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Member Jim Gilkeson will host a book event in Emporia at Middle Ground Books on Feb. 22nd at 3:00 p.m. He will be reading from Three Lost Worlds, which received last year's Coffin Memorial Book Award for nonfiction, as well as more recent writing. It would be wonderful to see you there!   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. Program: Grand Openings
Presented by Mary-Lane Kamberg Covering: Craft (skills and techiniques), Writing Start your articles, stories and poems on the right foot. We hear so much about the importance of hooking the reader, but little about how to do that. This workshop gives practical tips and examples of some of the most effective types of opening leads to grab editors and agents and drag them into the work the rest. Presenter: Mary-Lane Kamberg, Olathe, Kansas, is a professional writer with more than twenty-five years’ experience. She is the author of more than 30 books. Her articles have appeared in Better Homes and Gardens, Marriage and Family Living, Christian Science Monitor, Healthy Kids and many others. Mary-Lane's poetry, essays and short stories have appeared in several anthologies and literary journals including: Chicken Soup for the Soul, A Celebration of Women, Beginning from the Middle (anthology); Sacred Feathers (anthology); The Season of Light (anthology); Kansas City Star, Late Knocking, Mediphors, Mid-America Poetry Review, Potpourri, and others. Her poetry chapbook Seed Rain was published by Finishing Line Press. Member Mark G. Wentling will be inducted into WSU's Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame on February 4 at 2 p.m. in Wiederman Hall. He will also hold a book event at Watermark Books and Cafe located at 4701 E. Douglas at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb 6. Mark's two recent books, Jackleg Boys and Falling Seven Times will be available.
 The 111th anniversary of Kansas Poet William Stafford's birth will occur soon. In the past, beloved local poet Ronda Miller wonderfully organized a yearly program. Sadly, Ronda died unexpectedly recently. At "Remembering Two Kansas Poets," the poetry community will celebrate the lives and poetry of both Stafford and Miller. Readings by several poets will include Stafford's and Miller's work, the original work of attendees, and shared remembrances of Ronda. February 1, 2025
1:00 - 4:00 p.m. The Watkins Museum Lawrence, Kansas This afternoon at the KPR studio in Lawrence Kaye McIntyre recorded me reading my poem, Armistice, from To The Stars Through Difficulties: A Kansas Renga in 150 Voices. Plus a short bit about what inspired to me write the poem. Kaye will use the recording in a Kansas Day program, KPR Presents, FM 91.5, at 6-7 PM on Sunday, January 26. A Kansas Renga was the second book Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, then Kansas Poet Laureate, created and edited, for the Kansas Sesquicentennial in 2011. The first book was Begin Again: 150 Kansas Poems. I told Kaye I felt so honored. Poetry is not really my genre. Thanks for reading, Peg Nichols Congratulations, Peg!
We will tune in to KPR on Kansas Day! 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 Social Attendees The January 2025 Kansas Authors Club Social was held on Tuesday, January 15, at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. Six members were in attendance. Tracy Million Simmons opened the meeting with some quotes from writers about the New Year. "We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential." – Ellen Goodman "New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions." – Mark Twain What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. –Zig Ziglar Members then discussed New Year’s Resolutions, specifically in regard to writing goals.
After some discussion, Tracy shared reminders about submitting member book news to the state website and the new consolidated guidelines for 2025 book awards. Sandee shared that the 2025 Writing Retreat Committee had selected a theme and were very close to having a logo ready for the fall event, which will take place at Rock Springs Ranch on October 3-5. The question of which district was hosting this year was asked. Tracy explained that the planning of the annual fall events had been pulled under the supervision of the state board for the last two years. As a plan to alleviate the toll on convention organizers, conventions and writing retreats are planned to be held every other year. It remains the goal to recruit committee members and event chairs from across the state. Those who had attended the events at Rock Springs Ranch in the last two years agreed that the site was an improvement from hotels with convention centers, primarily due to continued rising costs for rooms and food. Tracy and Sandee reported that Rock Springs has been wonderful to work with and that attendees, overall, have had positive feedback. The group spent the second half of the hour sharing readings from their work.
Mike said, “People used to get together before television and the internet and talk about things.” Prior to closing, Nancy mentioned that these gatherings were a good example of writers helping writers. She said as she listened to the discussion, there was a lot of feedback that included ideas for books to read, actions to take. Nancy’s most recent blog post is titled, Writers helping Writers. Sandee said that the biggest value of gatherings like this are the little tidbits learned from other members. The Kansas Authors Club Social takes place on the 2nd Tuesday of every month, via Zoom, starting at 7:00 p.m. All members of Kansas Authors are welcome to attend. There’s plenty of room on zoom, and you don’t have to add time for driving! For larger gatherings, the “rooms” feature of Zoom will be used to divide the group into suitable sizes so that everyone gets a chance to share without making the meeting too long. Save the date for the next gathering, February 11, 2025.  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!
Member April Pemeticky will be at the Wichita Art Museum for a special Art & Writing event on January 10th, starting at 6:30 p.m. A Note from April: "It should be fun. I'll share some poems from my time there as the Writer in Residence. But then guests are encouraged to view and write ekphrastically."  Join writer April Pameticky for an evening of art and writing! Pameticky will share her poems inspired by works of art in the collection, then try your hand at writing inspired by art through a guided experience in the galleries. All are welcome – from seasoned writers to those just curious about art and writing.
Mother, wife, teacher, poet. April Pameticky shares time between roles as public school educator and peer facilitator within the creative community of artists and writers in Kansas. She launched the Wichita Broadside Project and currently serves as editor of Voices of Kansas, an online poetry journal focused on the youth of Kansas. Her latest work, With Concern for How Words Land in the Body, was a semifinalist for the Meadowlark Birdy Poetry Prize. Her first book, Waterbound (2019) is available from Spartan Press. Follow her journey on Instagram @aprilinwichita . The recording of the November program is now available for viewing by members at this link. (Member sign-on required.) This video will be available until replaced by the January 2025 program recording.   Words in the Wind open mic in November will feature past Kansas poet laureate Eric McHenry.
Eric McHenry, poet laureate from 2015 -2017, lives in Lawrence and teaches English at Washburn University. His books of poetry include Odd Evening, a finalist for the Poets’ Prize, and Potscrubber Lullabies, which received the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. His poems have appeared in The Threepenny Review, The New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, and Poetry Northwest, from whom he received the Theodore Roethke Prize. Words in the Wind, sponsored by Kansas Authors Club District 1 and Round Table Bookstore, will be at Round Table Bookstore beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 27.  Member Tom Mach is offering everyone a free copy of his 3-page newsletter called Grandpa's Memories. If you want to know more about this go to Tom's revised website, Tom Mach – Kansas Author and Writer Tom Mach has been a member of Kansas Authors Club since 2002. He has served as an officer on the state board and as a leader at the district level.
 BCC in Great Bend, KS invites writers from their seven-county service area (Barton, Pawnee, Rice, Rush, Ellsworth, Russell, Stafford - this covers mostly KAC District 6) for a friendly evening session to discuss character development, and to share your projects for feedback. No registration required.
Remember too: submissions to their annual literary magazine, Prairie Ink, close November 24 - see their website for submission guidelines.  Our Annual Meeting of the General Membership was held on October 19, 2024, via Zoom. We had approximately 48 members in attendance! Following are some of the meeting highlights, as well as a full recording and minutes from the meeting at the end of this post. Passed:  Voted into office:  Presented 2024 Length of Membership Acknowledgements Since 2009, Kansas Authors Club has recognized octogenarians who have completed at least 5 years of active and continuous membership as vital contributors to our organization. Recognized members are given the option of continuing their membership, dues free. This program, begun by Don Pady, KAC Archivist (2006-2015) has recognized 107 members since its inception. In 2024, we thank the following members for the time and words they share, and we look forward to many more years of fellowship and growing our organization for the benefit of writers like them: Gretchen Cassel Eick (member since 2016) Hazel Hart (member since 2007) Barbara Waterman-Peters (member since 2004) 10-year members Cheryl Heide Nancy Lee Richard Jan Gilbert Hurst Sheryl K. Brenn Connie Rae White Duane Johnson Jerry Fanning Ann Christine Fell 15-year members Paula K. Nixon Victoria Hermes-Bond A. Louise Click Jolene Haas Dixie J. Brown Marilyn Hope Lake 20-year members Anne Shiever Barbara Waterman-Peters William J. Karnowski Presented Member Recruitment Recognition Sandra Lou Taylor & Mary-Lane Kamberg  Watch a recording of the annual meeting on YouTube.  November 12, 2024 10:00 AM YouTube Live w/ Tracy Million Simmons Join Quiet Storm Services for Book Talk Tuesdays in 2024! We have great conversations in store with authors, book people, literacy organizations & more.
Learn more and follow on Facebook. November 16, 2024 Program 1:30 PM Presenter: Amy Ragland, Freelance Content Marketer Word Work: What Writers Need to Know to Build a Successful Freelance Business Thinking about launching or growing a freelance writing business in 2025? This session will take a look at current trends in freelance writing, including what types of writing are most in demand and the general state of the freelance industry. We'll also have some "real talk" about some of the opportunities and challenges facing freelancers today.  Amy Ragland is a full-time freelance writer, specializing in content and copy for the financial services industry. She previously worked in corporate communications and financial services before launching her company, Luminary Financial Content, in 2017. Amy holds a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Washburn University. She is currently working on her first novel and has the plot lines of about 12 more already swirling in her head. Sign-on Required.
Link will also be emailed to all members. Did you miss the convention? Would you like the opportunity to watch the recordings of the workshops from the comfort of your own home? Grab a Virtual Convention Ticket today. For a limited time (through the end of 2024), you will have access to the 2024 workshop recordings. 16 workshops and the panel discussion on creative collaborations. Don't miss this chance!  What did you think of the 2024 Convention? Members respond: "Jenn Bailey’s keynote was incredible – incredibly insightful and incredibly funny. Her wisdom about “packing a lunch” was witty and true. It set the tone for the rest of the sessions and they did not disappoint. Not one weakling in the bunch. I filled pages and pages of my notebook with tips, tricks and takeaways for improving craft. But maybe the tool I’ll remember most from the weekend is the inspiration I found in the other members. I am brand new to the Kansas Authors Club but nearly everyone I met blew my mind! I had no idea there were so many creative, talented, hard-working Kansas authors out there. All ages, all backgrounds – everyone ‘doing the thing’ and sharing their experience so generously. It was awesome in the truest sense of the word." --Gretchen Burch "LOVED how dynamic and engaging the workshops were!! Deb's play writing workshop gave me the start to a piece I'd love to finish writing and Jillian's Dual Timeline workshop was fascinating and got me excited to start my next novel."
--Cat Webling  Words in the Wind open mic, presented by Kansas Authors Club, District 1, will feature Emporia writer Lindsey Bartlett during its October open mic, Wednesday, Oct. 23 at Round Table Bookstore.
Located in: NOTO Arts Center Address: 826 N Kansas Ave, Topeka, KS 66608 Words in the Wind rotates monthly between prose/storytelling and poetry. This month, bring some prose or a story to present. Lindsey 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.Bartlett has published one poetry collection, Vacant Childhood. Her writing and photography have appeared in The Milk House: A Rural Writing Collective, The Write Bridge, Flint Hills Review, and 105 Meadowlark Reader. Her essay, “Reframing My Rural Past” was recently nominated for “Best of the Net.”  Please join us for the Annual Meeting of the General Membership
October 19, 2024 1:30 p.m. Zoom Link will be sent to members via the state newsletter. Zoom link also available on our member pages (sign-on required). Program includes membership awards, membership recruitment recognition, and voting for your 2025 State Officers. Anamarie Davis-Wilkins is one of eight selected featured authors for the Barnes and Nobles Book Fair. October 5, 1pm -4pm (Topeka location)
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