Current News from the Kansas Authors Club

February 12 Poetry Reading with Beth Gulley

2/6/2026

Cass County Library Northern Branch Presents a Poetry Reading with Dr. Beth Gulley

Enjoy an evening of poetry with Dr. Beth Gulley. Dr. Gulley is a local published author and college professor. You will hear samples of her work and open mic readings if time allows.

Intended for ages 16 and up.

Date:
Thursday, February 12, 2026

Time:
6:00pm - 7:30pm
Time Zone:
Central Time - US & Canada (change)

Location:
NRC Meeting Room

Branch:
Northern Resource Center

Audience:
Adults Teens
Categories:
Community Interest

0 Comments

Convention Committee is seeking Proposals for Presenters and Workshops

1/30/2026

0 Comments

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

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

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

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

November Program Recording Available for Viewing - Save the Date for the first program of 2026

12/30/2025

The recording of the November program is now available for viewing by members at this link. (Member sign-on required.)

Program: Lowering Your Standards

Presented by William Sheldon
Poet Bill Sheldon will shared an approach he's had success with, one designed to reduce the anxiety of a blank page/screen.

Author William Sheldon was born in Colorado, and moved with his family to Emporia at age 5. Sheldon spent much of his life in Kansas, but also lived in California. He received his Master of Fine Arts at Wichita State University. Sheldon was a professor of English at Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas, where he taught creative writing. His poetry has appeared in such journals as Blue Mesa Review, Flint Hills Review, Coal City Review, and Midwest Quarterly.

His books are Retrieving Old Bones (Woodley 2002, Kansas City Star Noteworthy Book), Into Distant Grass (chapbook Midwest Quarterly, 2008), Deadman (Spartan Press 2021).

Plan to join us on

Saturday, January 17, 2026

1:30 p.m. on Zoom

Program: Q&A With Award Winning Authors

Program Location: Zoom

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

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

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

Topeka: Words in the Wind, open mic at Round Table Bookstore

11/24/2025

Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Begins at 6:15
Round Table Bookstore
826 N. Kansas Ave., Topeka

Invitation to Join Dawn Feltrop's Book Launch Team

11/17/2025

from member Dawn Feltrop:

I am hosting a Book Launch Party on Saturday, November 29th from 5-8pm. Also, I am asking people to join my Book Launch Team to share my Amazon book during the first week of December.

Dawn Feltrop Website

Book Launch Team

RSVP Book Launch Pary

Save the Date: JCCC’s 11th annual Cavalier Conference on Writing and Literature

11/17/2025

Please mark your calendar for JCCC’s 11th annual Cavalier Conference on Writing and Literature on Friday, Apr. 10, 2026, from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. in the Capitol Federal Conference Center. This year’s conference theme is: Plot Twist!

Our one-day conference will explore the ways a plot twist can serve as a useful metaphor for our experiences as teachers. New technologies upend our profession. New regulations constrain us, but they also call up our creativity.

Our keynote speaker will be Laura Moriarty, Professor of English at the University of Kansas and author of several novels, including The Chaperone, adapted for film by Julian Fellowes in 2018.

Registration opens soon! Find conference details at jccc.edu/WritingConference.

Reminder: November 15 State Program (Zoom) at 1:30 p.m.

11/14/2025

Poet Bill Sheldon will share an approach he's had success with, one designed to reduce the anxiety of a blank page/screen.

Members receive a Zoom link to monthly state programs via email. The link may also be accessed via the button below.

Link to Monthly Program - sign-on required

November Program: Lowering Your Standards

Presented by William Sheldon
Poet Bill Sheldon will share an approach he's had success with, one designed to reduce the anxiety of a blank page/screen.
Author William Sheldon was born in Colorado, and moved with his family to Emporia at age 5. Sheldon spent much of his life in Kansas, but also lived in California. He received his Master of Fine Arts at Wichita State University. Sheldon was a professor of English at Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas, where he taught creative writing. His poetry has appeared in such journals as Blue Mesa Review, Flint Hills Review, Coal City Review, and Midwest Quarterly.

His books are Retrieving Old Bones (Woodley 2002, Kansas City Star Noteworthy Book), Into Distant Grass (chapbook Midwest Quarterly, 2008), Deadman (Spartan Press 2021), and When I Go West (Meadowlark Press, 2025).

Book Launch Party for Member Dawn Feltrop in Rose Hill, KS

11/6/2025

Book Launch Party for Rosemary Chick: Pip, Zip, Hooray!

Saturday, November 29, 2025 • 5:00–8:00 p.m.

Join local author Dawn Feltrop at Morning Grit Farm, 15499 SW 140th St., Rose Hill, KS, for a fun family event celebrating her new children’s book Rosemary Chick: Pip, Zip, Hooray! Enjoy story-time, a petting zoo, coffee/hot chocolate bar, s’mores by the fire, cupcakes, and book signings.

RSVP by November 22: [email protected]
More info: www.DawnFeltrop.com

Final State Program for 2025

11/1/2025

Program: Lowering Your Standards

Presented by William Sheldon
Poet Bill Sheldon will share an approach he's had success with, one designed to reduce the anxiety of a blank page/screen.

Author William Sheldon was born in Colorado, and moved with his family to Emporia at age 5. Sheldon spent much of his life in Kansas, but also lived in California. He received his Master of Fine Arts at Wichita State University. Sheldon was a professor of English at Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kansas, where he taught creative writing. His poetry has appeared in such journals as Blue Mesa Review, Flint Hills Review, Coal City Review, and Midwest Quarterly.

His books are Retrieving Old Bones (Woodley 2002, Kansas City Star Noteworthy Book), Into Distant Grass (chapbook Midwest Quarterly, 2008), Deadman (Spartan Press 2021), and When I Go West: New and Selected Poems (Meadowlark Press, 2025).

Zoom Link for Program

sign-on required

Zine Launch Livestreamed Tonight, October 23

10/23/2025

Join us at Washburn University's Carole Chapel, Thursday, October 23, 4:00-5:00 p.m., 1701 SW College Ave in Topeka.

Carole Chapel is just south of the Memorial Union.

The launch celebration of Writing from the Center will be livestreamed on our Facebook page.

Kansas Authors Club on Facebook

Meet a Member at the Derby Public Library, October 10

10/7/2025

The Derby Public Library will host Cathy Feemster for a Meet & Greet the Author on October 10 from 10 am to Noon. Cathy is the author of My Friend Rachel by Shep, the dog. Her book is appropriate for children ages 5 and up. It follows the adventures of Rachel's dog Shep who becomes a true hero. The book is based on a true story from Cathy's grandmother and takes place in 1901 on a farm on the Kansas prairie.

Join us on Saturday for the 2025 Annual Meeting of the General Membership

10/7/2025

Members will receive link via Email Newsletter.

Link can also be accessed via sign-on to our member pages.

You are Invited: Book Launch for Robert W. Phillips, Lawrence

9/23/2025

Big Boys Don't Cry
Book Launch

The official launch of the book will be on Sunday, September 28, 2025, 2 pm to 4 pm, at the Missouri Pacific Railroad Depot, 401 North 2nd Street, Lawrence, Kansas.

Visit Robert's Website

Monarch Books & Gifts Grand Re-Opening - Overland Park

9/23/2025

You are cordially invited to Monarch Books & Gifts’ Grand Re-Opening on Saturday, October 4th at our new location from open to close.

Join us as we flutter down the block to our new home at 7733 W 151st St, Overland Park, KS 66223 in the Stanley Station shopping center (next to Jalapeños). We would love for you to be a part of our next chapter!

This move allows us to create more cozy seating, revamp and expand our coffee bar with more drink selections and host even bigger community events, from boozy book fairs to profit shares! All while keeping the personalized and unique experience only a local bookstore like ours can provide.

We'll have the new coffee bar set up for our expanded drink menu, Taylor Swift's new album playing, the prize wheel spinning, local authors ready to chat, double the points on all purchases and a costume character story time. Please feel free to come at any time on Saturday to celebrate the start of this new chapter with us!

Meet us at the Kansas Book Festival!

9/18/2025

We’re excited to have you join us for the 14th annual Kansas Book Festival on Saturday, September 20, 2025, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Washburn University in Topeka!
This free, public celebration will feature 45+ authors—including Bill Kurtis, Bryn Greenwood, and Kevin Young—plus children’s activities, live entertainment, book sales, and food trucks.
Stop by the Kansas Authors Club table! We look forward to meeting you!

Kansas Book Festival

<<Previous

William StaffordandRonda Miller

Categories

Archives

William Stafford
and
Ronda Miller