansky: President Anne Spry: Vice President Chuck Warner: Financial Officer Ann Vigola Anderson: Secretary Thanks to 2023 departing officers who have filled appointed positions: Cheryl Unruh, Welcome Wagon - 3 years Lindsey Bartlett, Prose Contest Manager - 2 years Gretchen Eick, Poetry Contest Manager - 1 year Thanks to 2023 District/City Leaders: Anne Spry - Topeka Maureen Carroll - Lawrence Lindsey Bartlett - Emporia Kris Polansky - Manhattan Mike Durall - Salina Sandee Taylor - Wichita & El Dorado Tammy Gilley - Hutchinson Frank Powers - Colby The following members were recognized: Octogenarians: Sally Jadlow, Sue Wike, Philip Wood 10 year members: Cynthia Chauhaun, Vicki Guillot, Rose Klenke 15 year members: Alice Bertels, Cathy Callen 20 year members: Conrad Jestmore, Robert DeMott 30 year members: Nancy Glenn 40 year member: Betty L. Berney The following Service Awards were presented: Nichole Snyder of District 5 - D5 computer and Zoom tech, served in newly-created position as Technology Manager. Ann Fell, D5, Writers in Community Liaison for District 5. She especially champions authors' involvement with libraries. Ann organized a small group for writers in the Winfield area. Lindsey Bartlett, D2, prose contest manager 2 years, introduced and co-sponsored the Rural Voices category, serves as Co-Chair of District 2 in 2023. Assistant Editor, Writing from the Center Zine. Award for Lifetime Achievement: Betty Berney has been a member of the Kansas Author’s Club since 1983. Among her many honors are winning first prize in the 5th Anniversary National Country Music Songwriter Contest in 1981; the Golden Poet Award presented at the 3rd Annual Poetry Convention at the Las Vegas Hilton in 1987, and the Female Country songwriter of the year by the Lumpkin Music Corporation in 1988. Her 375 plus extensive writings include poetry and songs. 2024 Officers Elected President: Anne Spry (Topeka) Vice President: Lindsey Bartlett (Emporia) Financial Officer: Tyler Henning (Wichita) Secretary: Ann Vigola Anderson (Lawrence) Message from the 2024 President-elect, Anne Spry.  Lindsey Bartlett teaches composition and literature at Emporia State University. An Emporian by choice, she lives in the Flint Hills region of Kansas where she spends her days writing in various coffee shops, holed up at home with a good book, or driving the countryside for good photo opportunities. You can find her wherever there is a sunset. Bartlett has published one poetry collection, Vacant Childhood. Her writing and photography have appeared in The Write Bridge, Flint Hills Review, 105 Meadowlark Reader, and The Wyandotte Window. Boyd Bauman grew up on a small ranch south of Bern, Kansas, with his dad the storyteller and his mom the family scribe. He has published two books of poetry: Cleave and Scheherazade Plays the Chestnut Tree Café. After stints in New York, Colorado, Alaska, Japan, and Vietnam, Boyd now is a librarian and writer in Kansas City, inspired by his three lovely muses. Visit him at boydbauman.weebly.com. Cathy Callen was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Since then, though, she has lived mostly in Kansas. Her father worked for Southwestern Bell, and every time he was promoted, the family got to see more of Kansas. They lived in Sunflower, Manhattan, Hays, Salina, Topeka, and Wichita. Her career as a teacher and special education coordinator with Topeka Public Schools kept her in the state for more than thirty years. After retiring, she moved to Lawrence with her soon-to-be husband, Barry, and it is her current favorite Kansas location. She likes the Lawrence Busker Festival, the Art Tougeau parade, the library, The Raven Bookstore, the political environment, the summer pooch swim, Liberty Hall, Wheatfield’s Bakery, and walking on the KU campus and in her friendly neighborhood. Annabelle Corrick was born and raised in Topeka, lived in five other Kansas towns and three other states, returned to Topeka the last decade, and currently resides in Columbia, Missouri. She earned advanced degrees from Emporia State University and Kansas State University and was the Kansas Authors Club 2015 Prose Writer of the Year. Her writings have appeared in The Poet’s Art, 2016 Kansas Voices Writing Contest, Well Versed, and other publications. Her most awesome Kansas experience has been standing against the wind and viewing the vast vista of western Kansas where her paternal grandparents pioneered. Michael Durall grew up in the thriving metropolis of Pawnee Rock, Kansas, population 250. He was the champion sentence diagrammer in his sixth grade English class, which eventually led to his writing nine books about his work as a consultant to nonprofit organizations. He lives in Salina and writes a weekly column for the Salina 311 newspaper and has recently published a book of essays from local residents for the Salina Arts and Humanities Commission on the theme of The Day That Changed My Life Forever. Mark O. J. Esping first lived in a Swede-Town in Pottawatomie County. He graduated from Bethany, a Swedish-Lutheran College. He reprinted NEQUA, a feminist sci-fi novel first published in Topeka, Kansas, in 1900. Mark directed www.folklifeinstitute.com, a nonprofit, and two N.E.A. Folk Art grants. His work has appeared in The Clarion Folk Art, Country Living, Scandinavian Review, Victorian Homes, and Hemslöjden. He is an Eagle Scout and a veteran. He and his wife share a home in Merriam, Kansas, with three near-feral cats. Twin deer occasionally graze in their backyard. Mark tells stories, true stories, with a humorous nature and a hint of morality. In collection they are packets of maps that are Near Invisible, Like Footprints in Ever Shifting Sand. Beth Gulley first moved to Newton, Kansas, when she was two. Her family moved to Latin America, but Beth returned to the Olathe area for college where she met her husband. They moved to Paola, Kansas, to raise their family. Beth has advanced degrees from UMKC and the University of Kansas. She teaches writing at Johnson County Community College. Her recent writing is included in Kansas City Voices, Dragonfly Magazine, Kansas Speaks Out, and The Write Bridge. She has published three full-length poetry collections: The Sticky Note Alphabet, Dragon Eggs, and The Love of Ornamental Fish. She currently resides in Spring Hill, Kansas, which gives her easy access to Hillsdale Lake where she enjoys trail running and fishing. Carolyn Hall is an award-winning author who grew up on a farm outside Olmitz, Kansas. Her childhood on the farm provided wonderful memories which she shared in her book, Prairie Meals and Memories: Living the Golden Rural. It was named to the Kansas Sesquicentennial’s Best 150 Books list. Her stories and poems have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Christian Science Monitor, The Kansas City Star, and various anthologies. She lives in Lenexa, Kansas. Jerilynn Jones Henrikson, a retired English teacher, has always loved teaching, telling, reading, watching, and writing stories. To date, Jerilynn has published nine children’s picture books, an adult memoir, and a young adult historical fiction novel. Her work reflects her sense of humor, love of words, and talent for detail. Jerilynn finds her inspiration in the rolling hills of east central Kansas. No matter the subject of a current work, she is motivated by the people, history, and changing seasons of this place. As a student of history and language, she enjoys traveling to beautiful places. But ultimately, she finds the greatest joy in travel is coming home. www.prairiepatchwork.com Thomas N. Holmquist is a fifth-generation farmer and rancher near Smolan, Kansas. He also is a retired teacher in the Smoky Valley School District having taught music, American History, and agriculture for forty-four years. He has also published three books, including Pioneer Cross, Swedish Settlements Along the Smoky Hill Bluffs, Bluestem, a novel, and Salemsborg, A History of the Salemsborg Church and Community, Volume 1, 1869-1939, for which he won the Award of Commendation for Lutheran Church History from the Augustana Historical Association. Tom has several writing projects in the works in between feeding cows, putting up hay, and planting and harvesting crops. Deb Irsik was the owner of Makin’ Waves Salon in Emporia, Kansas, and retired from the beauty industry after twenty-five years. She is a Kansas girl and shares her life with her husband Mike, and children John and Emily. Deb is a member of the Kansas Authors Club and Emporia Writers Group. Deb’s favorite thing about Kansas is the people. “Most people in Kansas have a strong work ethic and family values. The beautiful Flint Hills and Kansas sunsets are second to none. What’s not to like?” Poetry and lyrics have always been part of her life, but she felt a call to write middle-grade Christian fiction after her daughter found it difficult to be “that God girl” in eighth grade. “It is my hope that my books will encourage young people to hold onto values and faith as they navigate their teen years.” Deb’s “Heroes by Design” series was completed in 2020, and she hopes to dedicate her time to creating a book of poetry and continuing to write essays, prose, and fiction. Deb can be found online: facebook.com/D.A.Irsikauthor, Twitter:@Writerwannabe1, www.dairsik.com, amazon.com/author/dairsik, https://instagram.com/debirsik/ Miriam Iwashige lives on a three-acre property outside of Partridge, Kansas, near where her preacher-farmer dad and mom raised twelve children. She aims to live large from this small place, just as the land and sky around the property suggest. Reading, earning a bachelor’s degree, teaching, conversing, and traveling have often fostered large living, as did homeschooling her children and investing deeply in many aspects of homemaking, gardening, animal husbandry, nature study, and church and community life. She and her Japanese-immigrant husband parented three sons who all live nearby right now. Those who have joined their sons’ families through marriage or birth (nine grandchildren!) spent childhood years in such diverse places as Bangladesh, Kenya, El Salvador, and Washington state. Sally Jadlow grew up in Ft. Scott, Kansas. After marriage, she and her husband moved to Overland Park. Teaching creative writing for the Kansas City Writers Group is one of her joys. She writes historical fiction, inspirational stories, devotionals, and poetry. Sally has published thirteen books. Her work has appeared in many compilations including Chicken Soup for the Soul and many other publications. Her books are available on Amazon.com. Sally also loves to bake, cinnamon rolls, her specialty. Family Favorites from the Heartland contain her favorite recipes. The eastern Kansas countryside with its gently rolling hills claims Sally’s most favorite area of the state. She believes what Dorothy says, “There’s no place like home,” is true—if you live in Kansas. Amy Deckert Kliewer has lived her entire life in Kansas. She grew up in Pawnee Rock, Kansas, and went to high school in Larned. After attending Bethel College and graduating from the University of Kansas, Amy lived and worked in the Kansas City metro area as a civil engineer. Recently retired, Amy and her husband moved to North Newton to enjoy the smalltown feeling and be close to family. She is enjoying exploring her Next Chapter. Nancy Julien Kopp grew up in the Chicago area and moved to Kansas, her adopted state and home, in 1975. She started writing in her mid-fifties, realizing a long-held dream. She has been published in many anthologies, including twenty-three times in Chicken Soup for the Soul books, in addition to publication on websites, in magazines, and in newspapers. She writes creative nonfiction, including personal essays and short memoir pieces, and also poetry, short fiction for children, and articles on the craft of writing. Nancy and her retired husband live in Manhattan, Kansas, and are strong supporters of all things K-State. She is mother to two and grandmother to four. She is a voracious reader and enjoys playing bridge. www.writergrannysworld.blogspot.com Marilyn Hope Lake, PhD, writes short fiction, poetry, plays and children’s picture books. She has many awards for writing, including through the Kansas Authors Club contests. Dr. Lake’s first-place story, “Harry’s Stone,” was published in Words Out of the Flatlands; Kansas Writers Association. Lake has been published in Rock Springs Review, STIR, Well-Versed: Literary Works, the Gasconade Review, and the Mizzou Alumni Magazine. Marilyn lived in Hutchinson, Kansas, from 2002-2017, is a Kansas Authors Club ten-year member, and was a facilitator of the 2014 Annual Conference. Her Kansas favorites are the Wichita Art Museum, State Fair, Underground Salt Mine, Delos V. Smith Senior Center, Hutchinson, and others. Although she misses her Kansas friends, she is happy to live with her dog, Hugo, and near family in Columbia, Missouri. A Kansan through and through, Sandee Lee celebrates being published in every edition of 105 Meadowlark Reader. Her favorite writing topic for nonfiction and fiction is Kansas. The turmoil of the mid-1800s in the Lawrence area is the topic of her current fiction project. Relaxing on her porch with her two border collies lying by her feet and watching cattle graze on the hillside is where you’ll find Sandee most evenings except in the winter months. From that porch she can observe the homestead where her family has lived since 1925. Errin D. Moore, an emigrant from Montana, has called Kansas home for eight years. She lives in the Flint Hills near Leon with her husband, infant son, and eighteen-year-old stepson—along with their menagerie of chickens, turkeys, geese, pigs, and an overabundance of cats. She fell in love with the unique beauty Kansas offers, most especially the magnificent sunsets. Errin and her husband own Able and Ready Appliance Repair. She runs the office from home while raising Oliver. She was a teacher and administrator for nineteen years, and she owned and operated a bookstore in El Dorado. Her humorous, touching, and unique sense of voice is especially effective when she writes about the joys and challenges of being a first-time mother at the age of forty-four. Audrey Phillips is a Kansan through and through. She grew up in Overland Park, attended the University of Kansas, and is now living in Kansas City, Missouri. Audrey loves to represent her favorite parts of being a Kansan by cheering on her Jayhawks or Chiefs or Sporting Kansas City. Audrey loves Kansas because of the way everyone feels like family here. She is a proud midwesterner and strives to promote the kindness that midwesterners possess. She has always loved to write, even from a young age. She was and continues to be inspired by her famous Aunt Mary-Lane Kamberg who has published many books in her time as an author. Even though now she lives right across the state line, Kansas will always be her home. Cynthia Schaker (Cindy), a retired Kansas educator of thirty-seven years, grew up on a farm outside of Hamilton, Kansas, in Greenwood County. Cindy taught grades six through eight at Towanda Grade School and served as school counselor at Circle Middle School in Butler County. One of her favorite places in Kansas is the Flint Hills because they remind her of going home. She currently resides in El Dorado, Kansas, with her rescue dog Moxie. Cindy does volunteer work in the Gift Shop at Susan B. Allen Memorial Hospital in El Dorado. She serves as President of the SBAMH Auxiliary. She loves humorous writing and penning stories from her childhood. She recently had her humorous murder mystery play performed at Cardinal Creek Farm in Butler County. Julie A. Sellers was raised in the Flint Hills near the small town of Florence, Kansas. She currently resides in Atchison, Kansas, where she is an Associate Professor (Spanish) and Chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Benedictine College. Julie’s creative work has appeared in publications such as Cagibi, Wanderlust, Unlost, The Write Launch, and Kansas Time + Place. Julie was the 2020 Kansas Authors Club Prose Writer of the Year, and the Overall Poetry Winner (2022) and Overall Prose Winner (2017, 2019) of the Kansas Voices Contest. She is the author of Kindred Verse: Poems Inspired by Anne of Green Gables (Blue Cedar Press, 2021) and the novel, Ann of Sunflower Lane (Meadowlark, 2022). Perry Shepard is a Vietnam veteran who has written two novels: The Hero versus Me and Monkey Jo, and Hard Love. He co-wrote two plays in the anthology titled Annabelle. He won a second-place award in Eber and Wein’s Best American Poetry of 2013, and an honorable mention in Writer’s Digest 84th annual Poetry Competition. Perry is a member and former District 2 president of Kansas Authors Club. He makes his home in Eudora, Kansas. A month after the sudden death of her second husband, Anne L. Spry had a mystical dream that detailed a new business based on capturing personal history for writing memoir. She had already begun publishing books through Createspace for herself and others following a twenty-seven-year career as a newspaper publisher and editor. Since the fortuitous dream, Spry and partner Cheri Battrick have developed a DIY Memoir Kit and Spry has expanded her book publishing to some two dozen titles under the Personal Chapters LLC banner. They include children’s books, memoir and fiction, and a few titles authored by Spry. Anne serves as President of District 1 of Kansas Authors Club and produces a newsletter for that group and another for a local Sweet Adelines group. She is married to a retired military pilot, and they live on a family acreage south of Topeka where Anne spent her first five years. Chuck Warner is a lifelong Kansan. After growing up in Wichita, he has lived in Lawrence since first attending the University of Kansas in the 1960s. With business and law degrees, he embarked on a nearly forty-year career in business and banking. After he retired in 2008, he began writing about his maternal grandfather and in 2019 Birds, Bones, and Beetles: The Improbable Career and Remarkable Legacy of University of Kansas Naturalist Charles D. Bunker was published by the University Press of Kansas. In 2020 his book was recognized as a Kansas Notable book, and also won awards for the best Kansas history and best book layout from the Kansas Authors Club, and was a finalist in the High Plains Book Awards. Barbara Waterman-Peters is an artist by training and a writer by chance. Both pursuits have come together over the years in her articles about art and artists for such publications as Topeka, Kansas, and New Art Examiner magazines, in her book cover paintings for authors such as Marcia Cebulska’s Watching Men Dance, and in her collaborations with poets, most recently, Two Ponders: A Collaboration with Dennis Etzel, Jr. Co-owner of Pen & Brush Press with author Glendyn Buckley, Waterman-Peters illustrated their first two children’s books, The Fish’s Wishes and Bird which won awards from Kansas Authors Club. She co-wrote and illustrated their third book, TING & the Caterbury Tales, which came out this spring. Recently her fiction piece, “The Critique,” appeared in The Pen Woman and her creative non-fiction and poetry have been included in several anthologies. She lives in Topeka and her studio is in the NOTO Arts & Entertainment District. She spent five years living in rural Jackson County and Holton. Cat Webling is an actress and author based in Kansas. She loves everything mad and macabre, philosophical and silly, so that’s exactly what she writes! Scifi, fantasy, and poetry are her mainstays when she’s not writing about literature, theater, gaming, or fan culture. She currently has a novel, a couple of short story collections, and several poetry collections under her belt. She works as an editor for SUPERJUMP Magazine, is an active member of the Kansas Authors Club, and daylights as a copywriter for hire. Cat writes from her home in Russell, which she shares with her loving partner, adorable son, and several very cute cats. You can find her work at www.catwebling.com.  Theme for Issue #5 (Nov 1 - Dec 31, 2022 Submission Period):
Animal Stories
 Barbara Waterman-Peters, Anne Spry and Thea Rademacher will combine their experience and tips for creating successful book launches at the May 21 meeting of District 1 of Kansas Authors Club. The Topeka publishers operate Pen & Brush Press LLC, Personal Chapters LLC and Flint Hills Publishing.
While admitting that information on book launches could fill up at least a one-day conference, the three women hope to give an overview of things that worked well on their personal or client launches. Thea will discuss how to invite the world to your book launch on Zoom and she will introduce CraveBooks.com, a new website that will help authors connect with readers and find and organize marketing campaigns. Barbara will discuss the nuts and bolts of launch planning, including picking a venue that is appropriate for your target demographic. Spry will focus on ways to partner with local organizations and venues, doing effective news releases, soliciting TV and radio interviews (also podcasts) and even compiling simple movie trailers. The meeting will begin at 12:30 p.m. at the Shawnee County Public Library, in the Langston Hughes Room, and will also be held on Zoom. This is a half-hour earlier than the group’s normal start time. To join the zoom meeting, send an email request to Anne Spry.  105 Issue #3 Cover Photo by Scott Branine, flickr.com/photos/scott_branine/ Congratulations to Kansas Authors Club members with essays in the “True Bicycle Stories” issue (#3) of 105 Meadowlark Reader. (D2) Bicycles: A Love Story by Boyd Bauman (D5) Where I Like by Julie Ann Baker Brin (D1) BlueBoy by Annabelle Corrick (D2) A Green Bike by Monica Graves (D2) The Bucket List by Beth Gulley (D2) Going to C’ago by Carolyn Hall (D2) Whoa by Jerilynn Henrikson, (D2) Blue English Racer by Deb Irsik (D2) My First, Last, and Only Bike by Sally Jadlow (D5) What I Learned from Riding the Bicycle by Amy Deckert Kliewer (D5) Bicycles in Kansas Yards by Sandee Lee (D2) Dust on My Shoulders by Kerry Moyer (D2) A Rolling Start by Peg Nichols (D6) I Didn’t Have a Bicycle but I had a Paper Route by Jim Potter (D5) Country Biking in Kansas by Cynthia C. Schaker (D1) They Traded My Horse for a Bicycle by Anne Spry (D1) The Race by Barbara Waterman-Peters (D2) Bicycles: Bane or Boon by Brenda White (D2) On Shaky Wheels by Mary Kate Wilcox (D7) Bike Ride by Sheree Wingo The Bicycle Issue will be delivered to Partner Bookstores and Subscribers beginning in May. The submission period for the Fall 2022 issue is May 1-June 30. The theme is (True) Food Stories. Learn more at 105MeadowlarkReader.com  About 105 Meadowlark Reader
Our Mission To create a forum for sharing the work of Kansas writers. To build and uplift the community of Kansas writers. To share and promote resources for Kansas writers. 105 Meadowlark Reader will strive to represent the diversity of writers in Kansas. 105 Meadowlark Reader is a journal of creative nonfiction by and for writers who live or have lived in Kansas. Each issue will contain a directory of area resources for writers. Publishers, printers, editors, book designers, cover/interior artists, bookstores, writing clubs, and anyone who provides services to writers is invited to submit details for our directory at no charge.  Each year, members are asked to nominate those who deserve special recognition for service to the club, for work on a special accomplishment, or for achievement in writing. Letter of Nomination:
It was a painful decision for each member of the 2021 Convention Planning Committee to pull the plug on their plans to host a live convention in Topeka. For more than a year, I sat in on many of their planning sessions. I was impressed by the energy and attention to detail as they planned their marketing strategy and put together what I think you will agree is an impressive lineup of speakers and workshop presenters. Multiple times, some members of the committee met with the director of events at Ramada Inn, or simply wandered through on their own, to examine the facilities and make sure they understood what would happen where. Because this is a virtual convention, you can never have a full appreciation of how much work went into planning those aspects of the convention that had to be scrapped. For a year, they planned for a live convention under the cloud of uncertainty created by COVID, knowing that much of their planning might be of no avail. Then, in early spring, as numbers of cases and deaths dramatically dropped and the pandemic appeared to be running its course, they voted to forge ahead full speed with their plans for a live convention. The emotional roller coaster they then endured as the Delta variant heated things up again made it all the more difficult for them to cancel the live portion of the convention. But it was clear as they discussed their decision, that what they dreaded most was the thought of feeling personally responsible for some of you becoming sick or even dying as a result of infection at the convention. Because this is a virtual event, you can never have a full appreciation of how much work went into planning those aspects that had to be scrapped. I could sense their disappointment as each one raised his or her hand to vote to torpedo much of their own plans. Through their determination to bring you and me a high-quality convention, these individuals serve as role models for us all. We can learn from them how to pivot and persevere when confronted with circumstances we cannot control. I hope you will give them a thumbs up as we call out their names. Members of the committee are: District 1: Fred Appelhanz Audrey Bosley Max Dunavan Reaona Hemmingway Ruth Maus Anne Spry Janet Jenkins Stotts Barbara Waterman Peters Carol Yoho District 5: Connie Rae White Nominated by: Duane Johnson Kansas Authors Club is run by an all-volunteer board. Officers from across the state devote time monthly to everything from district programming to our annual writing contests and convention. Visit with your district representative about how you can contribute  Anne Spry got her first writing accolades in a fifth grade What I Did Last Summer assignment and continued yucking it up as a humorist in her own Missouri newspaper for 27 years. She sold the newspaper in 2011, supposedly retiring, but fooled everyone (even herself) by launching a new writing and book publishing career. By then she had pushed southward into Jesse James territory and landed book clients with famous relatives like Satchel Paige, or the author who crossed the state line to write historic stuff about Jayhawkers and John Brown. Then she really became a traitor to her Mizzou Tiger journalism roots by landing in Topeka (her birthplace) a few years ago. Now she pretends to be all purple, or all blue and red, depending on which of her many diehard sports fan relatives supports KU or K-State and is within earshot.
The best thing she did since moving back to her birthplace and settling along the Wakarusa River was to join the Kansas Authors Club. She is still scratching her head over how a Bushwhacker could become president of District 1 a few months after enlisting. Spry is a memoirist who has helped several writers publish personal histories. She has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from MU and a master’s in communication arts from Memphis State University. She has two works in progress: Bless Me Auntie: Finding Purpose as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil and Journaling Through Difficult Times to Find Healing and Transformation. Her author website is under construction but its working title is “Late Blooming Onion.” Her first memoir was a collection of newspaper columns called Letters from Home. She has co-authored other books, including a true-crime memoir, Searching for Summer: A Solved but Unresolved Missing Persons Case that launched in 2019. Anne serves as President of District 1 in 2021, and is leading the Convention Committee as District 1 is host for the annual convention this year.  Longtime District 1 member Carol Yoho will be presenting a program to members during the regular zoom meeting on Saturday, March 20 at 1 p.m. The focus of her presentation will be graphic design for book covers and interiors.
Carol has focused her career on graphic arts after earning a BFA degree from Washburn University and a MS degree in Media Technology at University of Wisconsin-Stout. She worked 6 years for Josten’s Yearbook Co. in Topeka, 13 years for the Media Development Center at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 6 years for the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, KS, then returned, in 1996, to Topeka where she became an Adjunct Professor at Washburn University, teaching computer graphic design and web site development. She retired in 2015. All members are welcome to attend this event via Zoom. Please email D1 President, Anne Spry, for an event link. Contact Anne |
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