Current News from the Kansas Authors Club

2025 Prose Contest Results

10/12/2025

Thanks to Jaimie Kirby for serving as our 2025 Prose Contest Manager!

Prose Theme: Mark Landon Jarvis & Janice Northerns

Category: Theme Prose
More Than a Manuscript: Words Take Root

First Place: ”The Garden Of Rejected Tales” by Julie A. Sellers, Atchison

Second Place: “Silent Reverie” by Mark Landon Jarvis, El Dorado

Third Place: “Uprooted—How I Became an Accidental Kansan” by Janice Northerns, Wichita

Honorable Mentions:
"From Tools to Roots” by Mason Taylor-Taite, Manhattan
”Roots” Julie A. Sellers, Atchison

Stories for Young Readers: Jerilynn Jones Henrikson

Category: Stories Written for Young Readers

First Place: ”Pedro the Cat of Bee Mountain” by Jerilynn Jones Henrikson, Emporia

Second Place: “Tiny Mighty Eveliney” by Jerilynn Jones Henrikson, Emporia

Third Place: “The Story of Alex the Cat” by Mason Taylor-Taite, Manhattan

Honorable Mentions:
“The Case of the Missing Ears” by Julie A. Sellers, Atchison
“Get Outta My Womb by Jerilynn Jones Henrikson, Emporia

Prose Memoir/Inspirational: Mark Landon Jarvis, Sandra Lou Taylor, & S.L. Brown

Category: Memoir/Inspirational

First Place: “Anomalies” by Mark Landon Jarvis, El Dorado

Second Place: “The One We Usually Find When He’s Dead” by Sandra Lou Taylor

Third Place: “You’re Enough” by S.L. Brown

Honorable Mentions:
“The Yellow Gingham Sundress” by Aimee L. Gross, Topeka
“My Dad, Not a Father” by Marilynn Hope Lake, Columbia MO

Humor: Linda Cook & Jerilynn Jones Henrikson

Cateogory: Humor

First Place: “By the Numbers” by Julie A. Sellers, Atchison

Second Place: “Start of the Week Goes Down the Toilet at Local College” by Julie A. Sellers, Atchison

Third Place: “Shit Happens” by Jerilynn Jones Henrikson, Emporia

Honorable Mention: “Wilde Ride to the Delivery Room” by Mason Taylor-Taite, Manhattan

Honorable Mention: “Rebound Date” by Linda Cook, Manhattan

Flash Fiction: Marion J. Bollig, Cheryl Unruh, Jerilynn Jones Henrikson

Category: Flash Fiction

First Place: ”Doctor VanFleet” by Marion J. Bollig, Baldwin

Second Place: “WAGONS,HO!” by Cheryl Unruh, Emporia

Third Place: “You Do What You Can” by Martha Wherry, Wichita

Honorable Mentions:
“Fight Like A Girl” by Katherine St. John, Shawnee
“A Prairie Puzzlement” by Jerilynn Jones Henrikson, Emporia

Category: First Chapter of a Book

First Place: ”Ravens of the Never Wood” by Aimee L. Gross, Topeka

Second Place: “Legacy and Lies” by Deborah Linn McNemee, El Dorado

Third Place: “Muscular Love” by Gretchen Cassel Eick, Wichita

Honorable Mentions:
“Disaster at Dawn” by Mary-Lane Kamberg, Olate
”A Senator is Missing” by Peg Nichols, Olathe
“The Cane” by Roger Keith Droz, Topeka

Category: Playwriting

First Place: A Shampoo and a Set by Julie A. Sellers, Atchison

Rural Voices: Sandra Lou Taylor & Lindsey Bartlett

Category: Rural Voices

First Place: “Spikes of Light” by Hildebrand Wesley,

Second Place: “Don’t Do That Again” by Sandra Lou Taylor, Towanda

Third Place: “Lost in the Wilderness” by Mason Taylor-Taite, Manhattan

Honorable Mentions:
“Snake Acres” by Janice Lee McClure, Sublette
“Rural Girl Goes to University” by Lindsey Bartlett, Emporia

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#ReadLocalKS : Coal City Review, 46:2025

7/10/2025

Member Peg Nichols tells us to check out the latest issue of Coal City Review. Kansas Authors Club members published in this issue include Boyd Bauman, Perry Shepard, Peg Nichols, and Brian Daldorph. The issue also includes a review of The Set Up: 1984: Britain's Biggest Drug Bust, by Gretchen Cassel Eick

Coal City Review $10.00

Welcomes submisisons of poetry and short fiction.

Send poetry and fiction to:
Brian Daldorph, Poetry Editor
University of Kansas
English Department
Lawrence, KS 66045

Please include SASE for reply.

Register Today! Author Publishing Bootcamp by the Kansas Authors Club

6/21/2025

Presented by the Kansas Authors Club, the Author Publishing Bootcamp is bound to provide some fruitful publishing information for every type of author. Whether you’re someone who has struggled to ink a deal with a small press or one of the Big 5, or if you’ve mustered enough courage and determination to try your hand at publishing your own book, this boot camp is for you.

Attendees are invited to attend four zoom sessions which will start with topics pre-recorded by our presenters and end with Q&A time with the presenters. All ticket holders will have access to the pre-recorded workshops and recordings of the Q&A portions of the sessions. Presentations will cover a wide-range of author publishing topics including all of the ins and outs related to preparing a manuscript publication, a breakdown of the design and print processes, marketing and branding post-publication, and much more.

Those presenting are considered experts in their respective fields as it relates to the world of publishing in today’s economic and technologically advanced climate. Even better, all panelists are Kansas Authors Club members you can trust and feel free to reach out to for more information.

Learn More and Register to Attend

Member Reading at Watermark on June 12: RESISTANCE by Gretchen Cassel Eick

6/2/2025

Gretchen Cassel Eick will be reading from her new novel, Resistance, on June 12, from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. at Watermark Books, Wichita, Kansas.

World traveler Gretchen Cassel Eick moved to Kansas, earned a PhD, and became professor of history after a decade working on foreign and military policy in Washington, DC. She wrote two prize-winning nonfiction books: Dissent in Wichita: The Civil Rights Movement in the Midwest, 1954–1972 (University of Illinois, 2001/2007/2023—which won three awards, is referenced on the wall of the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American History and Culture, and resulted in a PBS documentary and public park— and They Met at Wounded Knee: The Eastmans’ Story (University of Nevada Press, 2020).

After retiring from full-time teaching in 2013, she wrote six published novels —political/historical fiction, thrillers, and a family saga: The Set Up, 1984, Finding Duncan, Maybe Crossings, Dark Crossings, and Where is Ana Amara?, and Resistance!

Eick was awarded three Fulbright fellowships to travel and teach overseas and teaches at Wichita State University in its Life-Long Learning Program.

Poet and writer Janice Northerns will interview Gretchen on June 12 at 6:00-7:00 p.m. at Watermark Books, focusing on her new novel, RESISTANCE!

#ReadLocalKS: They Met at Wounded Knee by Gretchen Eick

2/3/2025

Between Meadowlark Press and my work with Kansas Authors Club, I read a lot of work by Kansans and spend surprisingly little time reviewing books. There are only so many hats one can wear. I wanted to take a moment to mention They Met at Wounded Knee by Gretchen Eick. This was the Coffin Memorial Book Award winner in 2021 by KAC. It is an amazing book. It certainly fills in the oh-too-many gaps from history classes. It's a book that informs and enrages. A healthy dose of rage is needed, I think, to make us better pay attention and make the much-needed connections between past and present. As well, it is an incredible dual biography, bringing a perspective on native and Euro Americans that I had not experienced before. Eick's ability to explain the setting and time (historically, culturally) while illustrating the details of the Eastman's lives is commendable. Her writing helped me fit so many pieces together. I recommend this book.

--Tracy Million Simmons (Emporia)
This is a "reprint" from a FB post Tracy made in 2021

What are you reading? Help us lift and share the good news about Kansas literature. Tag your book loves and reviews on social media with #ReadLocalKS and submit here to be posted on the Kansas Authors Club website.

2024 Service Award: Sandra Lou Taylor

11/10/2024

At the Annual Meeting of the General Membership, held via Zoom on October 19, 2024, a Service Award was presented to Sandra Lou Taylor.

Awards are presented to members for achievement in writing (A), service to the club (S), and special award for particular accomplishment (SP).

Nomination #1:
I nominate Sandee Taylor, District 5, for a Service to KAC Award. The reasons I feel she is worthy of this award are:
Sandee has given 300% to KAC and D5 since 2019, when D5 hosted the convention in Wichita.

During the COVID challenge, she worked hard to keep connections between D5 members alive, assisting with computer access to zoom meetings.

For two years she has served as D5 president, initiating new activities like small D5 retreats, and contacting and encouraging people into active roles in the group with gentle encouragement.

She started and hosts at least two critique groups every month.

She has represented D5 and the state Kansas Authors Club by hosting tables at writing events to promote our organization to others. She manned a table at the 2023 Wichita Local Authors event at the Wichita Public Library and at the first ever Local Authors Day at the Winfield Public Library.

Sandee is always ready to encourage other writers, and to promote KAC, and I think she deserves a service award.

Nominated by Ann Fell

Nomination #2
Sandee Taylor has led D5 with energy, ideas, people skills, and innovation. She restored this district post-Covid with recruiting new leaders to the executive committee, bringing younger people into leadership, organizing district writing retreats, generating and facilitating writers critique groups, and keeping the former leaders involved in new capacities while shifting them to playing new roles. This was gracefully handled and resulted in freeing up the top leadership positions for “new blood” while not alienating the old leaders who had been in place far longer than the by-laws called for. She found new roles for the former leaders and remained positive and helpful during what could have been a conflictual change. Sandee is utterly committed to KAC’s growth and to servicing members. Without her as president we would have faded to a group of cronies only. With her D5 is vibrant and growing and several writers groups are nurturing the writing skills of members in exciting, collaborative ways.

Nominated by Gretchen Eick

"Since 2019, I have explored more and more leadership roles in D5 and KAC. Yesterday, I was honored for my service to KAC. I want to thank my writing friends for being a part of my life and encouraging my writing journey. The authors in KAC bless me each month and at the annual conventions/retreats. Together, I look forward to what we as KAC members will be able to accomplish in 2025." ~ Sandee Taylor 10/20/2024

#ReadLocalKS - The Set Up: 1984

11/8/2024

The Set Up: 1984: Britain’s Biggest Drug Bust,
Gretchen Eick, Blue Cedar Press, 2020.

Brian Daldorph review

It’s hard to fault the ambition of Eick’s novel, telling this story of “Britain’s Biggest Drug Bust” that brings into play not only the dangerous maze of Middle Eastern politics, but also the foreign policies of the U.S., U.K. and Israel, involving the CIA, the British secret service (MI5), arms dealers, the list goes on and on. Eick deftly weaves all these threads together.

The basic plot, taken from actual events occurring in the mid-1980s, focuses on the crew of the yacht The Robert Gordon, sailing on a precarious mission off the coast of Lebanon to pick up a huge load of cannabis resin likely grown in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, and ferrying it back through the Mediterranean to the UK where it was delivered to drug runners. Turned out it was all a set-up: police and Customs officers were ready to spring their trap.

Eick focuses on the five-member crew of the yacht, led by Keith Brown, the owner of a car-hire business, keen to make a bunch of money by bringing drugs into the UK. He assembles a crew of naifs and sails off to make the pick-up. At every point in the novel, you get the sense that this crew is way out of its depth in these waters, never more so than when they make the pick up off the coast of Lebanon from a group of black-masked, armed men, who just might be a Palestinian faction operating in Lebanon. They don’t really know. From the title of the book, and from plenty of suggestions throughout, we soon get the sense that the crew have been set up by the powers-that-be, pawns in a game that they have small chance of understanding.

The book’s a treasury of inside information about the tangled politics of the time, in particular, the CIA plot, led by William Casey, director of the CIA in the Reagan Administration, to illicitly fund the Nicaraguan Contras fighting a bloody civil war against the left-wing Sandanista government. Eick’s research is impressive (sources listed in the back of the novel) as is her confidence in keeping track of all the tentacles of the beast. The historical context of the novel gives everything a kind of gravity and depth that adds to the import of each scene.

Though Eick’s very good at painting the big picture, she’s best at showing us the plight of the smaller players in this global drama, the crew of the Robert Gordon yacht carrying tons of cannabis into the UK. They don’t understand the politics of it all: they’re all in it for a bit of adventure and a chance to make quick money. Two of the five crew don’t even know about the cargo, yet they still have to face imprisonment, trial and their lives irreparably damaged even after release.

The novel ends with (Eick assures us) an actual exchange between crew member David Bennie and arms dealer and billionaire Adnan Khashoggi (who just might be the mastermind behind all the events here), when Bennie is trying to get his life back together after the trial. Bennie has been working on a yacht in Monaco but has faced police harassment because of his connection with the Robert Gordon case. He realizes that he won’t be able to work on yachts anymore, because of police harassment.

Khashoggi’s limo approaches him on the dock and the man himself speaks to Bennie, sympathizing with him for his trouble. David’s response emphasizes the way that he was just one of the little fish caught in the net of the whole affair: “My mates were just ordinary dudes, not enough smarts altogether to organize a major drug heist.” Khashoggi tells him that he won’t be having any problems in the future, and you get the sense that with all the cards that Khashoggi holds as an international arms dealer, he’ll be good for his word.

Eick’s so good at holding together the central narrative of this story while locations change quickly and characters come and go. We’re taken on a wild ride through the Mediterranean, to Brixton prison, to Cyprus, to Rhodes, to a ranch in Costa Rica used as a staging ground for shipping arms to Nicaragua.

I always got the sense that I was in good hands, that the novelist would bring us, a little breathless, to that last scene in Monaco with Khashoggi saying so much without saying much at all.

Purchase @ Blue Cedar Press

2024 Kansas Authors Club Literary Contest: Prose Results

10/7/2024

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

#ReadLocalKS : One Match Fire & Parent Imperfect, by Paul Lamb

9/6/2024

Member Gretchen Eick (Wichita) shares a current Kansas read by Paul Lamb (Overland Park).

Paul Lamb (Lamble) is a Kansas author from Overland Park with two wonderful novels that are part of a series. ONE-MATCH FIRE is about a young working class family raising a son amidst from the wife's better off parents. It is about a father's love that begins with setting aside his dreams to marry the girl he loves and raisetheir surprise baby despite constant struggle. A cabin in the Ozarks built by his father is his lodestone and the place he was taught to be a person of integrity and a good man.

Their son is different from his father and critical of him as he charts his own path and becomes a doctor. David Clarke's and his wife navigate learning that their son and the cabin is their haven as they learn about each other as adults. A beautiful, moving story.

Book 2 PARENT IMPERFECT is the story of son Curt and his partner Kelly and the child they eventually adopt. It continues the saga of family connection despite differences and readers are intrigued to see how Curt comes to appreciate both his child and his father. The story is moving and readers will care deeply about this family and whether it will survive. The child Curt and Kelly adopt is "on the spectrum" and unusual but very creative. Type A Curt has a lot of growing to do. Lamb's ending is gripping and powerful.

Both novels are available at bluecedarpress.com or from your favorite book supplier. (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Kobo, WalMart online) both paperback and ebook format. Remember that authors benefit more when you buy from indie presses directly. $20 each

--Gretchen Cassel Eick, author of Finding Duncan,
The Set Up: 1984, They Met at Wounded Knee,
Dissent in Wichita, Where is Ana Amara?,
Maybe Crossings, & Dark Crossings

April 27 Invitation from Anamcara Press - Lawrence, Kansas

4/22/2024

With much appreciation to our authors, artists, and readers we invite you to celebrate the publication of
THE WRITE BRIDGE JOURNAL: 2024 edition. Enjoy refreshments, great speakers
& A GOOD TIME!

SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 20243:30 - 6:30 PM
WATKINS MUSEUM, LAWRENCE, KANSAS

Find Out More
SELECT ARTICLES, POEMS, SHORT STORIES, PLAYS AND ARTWORK FROM AUTHORS AND ARTISTS WITH POWERFUL VOICES

The Write Bridge presents two opposing ideas for creators and readers to delve into—seriously or in fun—in order stretch our imaginations, to move beyond boundaries, to bridge the gap.
RNAL TOPIC: SOLITUDE and SOLIDARITYPUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 17, 202
AVAILABLE NOW HERE!

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS & ARTISTS:
*denotes KAC member

Barry Barnes
Vern Barnet
Shelley Watts Barnhill
Stephanie A. Barrows
*Lindsey Bartlett
*Julie Ann Baker Brin
Patricia Cleveland
*Ian Cook
Louis Copt
*Brian Daldorph
*Anamarie Davis-Wilkins
*Thaddeus Dugan
Heather Duris
*Gretchen Cassel Eick
Andrew Evans
*Robert Fraga
*Amber Fraley
*Beth Gulley
*George Gurley
*Duane L. Herrmann
*D.A. Irsik
*Kelly W. Johnston
Kathleen Kaska
Julia Mathias Manglitz
Cathy Martin
J.A. McGovern
*Ronda Miller
*Peg Nichols
*Kevin Rabas
John Ritchie
*Troy Robinson
BruDe Rolfe
*Mark Scheel
*Diane Silver
Garold Sneegas
*Lori Stratton
*Connlyn Synclair
*Chuck Warner
*Barbara Waterman Peters
*Brenda White

Blue Cedar Press, Wichita, KS, announces its books in print by June 2024

2/3/2024

Order from IngramSpark or bluecedarpress.com

February 1 Reginald D Jarrell, Finding Myron: an adopted son’s search for his birth father
A Black man adopted by extended family and raised in a loving home is haunted by questions about the birth father that no one will tell him about. A haunting memoir about the power of DNA connection and the persistent need to know your roots.

Jarrell’s story will be helpful for adoptees, adoptive parents, birth parents, as well as youth groups and classes in congregations and social studies classes.

Retail Price: $20.00
ISBNs: 978-1-958728-16-1 (paper) & 978-1-958728-17-8 (ebook)
LCCN: 2023949737

March 1 G. C. Eick, Where is Ana Amara? [an international thriller]
When a Syrian journalist disappears from the London home she shares with her British partner while investigating the treatment of asylum seekers by Britain’s Ultra Party, her partner seeks help from four renegade Members of Parliament and the community of Syrian immigrants. Their search for Ana leads them to an international adoption network, Britain’s retired chemical weapons facility, and a runaway Saudi princess and provokes an international scandal.

Retail price: $20.00
ISBNs: 978-1-958728-18-5 (paper) & 978-1-958728-19-2 (ebook)
LCCN: 2024930300

March 15 Aida Dziho-Sator, For Me, the War Begins in an Elevator (poems)
Aida Dziho-Sator was a child when the Bosnian War began in 1992. She has since become an internationally traveled professor of English Literature who somehow manages to also write exquisite poetry while teaching, applying for travel grants, and raising two children. Her poems are about relationships, memory, being a woman, and internal and external wars. They are truthful, powerful, and even funny.

Retail Price: $15.00
ISBNs: 978-1-958728-21-5 (paper) & 978-1-958728-20-8 (ebook)
LCCN: 2024930887

April 30 The Death Project: An Anthology for the Living
36 authors from different ethnicities and religions reflect in prose and poetry on losing loved ones and finding a way forward. Includes information on how different religions handle death and how people have coped with deaths from war, from police violence, suicide, murder, AIDS, dementia, illness.

Perspectives include a mortician, a New Age spiritualist, a police officer, and women and men from around the world. New edition with added material. A book for congregations, funeral homes, and all those living with loss. Profits from will go to international health care workers.

Retail price: $15.99
ISBNs 978-1-958728-22-2 (paper) & 978-1-958728-23-9 (ebook)
LCCN: forthcoming

June 1 Paul Lamb, Parent Imperfect (a novel)
Pressed by Kelly, newly married Curt and Kelly agree to adopt a child. But Kelly struggles with depression and memories of his family’s abusive rejection of him because he is gay and Curt is uncertain if he can love their unusual son. With the help of Curt’s parents, they work at it, sustained by the cabin in the Ozarks that has for generations been a lodestone for all of the men in Curt’s family. Can they be a family? Can the cabin’s magic include two outsiders, Kelly and their son Clarkson? A moving story of loving and making family in the Twenty-First Century. The sequel to One-Match Fire (2022).

Retail price: $19.99
ISBNs 978-1-958728-24-6 (paper) & 978-1-958728-23-9 (ebook)
LCCN: forthcoming

June 15 The Love Book: Collected Shorts on Love
Selected poetry, short stories, and memoirs about different kinds of love and loving for your favorite persons. These pieces were selected by judges from a contest held by Blue Cedar Press in 2024.

Retail Price: $20.00
ISBNs: 978-1-958728-26-0 (paper) & 978-1-958728-27-7 (ebook)
LCCN: forthcoming

Kansas Authors Club Literary Contest Winners 2023: Prose

10/10/2023

Theme Contest
Judge: Kathie Buckman

First Place: A Lazy Sunday Morning by Julie A. Sellers
Second Place: Sacred Tuesdays by Lindsey Bartlett
Third Place: Writing From the Heart by Nancy Julien Kopp
Honorable Mention: Zounds! Sounds! By Connie Rae White
Honorable Mention: Just a Moment by Brett Wilkinson
Honorable Mention: Writing Moments by Sandee Lee

Playwriting
Judge: Kari Bowles

1st: Gene Stratton-Porter The Birdwoman by Cynthia J. Ross
2nd: Murder by the Books by Julie A. Sellers
3rd: Cold Sweat by Sandee Lee

Stories for Young Readers
Judge: Michaela Karr

1st: The Eggnog Thief by Linda Ahrens-Brower
2nd: The Mystery of the Hundred Dollar Bill by Marcia Young
3rd: The Singer and the Storyteller by Julie A. Sellers
Honorable Mention: The Haird by Heather Taylor
Honorable Mention: Shake and Settle by S.L. Brown

Flash Fiction
Judge: Lydia Kautz

1st: Doubt Thou The Stars are Fire by Julie A. Sellers
2nd: Missed by Heidi Unruh
3rd: Curiosity Bites by Sandee Lee
Honorable Mention: A Surprise on my Bed by Sandee Lee
Honorable Mention: Uninvited Delivery by Gloria Zachgo
Honorable Mention: The Wish by Julie A. Sellers

Rural Voices
Judge: Ryan Dennis

1st: Landscape of My Childhood by Lindsey Bartlett
2nd: Laneway Landmarks by Julie A. Sellers
3rd: The Bull is Out by Kristine A. Polansky
Honorable Mention: Finding Home by Linda Heggestad
Honorable Mention: In My “Hay” Day by Gloria Zachgo

First Chapter of a Book
Judge: Amy Sage Webb-Baza

Feast or Famine by Marlana Marts

Irish protagonist with pregnant wife and kids in feudal lord’s estate attempts to whore himself for family but is rejected and then is met by vampire on the road and turned into vampire. Captivating in the ways that Outlander mixes historical truth with character situation, mixed with genre. Suggests a suspenseful and exciting character arc.

The Penny Paige Shannon Home for Unwanted Books by Julie A. Sellers

Recently divorced woman returns to bibliophile Aunt’s house. The aunt has cancer and the woman is controlled by ex-husband and the memories of a mother recently deceased. She opens free book library with Aunt. Solid world-building and point of view. Multiple things going on immediately. Captivating and suggests a redemptive and emotional character arc.

Kentucky Blood by Ashley Thomas Sheikh

Brings the reader immediately into the POV of Rhonda who has been capturing sexual predators and torturing them in the garage. The build to reveal who is being captured and why is just slow enough to cause reader discomfort and chilling true crime engagement with the story. We’ll never look at a garage the same way.

Honorable Mention: Overcoming by Hazel Hart
Pre-suffragist female character in MO finds herself a target of the times in social and gendered ways. She is accused of behavioral crimes and there’s tension and excitement right away. Good context building.

Honorable Mention: One Throw Pillow Too Many by S.L. Brown
Reader is catapulted into the POV of a woman on a reality show about to be rejected. It’s immediately dramatic and likely to become moreso, with humorous insights along the way.

Memoir
Judge: Kim Horner McCoy

First Place: The Curse of the Catalpa Tree--Learning about Bees by Roger Droz
Second Place: Football Mom by Shawn Renee Hood
Third Place: Vultures on the Roof by Gretchen Cassel Eick
Honorable Mention: Chien for the Win by Julie A. Sellers
Honorable Mention: New Arrows for Christmas, Or The Extent of My Injury by Roger W. Heineken

Short Story
Judge: Michelle Zumbrum

First Place: The Spelling Bee by Sarah Jane Crespo
Second Place: The Sunflower Dance by S.L. Brown
Third Place: Slipping Away by Stacy Thowe
Honorable Mention: Reflections by Jeanette Carter
Honorable Mention: Empty by Julie A. Sellers
Honorable Mention: Donnie and the Great KA-BOOM by Marion Joseph Bollig

Humor
Judge: Marcia Lawrence

First Place: Have a Drink and a Pen by Marion Joseph Bollig
Second Place: It Pays to Save the Receipt by Deborah Shouse
Third Place: Ten Little Birds: A Tragic Tale of Attrition by Jerilynn Henrikson

Member News: Gretchen Eick, D5

9/6/2023

Sept. 16, 2023 Wichita's Chester I Lewis Park will be dedicated. It honors the Black lawyer who was nationally known for his work to bring full enforcement of the 14th Amendment to Kansas and the nation.

Gretchen Eick wrote the information accessed via QR codes on each of the beautiful tall glass panels painted with images of Lewis' work for access to equal public accommodations, housing, swimming pools, education, and employment. The paintings on glass are the work of artist Ellamonique Bauccus. Visit the park with her work and Gretchen's background information when you are in Wichita and bring the whole family. Lewis was a great and courageous man about whom all Kansans should know.

Chester I. Lewis Reflection Square Park

Writers in Community: Gretchen Eick

5/4/2023

a note from D5 member, Gretchen Eick:

In March I worked with ArtsPartners Wichita to help five authors develop books for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders that would help reluctant readers enter the story and keep reading. Each book was related to one or more of the indicators of a healthy community. The authors were exceptional and the process quite a delight. Now their books are being worked on by local artists who are doing the illustrations in collaboration with the authors. What a delight it was to do this work of writing in the community!

D5 Authors Read at Book Launch

11/28/2022

Featuring Dr. Reginald Jarrett and Dr. Gretchen Eick

The Peace Committee will host a book launch on Thursday, December 1, featuring two 2022 books by local authors that center on race.

Thursday at 7 p.m. at 655 S. Lorraine, at the Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church in the sanctuary.

Dr. Reginald Jarrett's book 31 Days [Nights]: Memoir of Living Black in America is a series of short essays about his life here in Wichita and across the U.S. A truth-telling book of interpersonal encounters among various ethnicities of Americans told by a gifted communicator, 31 Days will surprise readers and enlarge their understanding of how race functions in America. Jarrell is a professor at Southwestern University and a lawyer, pastor, and TV journalist who has lived across the U.S. but grew up in Wichita. This is his second book.

Dr. Gretchen Eick's newest novel, Dark Crossings, takes place in 2019. An interracial family with two teens living in Evanston, IL, north of Chicago is devastated when a family member is murdered. The difficult journey through the survivors' grief nearly breaks them. The discovery through a DNA test of unknown family members connected to the Philadelphia police murder of 12 Black people on May 13, 1985, helps them reconstruct their lives. Eick is a professor of history emerita and teaches at WSU's Lifelong Learning program. This is her eighth book. The authors will read excerpts and discuss their books and what each adds to our knowledge of the role of "race" in today's U.S.

2022 Convention: Gretchen Eick Service Award

11/19/2022

Gretchen Eick
Merit Award for Service to the Club
October 22, 2022

Nominated by Tracy Million Simmons, D2 (Emporia)

Gretchen Eick is an accomplished author, publisher, and educator. She joined our organization in 2016.

Gretchen has served District 5 as vice president and program manager. If you are curious, take a look at the terrific lineup of 2022 speakers on the D5 portion of our website.

Gretchen service on the Committee to Restructure Kansas Authors Club, taking time out of a busy writing schedule to learn more about our organization. Gretchen's questions often brought about immediate improvement. Our website features several enhancements and/or clarifications that came about via discussions with Gretchen.

I nominate Gretchen Eick for a merit award in service to Kansas Authors Club.

-Tracy Million Simmons, D2 Member (Emporia)

2022 Convention: Gretchen Eick Service Award

11/12/2022

Gretchen Eick
Merit Award for Service to the Club
October 22, 2022

Nominated by Tracy Million Simmons

Gretchen Eick is an accomplished author, publisher, and educator. She joined our organization in 2016.

Gretchen has served District 5 as vice president and program manager. If you are curious, take a look at the terrific line-up of speakers in 2022 on the D5 portion of the website. Gretchen served on the committee to restructure Kansas Authors Club, taking time out of a busy writing schedule to learn more about our organization and examine our processes and procedures. Gretchen's questions alone often brought about immediate improvements. Our website features several enhancements and/or clarifications that came about via discussions with Gretchen.

I nominate Gretchen Eick for a merit award in service to the Kansas Authors Club.

-Tracy Million Simmons, D2 member (Emporia)

News from Blue Cedar Press

10/6/2022

Wichita's indie press, Blue Cedar Press, has published 5 books in 2022, 4 by Kansas authors.
Order from bluecedarpress.com, B&N online, or your favorite bookstore.

31 Days (Nights): Memoir of Living Black in America by Reginald D. Jarrell (Jarrell’s work as a TV and print news reporter and columnist, a university assistant professor, an attorney, and a janitor—and his experiences living across the Midwest, in California, D.C., and Mississippi inform his short, memorable essays.)
ISBN: 978-1-7369112-7-3 (paper)
ISBN: 978-1-7369112-8-0 (ebook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022930901

Dark Crossings, a novel by Gretchen Eick (Prose Writer of 2021 for the Kansas Authors Club, author of 2 histories and 5 novels)--2nd in her Crossings series
Richard and Keisha by 2019 are parents of two teens, professors living happily together until everything changes with an act of random violence, plunging their family into disfunction and despair. Extended family may not be enough to pull them through their grief. But DNA discovery of another branch of the family tree may at least distract them and lead them into the darkness of Philadelphia's attack on the MOVE community and another family murder. Aug. '22
ISBN: 978-1-958728-01-7 (paper) $20
ISBN: 978-1-958728-00-0 (ebook) $6.99
Library of Congress LCCN: 2022940932

Maybe Crossings, a novel by Gretchen Eick (Prose Writer of 2021 for the Kansas Authors Club, author of 2 histories and 5 novels)--1st in her Crossings series--2nd edition with a study guide
Black and white young people meet in Mississippi in the Freedom Summer of 1964 to register voters and form the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party forging relationships that resume in 2003 through a series of coincidences that bring them and their children together. A novel about families lost and found, social change fought for and glimpsed, and generational differences that test understandings of commitment. Sept. '22
ISBN: 9781958728024 (paper) $18
ISBN: 978-1-958728-05-5 (epub) $5.99
LCCN: 2022945367

One-Match Fire, a novel by Paul Lamb (Paul Lamb's stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, including The Adroit Journal, Aethlon, Foliate Oak, MOON Magazine, Halfway Down the Stairs, Magnolia Review (nominated for a Pushcart Prize), Little Patuxent Review, Platte Valley Review, and others.) For David the cabin evoked memories of his father. For his son it was family and sanctuary. All that was wrong was fixable when they were at the cabin. But would this weekend change everything? A story of fathers and sons and the work of loving despite profound differences.) Oct. '22
ISBN: 978-1-958728-04-8 (paper) $20
ISBN: 978-1-958728-03-1 (ebook) $6.99
LCCN: 2022945368

Why Does She Always Talk About Her Husband? poems by David Romanda (David Romanda is the author of I’m Sick of Pale Blue Skies, a limited-edition chapbook, and the broken bird feeder, a full collection. His work has been included in Best Canadian Poetry and published in 27 journals. Romanda lives in Kawasaki City, Japan.) This is minimalist poetry at its finest—quick, punchy, and deceptively spare. These are offbeat rebel-playful poems that beg to be read aloud and shared with others.) Coming Nov. '22
ISBN: 978-1-958728-06-2 (paper) $10
ISBN: 978-1-958728-07-9 (ebook) $4.99
LCCN: 2022947139

2022 Convention Presenter: Gretchen Eick

9/30/2022

Countering Censorship by Writing

Recently we’ve seen a movement to suppress what books schools and libraries readers can read. Books have been burned in Tennessee and a PEN study documented 1,145 unique book titles banned in 86 school districts in 26 states between July 2021 and April 2022. Kansas is among the states where such book bans have been imposed by school districts. There have been 713 instances of censorship in Texas, 456 bans in Pennsylvania, and 204 in Florida.

As writers, how do we respond to these violations of our First Amendment rights?

Gretchen Eick has taken up controversial issues in her two scholarly histories/biographies and five novels. She is committed to using the power of her pen (keyboard?) to fight this suppression. She encourages writers to do the same by including in their stories characters of diverse races, nationalities, religions, sexual identification, and classes, and in their historical fiction, by including what what was happening to people living with those different identities. How do you do that?

Gretchen Eick is a professor of history emerita who now teaches in Wichita State’s Lifelong Learning program. She taught 20 years at Friends University and in Latvia and Bosnia and Herzegovina thanks to Fulbright Fellowships.

Gretchen is scheduled to present at 10:15am-11:00am on Saturday, October 22.

PRESENTATION BLOCK 1 – EXPANDING VIEWS AND PERSPECTIVES

Invitation from Gretchen Eick (D5)

3/23/2022

Saturday, March 26 at 7 pm a one-act, four-scenes play by Gretchen Eick about life in today's Turkey for peace activists will be performed at Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church, 655 N Lorraine, Wichita (2 blocks south of Kellogg and one block west of Hillside). It is free and appropriate for all ages. The play is performed by the Peace Committee of the church and especially relevant as we see the violations of human rights in Ukraine, Yemen, and elsewhere. Please come!

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Blue Cedar Press, Wichita, KS, announces its books in print by June 2024

Kansas Authors Club Literary Contest Winners 2023: Prose

Member News: Gretchen Eick, D5

Writers in Community: Gretchen Eick

D5 Authors Read at Book Launch

2022 Convention: Gretchen Eick Service Award

2022 Convention: Gretchen Eick Service Award

News from Blue Cedar Press

2022 Convention Presenter: Gretchen Eick

Countering Censorship by Writing

Invitation from Gretchen Eick (D5)

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